Call Your Mother Deli, Chevy Chase, Washington, DC

The latest addition to the restaurant strip near Politics and Prose, whose cafe I need to try, is Call Your Mother.

It’s in the former Little Red Fox space between Comet and Buck’s, and across from Rosemary Bistro, The Italian Bar, and I’m Eddie Cano, each of which is very good. It’s only open for breakfast and lunch until 4:00 pm, and features bagels, pastries, and sandwiches.

Back during the early days of my pastrami exploration, several people praised Call your Mother, so I strolled on down for lunch one day and entered the bright, colorful interior. I asked for a pastrami sandwich on rye with mustard. The cashier stated that they did not have mustard. No mustard? In a deli? For a pastrami sandwich? My brain started flashing, “404 error. This page doesn’t exist.” I gathered such wits as I could retrieve and rebooted. What were my options in a place that sells pastrami and bagels?

I ordered a sesame bagel with garlic herb cream cheese. After a short wait, it arrived.

Isn’t that a good, fresh-looking bagel? It was indeed, and the bagel had a nice texture and aroma. The garlic herb cream cheese was spread generously,

and was full of flavor. The garlic and herbs had been whipped into the cream cheese, leaving it light, so light that a good bit squeezed out at the first bite.

That left parts of the bagel with little or no cream cheese. I managed to corner the errant cream cheese spread, and he denuded bagel areas welcomed the return of the prodigal spread joyfully.  I finished everything and left Call Your Mother well satisfied — for the moment.

I’d left the issue of the pastrami at Call Your Mother’s, and the issue nagged at me for weeks. Finally, I returned and, after double-checking the (to me) bizarre unavailability of mustard, I ordered their standard pastrami on rye (rather than challah) — the Spicy Pastrami Sandwich.

The sandwich placed the pastrami atop a mayonnaise herb spread and beneath pickled cabbage and onions, crowned with thick slices of fresh jalapeño peppers, all between two slices of excellent bread. There was a lot going on in this sandwich. I opened the sandwich and tested a bit of the pastrami by itself without all of the distractions.

The pastrami hadn’t been heated, but it had been spiced thoughtfully, and tasted very good for unheated pastrami. I’d been skeptical of the blend of seemingly discordant flavors, but the elements worked well together, with the flavor of pastrami very much holding its own. It was a far cry from a classic pastrami, but a tasty and interesting sandwich. Call You Mother also offers turkey, tuna, and hummus with avocado 

A word on the seating at Call Your Mother. You saw outdoor seating in the first photo. It worked very nicely for a small party featuring a couple of infants, adults of various ages, and a profusion of pastries. Inside there are three low two-tops with six low stools, a high counter at the window with four high stools, and a large, regular height central table too low for standing and with no stools at all that fit it. A group of friends improvised with stools of different heights.

There may be a method in the furnishings, but it seems that they could use some stools for that table. Call Your Mother is a natural place to get together with friends for coffee, and the extra seating would help. Meanwhile though, Call Your Mother is a great place to go for a bagel — you might try my old trick elsewhere of buying one bagel with spread and a second split bagel without spread, and sharing the spread between the two — and for an inventive and flavorful sandwich. And Henry Rokala reports that their latkes are excellent.

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