Parkway Deli and Restaurant, Silver Spring, Maryland

As I mentioned in my Les Wexler guest post about Perly’s, I’m on a quest to identify great Jewish delis in the Washington area. I have to say that the Washington area could use some work. There just aren’t that many. In the early-1960s when I was a youth outside Birmingham, there were three sources of kosher meat within three blocks of our house in tiny Crestline Village alone, and two more restaurants over in Mountain Brook Village. The closest Crestline location, Davis’s, also had a wonderful oyster bar, but then Birmingham is a font of culinary surprises.

In Washington, however, the pickings have been slim. Where should I look?

The Parkway Deli was the natural choice, if only because it’s so close, and so close to a synagogue or eight. I like the Parkway Deli, as do thousands of others. I’ve eaten there often over the years, usually breakfast — eggs over easy, corned beef hash, and a bagel with cream cheese, and I recall enjoying a Reuben for lunch. I have never, ever been when there wasn’t a line. Just thinking about it made me want to go back for breakfast again. Instead, off I went in search of some really good pastrami.

I’d planned to sit down and enjoy access to the pickle bar with its excellent dills, half sours, and pickled tomatoes. The line for the dining room, however, stretched longer than I’ve ever seen it. The counter person said it’s always longer on Fridays, and especially long during the holiday season. In this case, the line was considerably longer than my patience.

So I ordered a sandwich to go, hot pastrami on rye with spicy mustard (as opposed to regular mustard) for $11.49 plus. The sandwich came after a reasonable wait and, since it was chilly out, I headed home to eat it.

The trip home took longer than usual. The Montgomery County Public Obstruction Department was trying to outdo their counterparts in DC by taking each homeward street down to a single lane to handle two-way traffic. The familiar direct drive home became a maze, with every street backed up by holiday shoppers or MCPOD employees.

I arrived home hungry. Here’s the sandwich, with the bread lightly toasted (not at my request).

That’s a nicely proportioned sandwich. It’s a generous portion, but not a monster like I’d get in younger days at the Carnegie Deli. The sandwich did suffer a bit on the circuitous ride home. It was still almost warm, but not hot, and the juice from the pickle had softened the bottom bread slice. That happens with carryout.

Do you see any fat on that pastrami? Neither do I. Note the smooth texture of the pastrami. It looks as if had been pressed and machine-sliced. It was moist and had a nice flavor, but the texture was off. It was okay, well worth the price, but clearly pastrami isn’t what keeps the Parkway Deli crowded.

I trust that the Washington area has better pastrami sandwiches than this, and I’ll go in search of them. I plan to go to Silver and Sons and, if I can get someone to share it, to Stachowski’s. (Liza brought me an Italian sub from there after I’d had an operation, and I actually could not finish it, much less the apple pie she also brought me. You should have a daughter that nice.) Where else? Les Wexler suggested Attman’s, which is the top-rated Jewish deli on Yelp and TripAdvisor, but they only get 3 1/2 stars — fewer than many other delis, which is weird. But then Yelp and TripAdvisor are … quirky, as discussed here.

I’m looking for great pastrami on rye with mustard as the test sandwich. Combination sandwiches are for later. A pickle bar is always a major plus. Please share your favorites.

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