Tat's East Coast Delicatessen in Seattle

Probably the easiest way to locate New York food in your area is to find restaurants who use New York vernacular that is descriptive of New York in the title. For example you might find a restaurant called New York Pizza or Gotham Subs. You know what I am talking about. I am sure just like me you have veered off a highway going ninety miles an hour just because you saw a sign for some sort of New York food. And that my friends is what led me straight to Tat's East Coast Delicatessen.

Now lets focus for a second on the particular vernacular used in this case ... "East Coast". Now anybody who is from New York knows that "East Coast" in general is used to describe a place that is like New York, perhaps close to New York and whose foods are similar, but yet is not New York. These "East Coast" places like Philadelphia and Boston have some great food of their own and they have some foods that are about as close to New York style as you can get but when push comes to shove they are really just distant cousins or faraway suburb of New York. And so it goes without saying the "East Coast" title always raises a slight red flag.

So now that I offended a good deal of people (like any good New Yorker should) lets get back to the task at hand. Tat's Deli is owned an operated by two gentleman who grew up in Philadelphia and New Jersey (i.e "East Coast") who missed their hometown foods. So they decided to open up a restaurant that would serve their favorite foods in Seattle.

The word Delicatessen is a little misleading in that Tat's is really more of sub shop. Somewhere between a local pizza place serving Chicken Parmesan subs and an Italian or Kosher Deli offering sandwiches with various cold cuts. Their real claim to fame are their cheese steaks. Now I love a great cheese steak but cheese steaks are a Philadelphia thing so I will leave the cheese steak review for the guy who writes the phillyfoodanywhere blog!

I was here to try the classic New York favorite a chicken Parmesan sandwich. I have quite a few things to say about this sandwich so lets take the bullet list approach

What I loved:

• When I asked if the chicken was breaded the person taking my order gave me the "are you crazy" look and said "of course".
• When I asked if there was going to be lettuce, tomatoes, mayo or any other non-authentic ingredient on my sandwich he gave me the "are you crazy" look and said "of course NOT".
• The bread was excellent and when I got my sandwich the bread was toasted but still chewy just the way it is supposed to be.

What was ok or not so good:

• I found the sauce to be somewhat flavorless.
• The chicken was fairly soggy (I will add that to this day I have no idea how somebody makes one of these sandwiched and keeps the chicken cutlets crispy ... but some are able to).
• The chicken looked and tasted like some of those frozen breaded chicken cutlets.

So to sum it up I think this Chicken Parmesan sandwich was a solid B+. The essence of the sandwich was there but I think they could execute a little better on some of the fundamental components of the sandwich. All that said I would say for sure this is the best Chicken Parmesan sandwich I have found to date in the Seattle area so I encourage you to give it a try.

As for the rest of the menu, there looks like there are some interesting and tasty meals to be had . Like I said earlier this isn't a true delicatessen in the sense that you can go have any sandwich you desire created but they do have a bunch of great sounding sandwiches on the menu. options that I hope to try one day include Tat's Italian, Hot Pastrami, and the Reuben. I will let you know when I have given them a try. In the mean time you can find more information about Tat's East Coast Delicatessen below.

Tat's East Coat Delicatessen Menu

Salumi Cured Meats - New York Italian Deli in Seattle

The other day we were planning our daughter's second birthday. While trying to decide what food to serve it occurred to me that a really good six-foot sub (also known back east as a hero) from an Italian deli would work perfectly. After all this was often the catered food of choice for a small New York gathering.

The sad news is that my quest for a six foot sub was in vain since no place seems to make such a thing out west(ignoring the chains such as Subway which I won't touch with a ten foot pole). The good news is that in my search for deli's, Salumi popped up.

Salumi is an Italian deli where they cure their own Italian meats. I had heard wonderful things about this place but had never had the time to visit. Thanks to this blog and my daughters party I decided it was finally worth a visit.

As usual I made a mad dash for Salumi on my lunch break, driving as quickly as possible into downtown Seattle to try a Sandwich. Unfortunately for myself it turns out driving anywhere the day before Thanksgiving is not a quick endeavor. Also if you have ever read a review about Salumi the first thing each writer states is "expect to wait". With that said I should have anticipated a delay but I didn't. Despite the travel time and wait in the 40 degree weather outside to get a Sandwich, I was duly impressed when I finally got my turn in line.

First I will say that Salumi is not a 100% authentic New York Italian Deli. Mainly because they only serve their own cured meats and while those meats are excellent I prefer the tremendous choice I am accustomed to from back home. That said in every other way it meets my definition. Sandwiches are made to order and they will pretty much make any combination you wish. The meat is stocked high, the bread is scrumptious and they have condiments like roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella cheese.

The sandwich itself (pictured on the right) was superb. I had a Sopressata sandwich with fresh mozzarella. My only complaints are really that I couldn't add other meats like Smoked Turkey and the line to order was so long and things were so chaotic inside that I felt I Had to order really quickly and I didn't have time to really embrace the menu. While I respect the desire to stay small I sometimes wonder if they would be better off acknowledging their popularity and expanding.

Anyway I give Salumi a thumbs up. for more info check out the links and maps below

Salumi Cured Meats