by Maggie and Ed | Apr 21, 2016 | Food, Sandwiches
A few more shots from our recent New York visit! We had reservations for Sadelle’s that Thursday afternoon. It’s too cute. Ignoring any concept of how much food a person can reasonably eat, we eagerly made our way through bagels, tuna melts, and blintzes, each better than the last. The folks next to us decided it was the appropriate place to split a Greek Salad with Greek Dressing. It is not. If you stop by, just order something with bagels, dummy.
Full of carbs and bloody mary’s, we spent the rest of the afternoon bopping around lower Manhattan, stocking up on office supplies, and oggling the always glorious BDDW and their new sister company M. Crow.
Next up: dragging an amazingly compassionate friend around town until we had walked off enough of our brunch to swing by Fuku and live out Ed’s high-end chic-fil-a fantasies. And they did not disappoint. Elbow to elbow sipping dreamsicle slushies in the small, dimly lit space, all my normal feelings surrounding spicy chicken sandwiches (read: hungover and/or in a mall food court) quickly faded.
We spent the rest of the evening on the prowl for a bar with available seats, a surprisingly difficult feat. We finally settled outside of Union Square with Coronaritas, like you do.
Not pictured: the bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll that disappeared too quickly as we prayed to the Toyota-Gods to make the car start (it worked!).
Unfortunately pictured: road trip shame food.
by Maggie and Ed | Apr 4, 2016 | Food, Sandwiches
Maggie and I returned to her 2nd hometown of New York City last week to see Faust play at Market Hotel, a venue where she worked years ago. Maggie also had a doctor’s appointment at Mt. Sinai. We decided to stick to an all sandwich diet, partly for Steve’s research and partly cause we’re cheap and it’s tough to get into too much trouble with buying sandwiches. I got a little overwhelmed trying to figure out where to go while not really knowing our schedule 100%, so I started adding places into a google map trying to fill out all of the city, so we could just stop anywhere when we got hungry.
We stayed in Long Island City at the Paper factory. It was very affordable and clean, the lobby was quirky, the staff were friendly. The hotel isn’t really near anywhere though, just in storage building central and we were starving. So we decided to go to the closest place on the map to the hotel, Cemitas El Tigre. It was about a 20 minute walk, 15 of which were through deserted warehouses. We saw some guys demolishing a building from inside which was cool. But otherwise the lack of people was a little weird. Everything got better near the restaurant though. We got micheladas, a barbacoa cemita, and a carnitas burrito. Maggie’s often on the fence about ordering carnitas places since it’s often kinda dissapointing, but I was happy to prove her wrong here. That burrito was so good. So was the cemita. I wanna get some papalo for myself. We were having a great time relaxing after the drive. My sister texted me that Fritz was playing fetch with her and sent us a cute picture. We were relaxed and full and warm and ready to just uber back to the hotel to get an early start the next day, when I realized that my phone had turned itself off and wouldn’t be joining us for the rest of the trip. Dumb.
Maggie’s doctor was in the UES by all the rich babies and old ladies. We walked around to some children’s clothing stores looking for a baby is born gift for my sister and laughed that they cost more than our adult clothing. It’s pretty excessive to dress a child in a $180 shirt for two months. You know, unless you’re dressing them in some linen clothes that make them look like a japanese farmer. I thought I saw something that looked like it turned the baby into a starfish, but then i saw arm holes. pass. I didn’t really have anything that wasn’t at least an hour away, so we went to the coffee shop we always stop at by the hospital and bought some little sandwiches and went to the park to eat them. Maggie kept walking around looking for benches and some stuff, and I was hungry and thought we should just eat. Eventually she took me over this hill to the whoa it’s the city and a pond spot.
We took some pictures and thought about stuff and had a little gaze. There were no benches so we went back down to eat.
We got a soppressata and petso chibatta thingy and a prosciutto and mozzarella on brioche. They were good. Next we went to Kitchen Arts & Letters, which I had wanted to visit for a while. It was crazy and we wanted to buy everything. We got a couple little books to read on the subway and remembered that we’d have to carry whatever else we bought for the rest of the day.
We went to the met to do a quick jog through and look at all the decapitated head paintings. This older guy was peeing in the fountain. I guessed so. Then we headed to the Met Breuer to see the Unfinished show. It was really cool, worth checking out if you’re up there before it closes. Give yourself a few hours, it’s nice to read the stories behind everything. I like the one with the victorian lady missing her face the most. Or maybe the one next to it. Or like 20 other things. We almost bought the book for it, but luckily remembered the carrying thing again.
