Cheap Eats: Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen

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The 'connoisseur' pastrami sandwich at Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

The 'connoisseur' pastrami sandwich at Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen
1473 Main St., Sarasota
955-3354 or solmeyernydeli.com
Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri., 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat. and 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun.
This is the umpteenth entry in a weekly column dedicated to eats that are cheap. If you have an idea for a place to feature in Cheap Eats, comment below, email me at cheapeatssrq@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter: @LeveyBaker.

It's difficult to remember the last time a new Sarasota restaurant opened with such a hydrogen bomb of hype as when Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen threw open its downtown doors on Black Friday. That first day, a line stretched out the door onto the Main Street sidewalk, and even when my wife, my kids, my sister and I show up the next day, the place is still doing gonzo business.

Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

A line has formed at the takeout counter, while every table up and down the narrow restaurant's light blue walls is filled. Servers bustle back and forth dropping off bowls of matzo ball soup and generous hunks of chocolate babka. In the back, chef and co-owner Sol Shenker is slicing up meat and packing it between wedges of rye. It's loud. Conversation comes in shouts, mixing with the sound of servers explaining the menu and the clatter of dishes being scrubbed clean in the back. In other words, it's got the deli vibe down cold.

Ditto for this place's menu, which runs from simple breakfasts like bagels ($2.99) to non-kosher Jewish-style deli standards like chopped liver ($9.99), kreplach ($9.99), kishka ($8.99), kasha ($6.99), latkes ($6.99) and a big range of two-hand sandwiches ($8.99-$23.99). But lunch really starts with a complimentary bowl of cole slaw and a handful of pickles. The slaw is splendid—never too sweet—but the pickles are a little underwhelming, more rubbery than crunchy. A fizzy, lactic egg cream ($4.99) flavored with U-Bet chocolate syrup, meanwhile, tastes spot-on.

Rolling right along, we welcome a plate of kreplach, which comes stuffed with either cheese or meat and then is either pan-fried or steamed. We'll take the meat, yes, and fry it up. I've never eaten kreplach before, but they're not too different from any other type of stuffed pasta you might have eaten. The closest resemblance would be Italy's pansotti—delicious isosceles triangles of stuffed dough. Sol Meyer's are terrific: moist and gooey, with the dense richness of the filling offset by the small sampling of sweet reduced onions underneath.

The pan-fried kreplach at Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

The pan-fried kreplach at Sol Meyer NY Delicatessen / COOPER LEVEY-BAKER

OK, I'll cut to the chase, to what we're all here for, and what I imagine everyone who visits Sol Meyer is after: pastrami. The house-made variety actually comes in two cuts, a "classic" and a "connoisseur." The connoisseur comes out cut real thick, with big, juicy hunks of fat woven throughout, while the classic is sliced thinner, with smaller wafers of lard and more spice around the edges. The connoisseur has a peppery kick the regular variety lacks and I do like the big, buttery wedges of meat as opposed to the thinner slices, but I think I might prefer the classic if forced to choose. In truth, both are exceptional — a treat that you simply can't find elsewhere without a drive to Jo-El's in St. Pete. My sister, Teal, says the Reuben falls a bit on the dry side; perhaps it could use a bit more dressing. But still, she remains satisfied. "This is where I'm going to hold all my lunch meatings from now on," says my wife, Rachel.

As we leave, things aren't really slowing down. The to-go line still bulges, and customers are still snagging tables. One thing is obvious: Sarasota's been craving what Sol Meyer's making. Much later, on Saturday night, the restaurant posts a notice in the window: Demand has far outstripped supplies, and the restaurant is closing down for Sunday and won't reopen till Monday. Hey, the hype has paid off. And more importantly, Sol Meyer lives up to it.

Last modified: November 30, 2015
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