The New Charlie's Deli

Is the old Charlie’s Deli! I ignored the “120 day” rule of thumb and joined a friend for lunch the other day.

I don’t believe in time travel or universe warping, but if you didn’t know it has been shuttered for two or so years, you might not notice any difference. Well, that’s mostly food centric, there have been a few changes which some might consider significant. The “Bar” has been replaced by an ice cream bar, which, as far as I know, does not serve alcohol. I did not ask whether or not a license was in the offing. I would suspect not…

Besides the substitution of the Cookies N’Cream for the Bud Light, the little place south of Gate Three is still called Charlie’s Deli. It has the same layout, and the décor in the main dining space has those same black rugs on the wall with lots of little bric a brac displayed, the “station” still in the same place, servers dressed in black, and I believe the same glass covered red tablecloths on the tables with paper napkins rolled around the flatware. Perhaps in honor of a new waitstaff, under the glass were rather large pieces of paper with the table number written on it. Cute. Since my friend arrived before me (thanks to a down ATM at the credit union), he was seated at guess what? Table 13. Upon sitting I immediately knew why it was number 13. It was so unstable that it needed a heavy foot to keep it from rocking violently, plus the tables along the wall are so closely spaced you get bumped all the time.

Of course we’re inside their 120 day grace period, but the menu is the same two sided single page from before. There is still a number for every choice (and it’s not even Chinese!), so Number 17 gets you that Reuben, #4 a Grayson’s Delicacy, a “40” calls up (under cold plates by the way) a “grilled chicken salad”, and so forth all the way up to number 52 (a side order of onion rings). I noticed that #19 was a “Yee-Ro” forcing you to read the description to determine it is a Gyro, albeit no mention of Tsatziki sauce (but you do get lettuce tomato and onion, kind of a bizarre combination). All of the sandwiches and burgers still require that you pick your bread, cheese, and condiments, plus a choice of 7 sides of the usual suspects. Our order consisted of numbers 48, 17, and 23. Which translated into food means a cup of chili, a Reuben and an Uncle Dewey (which is basically a Reuben without the kraut). Our sides were potato salad, and fries. Again, I would say if you ate at Charlie’s two years ago, you ate last week. No surprises, not bad food, ample proportions and at least the fries were “sysco”. The potato salad was reported as average. The Reuben contained the correct ingredients (they offer both corned beef and pastrami, and gimme a break, turkey!) grilled rye, sauerkraut, but oddly enough the (in this case) thousand island dressing was in a little plastic cup on the side. Traditionalists might point out that Russian dressing is a must, but generally they hit the mark (aside from the on the side dressing). If you wanted the dressing actually on the sandwich, you had to peel it open at which point most everything falls out.

Which finally brings me to the service. And of course this may not be fair yet, but while all the servers were enthusiastic, ours pushed most of my hot buttons. Since I was late I don’t know if she was going to take care of us, but during the course of our meal, we were referred to as no less than: “Hon, Sweetie, Dear (or maybe Dearie), and surprisingly enough Gentlemen”. I am not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised that there was a “you guys” in there someplace. I was unable to order a Reuben, it had to be (leaning over my shoulder to check) a Number Seventeen. Water glasses went kind of dry a couple of times, but in general the service was appropriate for the place. Hopefully the terms of endearment will settle out, and they can eventually not have to order strictly by number.

So the food is about as it was, and what was expected, sort of deli like with many choices probably as good as any other option for this kind of stuff around here. I certainly would return before chaining it.. 120 days.

figure out your own

DFD here..