This was at the beginning of our walk out of the met. Nice and springy and happy. Flowers blooming and children playing. We had about a 40 minute walk to get to Alidoro. We considered a taxi, since we had been on our feet since 9 am and it was about 3:30 then, but it was only 15 minutes faster and decided to go for the walk. Twenty blocks left it started getting bad. The dogs were barking, we were hungry, getting pretty tired. Ten blocks left, almost there, can’t wait to sit down. Two left, so close. Finally Alidoro! aand they’re closed. We had a bit of a cry, and looked at my map and the closest place was another 20 minutes away. So we picked something from google, Untamed sandwiches. It was pretty close.
Whoa were we lucky. It was great. We got a Nettle Neck Lamb sandwich, which was lamb neck with nettle pesto and some other stuff, and a chicken tinga with jalapeno, cilantro and stuff. So good! They also had beer, so double relaxing.
We were rejuvenated after that and strolled to the subway to get back to our hotel. We passed Maggie’s favorite building.
It was getting late, and we were going to relax a bit before heading to Market Hotel for Faust.
The Market Hotel was cool. I met Maggie’s old pal Todd P and he showed us around the place. I also met Jean-Hervé Péron and Werner “Zappi” Diermaier, which was crazy. Faust had miked up the M train that runs past the window and incorporated it into their show, and had the front of the audience sit down and watch some knitting. It was hard to believe that I was seeing them, after they had only lived in records for so long.
After all the excitement, we broke our sandwich only rule to get some late night snacks from Mr. Kiwi on the heels of the Lucky Peach fame, and went to bed.
by Maggie and Ed | Mar 6, 2016 | Food, Sandwiches, steve's deli
Last weekend was the final days in operation for the Pittsburgh Public Market. Extremely thankful for everyone that came out to support us and the rest of the vendors at the market, buy us out of sandwiches, and listen to Bjork inspired sauerkraut ballads. Keep your ear to the ground as we wade through piles of paperwork to rekindle the Steve’s Deli fire in a brick and mortar location in Bloomfield.
by Maggie and Ed | Feb 14, 2016 | Food, Sandwiches, steve's deli
Last Valentine’s Day we spent the afternoon sharing notes with the management at the Pittsburgh Public Market and taking the first major steps to make Steve’s Deli a reality. This year, we’re wrapping up our final few weeks of our stint there, but the lights are still on at the Public Market (for now) and we’re still kicking. Helping you make your decision of which sandwich to splurge on for you and that special someone, we’re sharing the love and giving 20% off a pair of sandwiches to share.
If you’re still searching for a no fail dinner recipe, check out our super simple duck recipe from last year’s Valentine’s Day.
For more info on where you can find the rest of the crew of the Pittsburgh Public Market after February 28th, read more on Good Food Pittsburgh.
by Maggie and Ed | Sep 9, 2015 | Entrée, Food, Recipes, Sandwiches, steve's deli
A few weeks before our official opening for Steve’s Deli, Table Magazine asked us about our favorite fall sandwich. The issue dropped last week and we’re really excited to be a part of it. See our full recipe below and make sure to grab a copy of the current issue with some killer additions from Thin Man Sandwich Shop and The Vandal.
Ingredients
- 1 baguette
- 1/2 cup pitted sour cherries
- 1/4 cup red onion chopped
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 lb boneless butterflied lamb leg
- 4oz creamy firm cheese (we used Cypress Grove’s Lamb Chopper)
- 1 bunch sage chopped into ribbons
- salt and pepper
- juice of 1/2 lemon
Preparation
For the jam:
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small sauce pan
- Add onions and cook until translucent
- Add thyme, cherries, balsamic vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt, cover and cook on medium low for 15 minutes (until jammy).
- Remove from heat and reserve
For the lamb:
- Chop lamb into 1 inch chunks and generously season with salt and pepper.
- In a medium skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and saute garlic.
- After about a minute, add lamb and sear on high until rare (about 3-5 minutes).
- Reduce heat and add your choice of cheese, top with a lid to melt.
Assembly
- Divide baguette into 4 sections
- Layer lamb and cheese, cherry jam
- Top with fresh sage and a squeeze of lemon juice
by Maggie and Ed | Aug 18, 2015 | Entrée, Food, Sandwiches, steve's deli, Vegan, Vegetarian
Over the weekend, Bill from Clarion River Organics sent us home with a pound of Chicken of the Woods. We’ve been really happy with how our Vegan BBQ turned out for Steve’s Deli and were eager to try some similar techniques in a grab and go sandwich.
We browned some chopped leeks and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil until translucent, and then added the mushrooms, lemon thyme, salt, pepper, and tarragon to the pot with a few hefty pours of white wine. We covered and simmered until the Chicken of the Woods was tender, roughly 10 minutes.
For the rest of the mixture we stayed fairly basic: Just Mayo, lemon juice, grapes, raw leeks, and a few added tarragon leaves. The texture was perfect for the most part. Both sandwiches had a one or two dry bites, not sure if it was the result of not enough liquid or just past the prime for some of the mushrooms. All in all, a solid start. Can’t wait to try more!
