Spotlight on Sandwiches at Stage Door Deli

Stage Door Deli

26 Vesey Street

New York, NY 10007

When people think of food in New York of course deli's come to mind immediately. So when we were headed to New York I did some research and wrote down two names of delis to try. One was Katz's Deli and the other was Stage Deli, (more on that one in a later post). Anyways, we never made it to Katz's, but after visiting Ground Zero we found ourselves at Stage Door Deli.

Stage Door Deli has been around since 1972. Opened by a pair of Greek guys, they established a reputation as one of the best delis in the city. After the terrorist attacks, they were closed for six months, but in true New York fashion, they have rebounded and some may say they are better than ever.

Being a tourist in New York City, a deli like this can be a little intimidating. Knowing where to order, not being familiar with the ordering process, and the general organized chaos of a lunchtime rush can un-nerve a guy from southern California. But we managed to find our way through the big menu and got our food to our table, so let's take a look at it.

My Mom went with a Tuna Salad Sandwich here. Not exactly what you would expect to get at a deli in New York, but she could not have been more pleased. She first noted the bread was extremely fresh and soft. She also felt that the tuna had a great mellow flavor, with just the right amount of crunch to it.

More in the way of a deli sandwich was my Dad's choice, the Corned Beef Sandwich.  He was very happy with this sandwich as well. The meat could definitely stand on its own here. Very moist, with a great flavor. They do know how to cook corned beef here.

Katie went huge with the Number 1 Sandwich. The number one comes with corned beef, turkey, Coleslaw, Swiss cheese, and Russian Dressing. She liked the mellowness of the turkey and felt that it balanced out the saltiness of the corned beef to form a great yin and yang feel. She was also happy that this sandwich was manageable. We had heard that in some New York delis that they pile on the meat so heavy that it is impossible for one person to finish, this was not the case here. Katie also made mention of the freshness of the bread.

I ordered my favorite deli sandwich the Reuben. This Reuben came with corned beef, sauerkraut, melted Swiss, and mustard all on rye bread. Simply put, this sandwich was great. The cheese was melted perfectly, the meat was spiced well, and the bread, even though it was soft, held the sandwich together perfectly. I was surprised to learn that there was mustard on this because it was not very prevalent. This could be one of the best Reuben's I have ever had.

This being the first deli we had been to in New York will be hard to beat. I wish we could have come back here so we could have tried more things off of their big menu. The prices here were not at all bad, and I might even say cheap for Manhattan. All of the sandwiches were under $8.25, less than a Quizno's sandwich at home. Even though these were not the monster deli sandwiches that we had heard about, they still had a lot of meat on them, well worth the price.

So out of five boarding houses, (because the 1937 movie Stage Door revolves around occupants of a boarding house), five being best to zero being worst, Stage Door Deli gets 3.5 boarding houses.

 For more information on Stage Door Deli click here: http://www.stagedoordeliwtc.com/