1058 Hoagie, La Pastrami

Happy October pastrami fans!

We have one of the most exciting weekends in the Bay Area coming up.

My friend Billy sums it all up for us here:

"So things going on this weekend include but are not limited too: Fleet week, Oktoberfest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, North Beach parade, Castro street fair, A's playoff game, Giants playoff game, Madonna Concert, 49er's game, Beer Olympics, and the World Cup Yacht Race...it's making me thursty"

If you're in SF this weekend you've won, as October is truly the best time to be in the Bay Area. The weather heats up a bit and we get the Blue Angels zoom-zooming over the Bay. Check out the video.

This post I'm featuring 1058 Hoagie - the new Italian place from the same owner as the Deli Board.

The sandwiches from 1058 can best be described in one word : Large. Damn these thing are like torpedoes. They're so big I haven't been able to finish a large sized one in one sitting and I think my jaw would probably hurt after all that chewing if I did anyway. I mean it's the size of a 2-liter bottle of soda!

I came in yesterday to try the pastrami hoagie. It was very good - the sesame seed roll with that Romanian pastrami were fabulous - but I think the real treat and difference from the DB was the sauce. It was a garlicky Italian deli sauce that will rival some other sauces I know around town (Ike's, Lucca's). It's similar and I hope to see more of it at 1058!

 Pastrami Hoagie - 1058

1058 Hoagie is open M-F during lunch hours stop by and tell Adam I sent you and he'll hook your sandwich up fat, but it's not like any extra is needed! :-)

The second place I'd like to discuss is La Pastrami. This is way overdue for me - I should have reviewed this place right when they opened, but it took me some time to get to it.

La Pastrami is a food truck that sells everything with pastrami. They have an original sandwich which is more like a french dip from the Hat in LA, but they also have grilled pastrami sandwiches like a Reuben at a Jewish deli. If that wasn't enough, they have pastrami fries, pastrami tacos, and I've even seen pastrami adobo on the menu. Impressive.

So, why the name La pastrami? It's because their flagship sandwich is a pastrami on a french roll with with yellow mustard and pickles. It's an homage to the pastrami French dip of Los Angeles - Johnny's Pastrami or The Hat - both are LA institutions.

La Pastrami - Grilled sandiwch

 OK now for the review of the pastrami. I ordered the pastrami melt which came on rye bread with jack cheese and coleslaw. The pastrami was salty but the brine (peppery edge) was non existent which resulted in ham-bacon-like pastrami. Salty, not peppery.

Was it a bad sandwich? No - it was A-OK. Was it a great pastrami sandwich? No - it was mediocre pastrami on some OK bread.

 Delicious Pastrami Fries!

The salt+pepper fries were delicious, as were the pastrami fries. It's fast food pastrami though and that doesn't necessarily tickle my pickle as much a good Jewish deli pastrami sandwich. Try the fries!

Enjoy the weekend and I have lots of pastrami to talk about. I know I've been slow to post lately, but I've been compiling material. Ciao!

The Teddy.O, South Lake Tahoe, More Goodies

Hey there pastrami fans. I've been on a vacation from blogging mostly because life has been pleasantly crazy. I met a wonderful lady and moved from Pacifica, making my triumphant return to the city of San Francisco. I sold my car and walk to work. Life has changed.

Lots of things have happened in the Deli scene since then and I've been wanting to report, but it seems I've always been looking at apartments, moving, buying new furniture or just wanting to play video games because I'm so damn tired. Great news, things have finally settled down! I'm ready to get back into writing.

To start things off - I'd like to show you a nice video that my dad made for me and my blog. It's a dedication to my grandpa who really influenced my love of deli, as well as a short retrospective of the blog. Please enjoy.

The Deli Board named a sandwich after me a few months ago called the Teddy.O! I have a sandwich named after me - just writing that brings smiles to my face. The Teddy.O is a special Romanian pastrami, coleslaw, 1000 island on either rye bread or a caraway seeded roll - depending upon availability of rye bread.

