by foodbitch
3. November 2009 23:28
Want to be treated like scat while your mouth is stuffed with rubber cuts of lukewarm meat? Go to Katz’s Deli, NY. Want mounds beef to chew on while your wallet is purged of hard-earned monies? Manny’s, Chicago. But if delicious, cheap and fast is more your speed, head straight for E. Leaven Food Company, 54 E. Ontario St., Chicago.
For the price of a single Manny’s Monster, you can get a delicious sandwich or burger, side of chips, bowl of soup and pastry and not risk a coma on your return to work.
Now there will be those who think the comparison unfair and the term “deli” too broad to distinguish both styles of dining. To them I say it’s true. One should not use the umbrella of “burgers and fries” to compare McDonald’s to any such thing they get at Gibson’s. But what if the Gibson’s burger cost LESS than a Big Mac? Would there ever be a reason to drive-through again? Because E. Leaven is gourmet delicious for LESS!
There is nothing on the lunch menu costing more than $10 and only the Nova Lox Platter (breakfast) rang in at a whopping $10.95. So what possible reason would justify paying $16 for a sandwich and another 5 for a grotesque matza-ball bathed in a broth of liquid-sodium? Hangover? $/lb.? Cafeteria-style dining?
For $13 I enjoyed a delicious, gourmet matza-ball soup made of soft, chewy dough that didn’t fall apart when the spoon tapped it AND a baked ham and brie sandwich that had the perfect ratio of both. The breads were freshly-baked, not perpetually stale and the dining room clean and well appointed with a squeeze-bottle of Gulden’s spicy mustard on each table. All that’s missing is folded linen napkins but if the laundry bill pushes the entrée cost another 50c, forget it. Who needs napkins anyway when things taste this good?
It seems that all these years, the world of delis had things wrong. Quantity (rather overdoses) of can-tasting meat were mistaken for quality. Can E. Leaven do for it what Topolobampo did for Mexican? I certainly hope so. It is, by far, the best value of any restaurant so close to Michigan Avenue. I’m loading up before they get lines out the door.
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