Food

Second stop by Stachowski’s, very much tempted by the pastrami sandwich, but thinking I needed to spread my wings and start going through the rest of the menu. The meatball sub momentarily distracted me and seemed like a real contender, but I already knew I wanted the Italian Grinder. I remember as a kid being up in New Hampshire one summer and had an Italian Grinder with lightly toasted bread and lots of lettuce, tomatoes, deli meats, it was delicious, I’ve yet to find a grinder that has matched that memory. Granted the memory probably has something to do with being a kid and having a sandwich by a lake in the summer, so to some degree what I’m looking for is the nostalgia of a place and time that’s impossible to replicate. Regardless, when I see an Italian Grinder on a menu I kind of have to order it.

Once again, Stachowski’s did not disappoint, awesome sandwich in every way – excellent balance of meats to salad, too much meat gets too greasy, too much salad gets too soggy. The oil and vinegar dressing they serve on the side, nothing special, but adds a good amount of garlicky flavor, salt and pepper. It’s not exactly the same sandwich that I remember from New Hampshire, but pretty darn close.

Have definitely found my sandwich haven in DC. Will probably keep updating here as I go through the rest of the menu items.

We’ve been in DC for about 6 months now. Once we had made the decision to move and we had rented our house in DC, I spent many early mornings trying to find what would become our neighborhood restaurants and in particular if there was a good deli in walking distance from our new house. From all of my googling and talking to people and friends who either were current or past residents of DC the name Stachowski’s continually came up for having the best pastrami sandwich around. As a native NYer, we need good delis wherever we go and a lack thereof in any city is a serious ding against it. I have been walking by Stachowski’s almost every day to drop our daughter off at her playgroup. I’ve been chomping at the bit to stop in, but usually making my way back by 9:30am my mindset isn’t quite yet focused on lunch. Finally, I stopped by, the gravitational pull of the pastrami could no longer be resisted. I did manage to have the will power to wait until about 11:30 before I dug in. At first glance I was a little skeptical, thick sliced pastrami is not the norm, I’m used to the thin cut NY style, but the bread looked good, the extra slice on the bottom was a nice touch and the mustard was the right color. It looked and smelled delicious. First bite, fell in love. Seriously. Nothing beats a NY deli pastrami sandwich, but if there was ever a contender, anywhere, this is it. Hat’s off to Jamie for making one of the best pastrami sandwiches I’ve had, period.

To put the photo in context, that’s a 15 inch MacBook, considering the thickness of the sandwich, it’s about the same size.