That is a picture of me and Adam when I tried the first Teddy.O sandwich back in February as well as an up close shot of my sandwich. The sandwich is available as a special about every week or so - the last time it was available May 15th, but you just have to check the Board for availability.

To unwind after my move I made a small trip to South Lake Tahoe California by the Nevada Border. If you haven't ever been to SLT - it's a cool mountain town on the California side followed by 3 Casinos on the Nevada Border with pretty views of Lake Tahoe. There was a more than decent Reuben Sandwich in Town at Macduff's Pub.

The rye bread on the sandwich was pretty good, but it is hard to tell about the rye when it's toasted. The corned beef was house cured, home made and was juicy and delicious. Very good corned beef, I was impressed. They also had a killer bread pudding that they put directly into a fire oven - which makes it oh so toasty good when served to you. I highly recommend Macduff's for that Reuben fix in South Lake Tahoe.

Speaking of Reuben fixes.....

While I do no advocate going to Arby's for your Reuben fix...I did appreciate the commercial.


Other happenings: I received a nice e-mail from a lady named Megan and she had a nice meaty website to check out http://frugaldad.com/beef/ - it has information about beef and what different parts of the cow correspond with certain cuts of meat. Pastrami should either be navel or brisket/chest and Corned beef is almost exclusively the brisket/chest cut.. I thought the site was nice so I linked it.

I noticed in my new neighborhood there is a restaurant called Jablow's Meats. I actually met the owner at the deli board, but I am intrigued to try his pastrami. The place is only open on Wednesdays. It will be a mission to go.

Wise Son's Deli opened their permanent location on 24th street by Folsom and I have yet to go. I feel bad, because I was right on top of them opening their pop-up and I just haven't had the time to come by yet. I will make it back to Wise Son's, home of the best rye bread in San Francisco. I've heard they can get really busy at times....so let's hope for a good experience.


Please e-mail me at Pastramiking@gmail.com. I really like getting some of the cool random e-mails you guys send me...keep it up! My twitter is @pastramiking and I need to get on it more...but it's really just linked to my Facebook fan page. Thanks for reading!

Guerra Quality Meats, Attman's Reuben Dip

Happy May, pastrami fans! I have an excellent installment for you this month. I tried and perfected a deli recipe from the book America's Great Deli: Recipes and Traditions from Coast to Coast and also visited an Italian Deli - Guerra Quality Meats on Taraval Street in San Francisco. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did eating the good food.

 Reuben Dip @ Yelp Softball Game

This is the lovely Reuben dip I made for two parties. The recipe was taken from an old-school Baltimore deli named Attman's. They're known for their succulent corned beef. The hardest thing about this recipe was finding the large round 12" rye bread.

Here is the recipe from the book.

 2 pounds corned beef, chopped
1 pound shredded Swiss cheese
½ cup ketchup
4 tablespoons mustard
½ cup chopped yellow onions
½ cup sweet pickle relish
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 12-inch round Russian rye bread, for serving
1 loaf rye bread, cubed for serving

Place the beef, Swiss cheese, ketchup, mustard, onions, relish, cream cheese, and sour cream in a large bowl and stir to combine well. Cut the top off of a round Russian rye bread. Scoop out the inside of bread. Add dip to hollowed-out bread and serve with the cubed rye bread. Refrigerate until it is served.

