Oy Vey, I'm Stuffed!

With Monday being a holiday, both Ken and Julie Hallenius were able to join me for lunch downtown on my day off. We made plans to visit Kenny and Zuke's a Jewish delicatessen just off Burnside.

I'm not sure how long they've been there, but I only recently came to know about the place. I was downtown for something else and I noticed a line of people waiting to get in. My curiosity peaked, I drove around the block to get a better look, and saw the sign above on the window - and a jam packed dining room of very happy people.

The biggest problem Ken, Julie and I had was that we wanted to try everything on the menu. We did our best, each picking a different sandwich and sharing a plate of latkes, but I'll still need to go back to try the bagels, the knish, and the matzoh ball soup.

The long list of root beers was a great place to start. Ken and I each tried a couple. Then, as we pondered the rest of the menu, we shared the latkes. They were good, though small in circumference and too thick for my liking - more like falafel than a pancake.

The sandwich more than made up for it. The pastrami Reuben I had was very, very good. I decided that it needed more sauerkraut and thousand island dressing but the quality of the meat was simply amazing and it was grilled to perfection on lovely home-baked bread. And the shoe-string fries were awesome too. (Be sure to visit their website via the link above for more amazing photos of their offerings. Warning: you may drool!)

The three of us shared some rugelach for desert and I introduced Ken to the egg cream. He liked it, Julie did not. We left stuffed, and took away doggie bags with leftovers for another full lunch the next day. In the immortal words of the Governator: "I'll be back."