Deli Tech, a bustling corned beef and pastrami outpost down in the Tech Center, touts its New York roots vigorously.
A Statue of Liberty greets you at the door. New York-themed images, from taxicabs to skylines, hang from the walls. Even the bathrooms are painted to look like they’ve been tagged by graffiti artists.
On the menu, dotted with primary-color subway icons, you’ll find Yankee clubhouse sandwiches, Bronx Bomber potato skins and Big Apple pie a la mode.
And New York this place is, in its way. After all, it was started by transplanted New Yorkers, and many of their ingredients come from the famous Carnegie Deli, a longtime midtown Manhattan institution.
But these days, the real Carnegie Deli, packed with kitschy New York City chazerai, serves its delicious but ridiculously gargantuan sandwiches mostly to tourists looking for the New York they’ve seen on the Travel Channel or Food Network.
Most Manhattanites (at least when I lived there) get their pastrami fixes from neighborhood joints like Eisenberg’s or Sarge’s or Ben’s. On special occasions, they’ll hop the F-train to the ancient but kitsch-resistant Katz’s, or, until recently, to the now-defunct 2nd Avenue Deli, which used to make the best kasha varnishkes on the planet before shuttering over a lease dispute early this year.
But this is all just for knowing. Because if you brush aside the trippy trappings of New York “authenticity” and just focus on the food, Deli Tech (like the Carnegie itself) serves evocative New York City fare.
Breakfast comes in many forms at Deli Tech, from challah French toast to bagels with cream cheese and lox to corned beef hash with fried eggs on top.
Me, I’ll grab the paper and take a matzo brei scramble: Delectable bits of unleavened matzo, soaked and scrambled with eggs and served with applesauce alongside.
Lunch is prime time at Deli Tech. Suits and their assistants compete with jocks from the fitness club across the lot to wait for tables to open up. (It’s never a long wait; tables turn over fairly quickly. This is the Tech Center, after all. There’s money to be made!)
Salads and burgers are offered, but deli sandwiches are the kings of the menu. Bread is fresh and fillings are generous.
My favorite sandwich was a double-decker combo of corned beef and brisket on rye, served “N.Y. Style,” with cole slaw and Russian dressing. The sour-salty-savory layers of briny corned beef and slow-cooked brisket worked well with the sweet tang of the slaw and gooiness of the dressing. All that was missing was a puckery, crunchy pickle, but sadly, Deli Tech’s were limp and dull.
My second favorite sandwich was a pastrami reuben, also on rye (deli sandwiches are almost best on rye, although seedless rye or pumpernickel will do), this one served hot and piled with pastrami, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and melty Swiss cheese. The pastrami was spicy and smoky and a beautiful ruby-red, with plenty of old-country flavor.
Chopped liver and egg salad were both simple, clear and flavorful, but both needed salt and pepper at the table. Whitefish and sable were ocean-y, not fishy. Tongue tasted of, well, tongue, which is its own unique gamey, dusty, livery, not-for-everyone flavor.
On the side? Simple, filling kasha varnishkes (bowtie pasta tossed with buckwheat) or light, ungreasy latkes (potato pancakes).
Disappointing was the cold borscht, or beet soup, which was anemic and watery, with very little body or beet flavor. Also confounding, chicken noodle and matzo ball soup, which was overflowing with noodles but much too sparse on broth. The version with kreplach dumplings was also too loaded with stuff. Both would have been better without the noodles.
Suppertime at the Deli Tech is less crowded, which means you can dine on liver and onions or a brisket platter (served with vegetables, potatoes, and soup or salad) in peace. Skip the stuffed cabbage, which was soggy and bland.
There are a (very) few wines on offer, but here’s one nice thing about the list: Everything on it comes in a half-bottle, perfect for two (or one, if you’re thirsty and aren’t driving). Otherwise, have a spritzy old-style egg cream soda.
A proper deli meal calls for a proper deli dessert, and if we’re talking New York, we’re talking cheesecake. Deli Tech’s is sweet but not sugary, rich but not deadening, and plenty big. Stick with the basic one here, and forget the chocolate or marbled versions.
Also good for sweets, rugelach and mandlebroit (a crispy almond cookie), which can also be taken to go. But don’t bother with the linzer cookie tart, which was chewy and sticky.
Actually, anything at Deli Tech can also be taken to go, but that would mean that you’ll miss out on the good-humored, but no-nonsense intra-staff banter that characterizes the service here. Like at any good deli, the servers are a crew of wise-cracking pros who call you “hon” and won’t mess up your order, no matter how chaotic the place is.
One way Deli Tech is authentically New York is its opening hours: This place is open for business three meals a day, every day of the year, Christmas and Thanksgiving included.
I suppose Deli Tech is New York, in its way. And even if it’s a closer reflection of the glitzy, sparkly, be-a-part-of-it New York that New Yorkers roll out for tourists than the real-life neighborhood New York that New Yorkers actually live in, the pastrami doesn’t taste any less authentic.
Dining critic Tucker Shaw can be reached at 303-954-1958 or at dining@denverpost.com.
Deli Tech Deli
8101 E Belleview Ave. (at Ulster St.), 303-721-6768
**|Very Good
Atmosphere: Brightly lit strip mall sandwich shop decorated with New York memorabilia. Very busy at lunch.
Service: Friendly and focused. They’re a tight crew, and the banter between them is fun to watch.
Wine: Have an egg cream.
Plates: Small plates, $3.95-7.95. Sandwiches $6.95-$10.50. Entrees $10.95-$13.95.
Hours: 7 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Details: All major credit cards accepted. No reservations. Great for groups or working lunches. Kids will find plenty to eat here.
Three visits.
Our star system:
****: Exceptional.
***: Great.
**: Very good.
*: Good.
No stars: Needs work.