I made a few changes to the recipe that I would like to suggest to you. I used an unspecified amount of mustard in my Reuben dip (seasoned to taste), because when I tasted it the first time around I just thought it needed more of a kick...could be just me. Also, get a good cream cheese - the first time I used Lucerne from Safeway because it was on sale - not as good as the Russian Viola cream cheese I picked up in the Russian Supermarket out on Geary Ave. That is also where I found the Russian Rye bread - in the Richmond District, the area known as "Little Russia" which runs on Geary between 14th and 26th Avenue. The specific shop I found the Rye bread was called Gastronome. All the other shops in the neighborhood had rye bread, but the problem was finding it unsliced.  Walked right in the door at Gastronome and I saw it! A large, round, unsliced Russian Rye loaf. Eureka! The lady rang me up at the counter and I paid cash and at the end of the transaction she asked in an accent "Would you like me to slice your bread?" - NO!!!!! If anyone else knows another place to get an unsliced large round rye in SF - please leave a comment. My last suggestion -  get corn chips or bagel chips for dipping. They suggest a loaf of rye bread cubed up - but then you need toothpicks and honestly they tasted better with corn chips...one person suggested bagel chips and I thought that was a good idea, but I have yet to try it.

The first party I took this dip to was a birthday party for my good friends Heather and Jessica - it was bad movie night and "Snakes on a Plane" was the winner of the voting process. When I brought in the dip, they hadn't quite gotten the other appetizers out. When I put the Reuben dip down people pretty much mob attacked it. The second time I made it - I knew what I as doing a little better and I think it came out slightly better than the first. That was the one I brought to the Softball game. People loved it there as much as they did the other party - all the girls were exclaiming how much they loved my ""creamy meat".....well at least one girl said that.

Guerra Quality Meats is a place where salami proudly hangs from the drying rack - a true Italian deli. A new friend - Jon B. suggested this place to me. I was happy to "meat" him on a Sunday afternoon....being in the Sunset District - it was nice and foggy.

On walking in - you see their awesome display counter which has loads of goodies  either to cook or just eat right there. Deviled Eggs? Don't mind if I do.

They also had an awesome butcher shop in the counter. This place has way better cuts of meat compared to the Safeway a few blocks away. I saw their Marin Sun Grass farms - that's local, organic beef - hard to beat. I don't know if that's where all their meat comes from (probably not) but they promise on their website that the beef comes from "from quality local providers."

I came in with the crown on because Jon wanted to see it - the owner thought it was pretty ridiculous and busted my chops a little bit. Sometimes you have to make a scene if you want to get noticed. I don't think the workers will forget me and a couple of them took my pastrami blog card - hopefully they're reading this. Jon also ordered a sandwich and we took them to the hood of my car to discuss life and playoff basketball. Ugh...my Lakers. Ugh.

I ended up ordering a pastrami on Dutch Crunch with Swiss cheese, mustard, tomatoes and a bit of lettuce. That's not a traditional Jewish pastrami (which are my favorite), but this Italian style pastrami was my favorite Italian Deli pastrami I've had. It was lighter, more delicate and not as salty...but still peppery on the outside. You can tell it's fairly lean and thin sliced - which is nice when you want it that way. I also got a side of macaroni salad - which was awesome. It has more vinegar and oil mixed in it and less mayonnaise but I think there was still a little bit of mayo in there to discern it from a regular pasta salad.

If you're ever on the L-line traveling from West Portal to Taraval you'll see Guerra as you turn onto Taraval Street - Get off the train and get a sandwich if it's a nice afternoon. I'll probably go back soon to try another sandwich from their menu - perhaps a prosciutto or coppa. Thanks Jon for meeting me there and pointing out a new spot to check out!

Please leave a comment if you liked this post or if you tried out the recipe. I would love to hear from you! Pastramiking@gmail.com , @Pastramiking on twitter, and my yelp address is pastramiking.yelp.com. Enjoy the Spring sunshine until next time.

Let's go Irish!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The traditional meal on the Irish holiday is corned beef with cabbage, so it's only natural that they also have excellent pastrami at most of these tray-grabbing cafeteria style pubs. The examination of the Irish meat market in San Francisco has led me to a great revelation - I know where everyone gets their meat comes from. That's right...all the spots I visited buy their corned beef and pastrami from one spot in the city - Robert's Corned Meats.



