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Breaking Bread
Now Open: The Armatage Room and Mort's Delicatessen
Now Open: Café Armatage, and Mort's Delicatessen
The popular Café Maude at 54th and Penn Ave. S. has expanded across the street with the opening of the Armatage Room, 5416 Penn Ave. S., a multi-purpose space that operates as a wine bar Thursdays through Saturdays when it isn't being rented out for private parties. The chalkboard menu offers mostly lighter fare - an assortment of charcuterie ($12) or cheeses (choose two for $12), olives, an antipasti plate, a pasta and a frittata. Seating is at four big tables, set up in two long rows - so be prepared to share a table with strangers.
We stopped in last night for a quick bite and enjoyed everything we sampled - hot salty frites with a spicy aioli ($5); homemade fettuccine with tomatoes and capers ($10); a perfectly turned frittata ($8) made with potatoes, chard, feta and olives, in the style of a Spanish tortilla.
Starting this week, they will be offering a prix fixe dinner that our server billed as "the best deal in town:" four courses including soup, salad, entrée, dessert, and three accompanying wines for $25. Seating is limited, and the Armatage Room is closed on some days for private parties (including this Friday and Saturday), so call ahead for reservations and more information. (Better to call Cafe Maude, at 612-822-5411; hours at Cafe Armatage are limited.) For the next couple of Thursdays (the 15th and the 22nd), the terrifically talented accordionist Patrick Harison will be performing.
For as long as I have lived in the Twin Cities, (about 35 years) I have heard lamentations about the lack of a really good Jewish deli. (Cecil's is okay, but pretty limited. Ditto The Brothers Deli in the Minneapolis Skyway.) I haven't made it out to Mort's Delicatessen in Golden Valley yet, but early reports are very enthusiastic, and the menu looks impressive: gefilte fish, chopped liver, creamed herring, plus corned beef, pastrami and knishes from the Carnegie Deli in New York City. Plus lots of other classics: matzoh ball soup, beef brisket, lox and bagels and borscht. I'll try to get there soon, but if you get there first, drop me a line at jeremyiggers@gmail.com (or post a comment) and tell me all about it.
4 Reader Comments
Been there, done that, won't go back. Very slow service (a sandwich and hot dog took about half an hour to get to the table and the place was maybe half full... and this was not right when they opened). Underdone sandwiches with overly dry meat that may not have been cleaned well (there were bones in mine). Not impressive at all. I'd say Crossroads and Pastrami Jack's are better, for deli vaguely in the area. Not great, but better.
I went to Mort's about 5 weeks ago. The place was packed with customers. I, and my friend who used to own Bernie's Deli in St. Louis Park ordered hot pastrami sandwiches. First came a small plate with dill pickles, which were not in any brine and very dry and wrinkled. Then my lunch partner ordered cole slaw, whch he said was very bad.Then the sandwiches came and the meat was cold and dry, but wait, it gets worse. The meat was sliced so thick that it couldn't be chewed. I learned over 50 years ago, when my parents had a delicatessen in the Highland Shopping Center in St. Paul, which competed with Cecil's, that briskets were the toughest parts of the animal, so that the meat had to be sliced directly against the grain and paper thin. No one at Mort's knows that, and that will be their demise. I also was a kosher sausage and corned beef distributor to delis, hotels and restaurants from 1957 to 1967 and I operated a deli at the MN State Fair from 1971 to 2001. Steve Edelman used to show my rueben sandwiches on Good Company (Channel 5) every year and always said they were the best he had ever had. I think that you should go to Mort's soon, as like Zaroff's, it may not be there long.
Hands down Pastrami Jack's is the best deli in town.
I've been waiting for a good deli to pop-up in the metro for a long time. I've been to all the local spots and all the great NYC delicatessens, and believe Pastrami Jack's could hold its own up against any of them.
All of their ingredients are authentic, and some are even shipped in from those great NYC delis. The matzah ball soup is great too, although with matzah ball soup, it's so hard to please everyone.
Just wish it was closer to home.
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