I hope you are seated for this @fooddabbler: I have never had NYC pastrami. In fact, my visits to that city number in the single digits.
The Our Fathers pastrami and the pastrami at Moody’s in Waltham were my favorites until I had Up In Smoke’s pastrami. I’ve also had pastrami I loved in San Carlos CA at The Refuge and Langer’s and other good pastramis in LA (one near the Getty whose name I can’t recall). And I’ve had countless pastramis over the years at places I no longer remember. What makes Will’s at Up In Smoke the best for me might not be the same for everyone: he uses no “warm” spices, only coriander and pepper, he seeks fatty but not too fatty meat, I like the thickness of his cut. Both Our Fathers and Moody’s use warm spices and on occasion Moody’s is literally half fat. Which is not to say I have not thoroughly enjoyed their pastrami multiple times. But there is, as you say, a limited amount one can consume and at this stage I am allocating all of it to Will’s. And if it means many pastrami-less months every year that just makes it taste all the better come summer…
Thank you. And I hope you’re lying flat for this, and listening to relaxing music (and smoking something relaxing), but I’ve never had Langer’s.
I agree with you that there’s a tipping point when the fat becomes too much. I’ve never had Moody’s either (but I feel that that’s a smaller hole in my resume).
(I do think that a masked digga should kidnap you one day (having made good smaller-digga arrangements of course – she may be a gangster but she’s a great mom) and haul you to NYC and feed you stuff.)
If you are coming to LA you have to try Langer’s - it’s by far the best pastrami sandwich we had anywhere. Beside the pastrami itself what makes Langer’s to special to us is that they also care about the right high quality bread (which was awful at Katz for example and made for an overall disappointing pastrami sandwich)
Yes, it’s on my list. And, yes, on the bread at Katz’s. If I take food out from them, or have it delivered when I am in NYC – pastrami travels OK), I always switch breads to a better rye.
Excellent point. Agree, the bread makes a huge difference! Will sources a very high quality caraway seeded rye locally that holds up to the pastrami very well. Now if only he still made his own half sour pickles, I really miss those…
@fooddabbler, I think I may have had NYC pastrami after all, there is a sandwich place in downtown Boston (only open M-F, can’t remember the name) that I think gets their pastrami from NYC. I’ve been twice over maybe 7 or more years and the pastrami itself was very good but as @honkman says kind of ruined by crappy bread.
And I hope both of you @GretchenS@fooddabbler won’t pass out at this revelation - pastrami has never crossed my lips and entered my body. This emoji has never been so appropriate:
Yeah, my meat-centric, no-beer, no-shellfish posts can’t be very useful to you @digga! At least between us (and @tomatotomato and @grumpyspatient and others!) we present a pretty full range of what Maine has to offer. Here is hoping some more folks chime in, would love to hear more voices, more opinions, more experiences.
This place is off the beaten track unless you’re headed to Port Clyde to visit the lighthouse and its small museum or to take a cruise to Monhegan or to see puffins, but it’s worth seeking out. There is a small menu that changes weekly and an assortment of grilled cheese sandwiches that are always available plus Malcolm does specials: Wednesdays it’s fried fish sandwiches, Thursday is burger night, Sunday it’s fried chicken sandwich day. He comes up with some pretty crazy creations but there is always a traditional version available as well. All of them are so popular he urges you to call ahead to reserve yours. So on Friday I called to reserve my chicken sandwich for yesterday lunch. I heard him telling someone that he starts taking calls for them when he opens on Wednesday each week. This version was called The Butter. It had the sauce from Indian butter chicken, pickled red onions, lettuce and garlic achaar mayo and was absolutely delicious. He uses chicken thighs and that is the right call in my opinion. Much better pic on the Ancho Honey IG.
was this Wexler’s in Santa Monica? I went there once (it’s like 10 minutes from the Getty) and they had really good pastrami. I got a great sandwich there that had pastrami, swiss, cole slaw and russian dressing on rye. Delicious.
I think they have an outlet in Grand Central Market now.
If my life depended on it I could not tell you, it was at least 7 years ago. I can’t even remember how we ended up there, just that it was a very pleasant surprise.
Very sad to say that Larson’s Lunch Box has suddenly closed and the owners are looking to sell. Big loss as they are delightful people and their burger had become my favorite. I wish them well.
Also Up in Smoke BBQ will be closing for the season earlier than in the past, on the last weekend in September.