I've walked by this building every weekday for the last two years - it's actually one block away from my work. One of the largest distributors of pastrami in the Bay Area had been operating under my nose, right by my work in SoMa at Bryant and 9th. I've paid some attention as I've walked by..."Hmm...that's awfully alot of beef brisket." I'd think to myself as I walked by a palette full of meat on my way to get a soda from the Shell station around the corner, but I've never actually had the gall to walk in the place...even though I knew at some point. I recently hooked up with Greg Dixon (the man behind the counter!) on facebook and I had the pleasure of speaking with him on location this past Thursday. It was by far one of the best conversations I've had about pastrami in the Bay Area.

The owner of Robert's Corned Meat is Jim Dixon AKA Corned Beef King of San Francisco (I dare not challenge his title). The Examiner had an article celebrating Robert's Corned Meat 100 year anniversay and Jim Dixon's unique corning method. Some of the success of the corning technique
he attributed to Hetch-Hetchy, the Bay Area's source of crystal clean drinking water. Greg, Jim's son is the man I went to for my pastrami blog answers. The place shovels out 10,000/lbs of meat per month which includes pastrami, corned beef, brisket - all top quality prepackaged meat. They have many different types of pastrami made from either the navel cut, the brisket cut, or the bottom round cut. Traditionally the navel cut is the most flavorful and most desired for pastrami while corned beef is normally made from the brisket "chest" cut which is naturally less fatty (we're talking relatively less), while the bottom round pastrami was a little new to me. Greg really broke it down for me who uses which type of meat at each of the big named Bay Area Irish restaurants and even added a few places I had been wondering about. "Bob Kantor of Memphis Minnie's came here looking for uncured navel cuts, but all out stuff is comes precured." I was excited when he mentioned the Lower Haight BBQ shack as I had been wondering how Mr. Kantor does his Wednesday only pastrami sandwiches and reubens. "Memphis Minnie's actually uses braised short ribs and then smokes them until the meat gets so tender it falls off." He even mentioned the Jewish style deli - Miller's East Coast Deli - the premiere pastrami spot in the city - "Miller's get their corned beef from us and in a pinch they'll use some of our NYC style pastrami, but most of the time they get their pastrami from Sy Ginsburg." Sy Ginsburg was featured in the Sax's book, Save the Deli, and supplies much of the greater Midwest with their corned meats. While I was talking with him a customer came in and bought a 5 pound cut of corned beef. Greg gave him some extra corning spices for the meat, which I thought was a nice touch. I left Robert's Corned meat armed with knowledge about the places I already loved - a truly great experience. Now let's get down to eating some pastrami!


The first place I visited was Lefty O' Doul's, which is right down the street from Union Square on Geary Street. The place opened in 1958 and features large wood paneling with pictures of old baseball starts lining the wall. None of them more featured than Joe DiMaggio himself.

Why the Yankee Clipper in San Francisco? Why not Willie Mays or Barroid Bonds? Not alot of people know that Joe D was actually born in Martinez, CA and went to high school in San Francisco. The first professional team he played for was a Pacific Coast League team named the San Francisco Seals, before he was eventually sold to Yankees for a handsome sum of 25,000$. You may have wondered why you've seen his picture around town or why the Giant's mascot is a seal - now you know!

When you walk in you grab a tray and order to the man at the counter who promptly takes out the pastrami and hand slices your pastrami. Lefty O' Doul's uses the Robert's Brand brisket cut pastrami, which has slightly less fat, but is still very flavorful. I got it on rye bread and enjoyed their pastrami with some mustard in the quiet dining room.

The pastrami came with lettuce and tomatoes on the side which i didn't really use. I just put some mustard on it and I was in heaven. As I was kinda spacing out towards the end of my meal I looked straight ahead and there she was - Marilyn Monroe - lit up with bright lights behind a pink curtain in the Seven Year Itch pose that infamously sent Joe DiMaggio into a jealous rage. The parody of the whole situation is something that is so San Francisco - which is somehow Dirty Harry and Jerry Garcia all at the same time.


