Sherbrooke St. Deli
When traveling in Vancouver this past spring and spending the lunch hour walking through the Gastown neighbourhood, I spotted a restaurant with a lineup out the door and along the sidewalk. Dubbed “Meat & Bread” it served exactly that. In the “every old is new again” category, delis have recently made a huge come back serving…well, meat and bread! The Sherbrooke Street Delicatessen (102 Sherbrooke St.) is one of Winnipeg’s many new offerings in this dining category. Perfectly placed in the great neighbourhoods of Wolseley and West Broadway (in the space formerly occupied by Fitzroy), owner Jon Hochman has gone back to his family roots. The kosher style “New York” deli, doles out traditional offerings like corned beef, smoked meat, beef salami, salmon lox and turkey breast. Our grandbaby loved the latter. Rounding off the cut meat section of the menu is the inclusion of pickled tongue. In university a good friend of mine consumed a pickled tongue sandwich almost every day for her lunch. Suffice it to say, I have never had a hankering.
My lunch date and I settled on exactly the same thing: corned beef, a vinegary pickle, crunchy cole slaw and my favourite- kettle cooked potato chips, fried to perfection in canola oil.
I understand from my sister, who works in the area, that the red-beet borscht
and knishes are also delicious.
I had my eye on some of the selections more appropriate for dinner, such as the Beef Short Ribs or the Rib-Eyed steak. Seeing how the cooks gingerly carve up the house made meats, I am sure that the bigger portions, would be equally remarkable. When I was in junior high school, I would visit Charlie the grocer and deli keeper on Oakview and Brazier St in East Kildonan. He would often offer up a shaved sample of his corned beef before he wrapped the rest of an order in waxed butcher paper. I remember that taste so clearly, along with the manner in which Charlie wiped his hands on his white butcher’s apron. Indeed, every old is new again.
Kath’s quote: “My tongue is smiling.”-Abigail Trillin
Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.
i have forever gone on about charlies corned beef at the oakview grocery store. my parents each week bought a pound and a half which i mostly ate. the best corned beef i have ever had. i actually got to work there for a couple of weeks when his regular employee (my friend) went on summer holidays. charlie did this until he was in his 80’s. he sold the recipe i was told for 10,000 dollars. but the new owners messed it up. they actually brought charlie back to fix the problem. then they sold the busines to an east indian couple. and the corned beef was then very good. but unfortunately the business closed. i am saddened that this great corned beef recipe is apparently gone forever. it was the best i and my family had ever had. and i can say it was a christmas tradition in my family to have lots of it for lunch on christmas day. thanks for mentioning this. it was the best and brought back great memories
Thank you John for taking the time to write. Wouldn’t be fun to read more about local restaurants of old? In EK I fondly remember Chick’s Grill and Southall’s. The latter being the place where one of us kids would be sent to pick up $1 of French fries that could feed our entire family (6 kids) for a special treat.
Charlie the grocer was my father and it’s incredible to read your comments about his corned beef,
You Dad was a much loved community merchant. They don’t make them like that anymore.
The Moglove’s store was just up the street and around the corner. I had two favourite sandwiches from birth thru high school – pb & honey, and Corned Beef (pref made by Charlie Moglove) with mustard on rye bread. My mom sent me to the corner for corned beef on a regular basis from an early age. And we bought our recess penny candy there too, on the way to school. Wonderful man.
PS Your picture shows blintzes, not knishes as captioned. Also, Sherbrook St (in wpg) ends in K