For my next adventure I go across the Bay to Berkeley to visit one of my old favorites - Brennan's. Brennan's recently opened a new building just adjacent to their old location which stood for about 49 years as they recently celebrated their 50th anniversary in their new building. The new building has bigger televisions, better seats, and is right by next to the train tracks so you can see Amtrak trains passing by on their way to Sacramento. The old building had a certain charm and charisma of an old Irish pub that will never be matched by the new establishment which is brighter and more comfortable overall. I understand the move, but it doesn't mean I can't miss the old building.

The Old Brennan's

The New Brennan's

They're still the same trays!

My buddy Peter and I walked up to the meat cutter - he ordered first getting corned beef with cabbage with gravy all over it. I got a pastrami on rye with some mash potatoes. The meat man proceeded to hand cut our Robert's brand corned beef and Robert's lighter navel cut of pastrami.

The corned beef was juicy and succulent - it was a good night for the corned beef. The pastrami and Brennan's is my favorite of all the Irish spots I go to and this night was no change - top notch! It did cost a bit more money than the Lefty O'Doul's, but it was worth it!

The last place I visited for the Irish part of the blog was Tommy's Joynt at Geary and Van Ness. Tommy's Joynt has been around since 1947 and the first owner was Irish and went by the last name of Harris, but Greg at Robert's corned meat told me the owners are now Jewish. I'm not sure I consider Tommy's Joynt fully Irish - it's more a San Francisco Hofbrau with items on the menu such as grilled chuck steak sandwich, braised lamb shanks, and turkey sloppy joe's. However it was the day of the St. Patrick's day parade and most people were here decked out in green, ready for their famously good corned beef and cabbage.

World Famous Corned Beef

Founder of Tommy's Joynt

I went with three friends and everyone else got corned beef, except for me. I got the pastrami on rye again which was alot like the Lefty O'doul's brisket pastrami, very good for 5.50$ a sandwich. Peter came again and got the cheesecake, which I had a bit of - it was superb.

Pastrami and Coleslaw

Corned Beef on Sourdough - Cheesecake Upper Right

The sandwiches came with an au jus dip, if you wanted to make your pastrami and French dip it would be very easy to order on a french roll and use the au jus at your discretion. At the table there were two house mustard - a mild and a hot. The hot one clears your nasal passages - just a warning!

Geoff at The Refuge

Before I got to my Irish pastrami spots, I took my friend Geoff down to the Refuge in San Carlos. He wanted to try really good pastrami for the first time and I told him I would take him to the best. When he bit down in the perfectly sliced, perfectly smoke pastrami from the Refuge slathered in Russian dressing with a bit of Gulden's mustard he knew what it was all about. "It's so much better than the packaged stuff." Of course it is, the time and care Matt Levine takes into his pastrami is artfully mastered in his chique gastropub in the Peninsula. It's like going to a microbrewery - only for pastrami. Oh did I mention microbrewery - the guy has like 25 Belgian beers on the menu! I chatted with Matt a little bit about my NYC trip and he told me Carnegie under cooks their pastrami a slight bit because they sell so much of it - I couldn't really tell I liked it alot. He was surprised I said my Kat'z sandwich was a bit small, but after reading into it a bit more then next time I'm going to counter service and I'm tipping the guy cutting my meat like 5$ for a big one - and don't forget the pickle!

Toasted #19 - The Refuge

While writing this blog and self proclaiming myself SF Pastrami King, I've come to respect so of the true players in the pastrami game right here in the Bay Area. Jim and Greg Dixon of Robert's Corned Meats, Matt Levine of the Refuge , Robby Morgenstein of Miller's East Coast Deli, and Joe Sattler of Moishe's Pippic are truly deli men of the best kind - I thank you especially for making my pastrami just the way I like it!

The Wood Tavern & Manhattan Hub - Prelude to NYC

As I write to you now I'm also packing my bags for New York. There was big news in the deli world this past week - Mile End (http://www.mileendbrooklyn.com/) opened up just this past week in the Boreum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, which is the first deli in the US to sell Montreal smoked meat. I thought I was going to have to go to Canada to try this special savory fabled smoked meat, but it's just my luck that they opened the week before my trip to the East Coast! Of course I'm going to try some other places when I'm there - I'm supposed to go to Carnegie deli with my friends Nick and Chris the first night I arrive there - so I'll be eating pastrami like a king as Thursday night settles into the city sky.

Speaking of Thursday night - my good pastrami buddy David Sax is going to be in San Francisco at the Jewish Community Center on California near 15th Ave - the Richmond District. Please come out and support his cause to save the deli. I think it costs about 10$ but it said "Expect a delicious surprise." Who know whats that means, but expect something good! I feel sad I couldn't make this event - as I would like to have met some new Bay Area pastrami lovers as well as see David again - don't be sad for me though - like I said I'll be at Carnegie Deli!

The Wood Tavern

This week I have two Bay Area spots to feature - the first is The Wood Tavern on College Ave, North Oakland, but you could throw a rock at Berkeley. I went to this spot the Sunday the Saints were playing the Cardinals with three friends who were all trying not to look at the game, because we had it on pause back home - how impossible!

Whiskey Laced Chicken Liver on the Left (knife attacking!)

We started with the prosciutto and whiskey laced chicken liver, accompanied with a medium cheese. It also came with small mini toasts, a Dijon mustard, and a relish or sorts. It was great to combine the prosciutto, the mustard, some cheese, and a little relish - a definite crowd pleasing taste bud tantalizer. The whiskey laced chicken liver - OMG! That was the best chicken liver I've ever tasted - the only one that'd I've had that was similar to it was The Refuge in San Carlos, CA which was a similar kind of French/California cuisine. The small difference between the two is key in the demographics they attract - The Refuge offers Belgian beers, like Chimay and Duvel attracting a younger college crowd as well as families - The Wood Tavern has lots of wines and attracts a slightly older, artsy crowd from my observations.

Wood Tavern Pastrami

The sandwich came out on a baguette roll with a sharp Dijon mustard - very nice presentation. The pastrami itself was a bit greasy - not the best pastrami - certainly not as good as my last pastrami sandwich I had at Moishe's pippic the day prior. I remembered my conversation with Matt Levin of The Refuge when he told me "You know the taste of pastrami when it hasn't been cooked long enough (properly) it smells a bit like hot dogs." This was what he was talking about, it honestly reminded me of the pastrami I had at Johnny's pastrami in LA except this was spruced up with a french baguette and sharp mustard. The coleslaw was more of a dill tasting slaw, not as sweet with much less mayonnaise - not really my thing but some people liked it. The pastrami I had was just OK but, I think there is alot of potential for this place for me to return. I'd really like to try their pan fried chicken or their duck confit! I think this would be a great place to take a date too, check it out for a more schnazzy option than the average deli.

Manhattan Hub - Reuben

The next place I went to was Manhattan Hub in the Financial District. It was recommended by one of our good pastrami blog readers - Sam. Thanks for the suggestion Sam! I went here on MLK day, they were open till 2 PM. I fumbled with the parking meter that ate my quarter and said out of order and started walking my destination, when I got to the address I was a bit confused. This place is in the back right corner of the building if you're facing the building facade head on - really on Sacramento street, not Sansome.

The Reuben was 7.50$, with that price considered, I was very impressed with the nice marble rye bread Reuben along with the generous portion of coleslaw with a large dill pickle on top. I thought the coleslaw was out of this world good! The pastrami wasn't that great, but not a fail. It had a brine, but a very small one that didn't have a nice thin layer of fat on it that I like seeing on pastrami.The marble rye and Russian dressing were also excellent - it just wasn't that hand sliced or steaming pastrami - it seemed like it was from a pack. Still in terms of the location it's killer - I would definitely eat here regularly for lunch if I worked in the FiDi.

That's all for now folks - I'll have a bunch of material from NYC and I still have plenty to get to in the Bay Area - so expect great things to come!