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| - One of the great joys of living on Long Island (or, for that matter, in the entire tri-state area) was the huge number of incredible diners. They were almost all run by Greeks, had menus that covered the entire gamut from a light breakfast to a lobster dinner, and made food that was just flat-out outstanding. I doubt they were all great but, boy, the diners I visited sure as hell were.
Went to Joe's last night and while looking at the menu said to my wife, "This is the closest thing I've seen in Cleveland to a New York diner. They even have matzoh ball soup," which isn't exactly a staple of West Side restaurants. Actually, it's not a staple of East Side restaurants. So we both ordered some and I added a half a corned beef sandwich.
The soup was decent. Not great, but not bad either. My departed Italian mother made MUCH better matzoh ball soup. Crazy? Well, my stepfather was Jewish, and they both loved it and she learned from his relatives. So maybe I set the bar a bit high.
The corned beef sandwich was 1) cold 2) considerably below average. Yes, I know, I know, I ordered corned beef west of the Cuyahoga so what the hell was I thinking. I was thinking a place getting good reviews for corned beef might actually have, you know, good corned beef. Kind of like my review of the Corned Beef Cafe in Broadview Heights. Ahhh, the triumph of hope over experience. Anyway, if Mr Brisket's corned beef gets a 10 (actually, it should get an 11, it's louder you know), and Corky & Lenny's gets a 9, then this would get about a 3.
The pleasant and professional waitress immediately offered to get me something else so I opted for the turkey sandwich. It was a perfectly fine turkey sandwich, or would have been had I ordered it at Dave's Discount Deli and Hardware House. For god's sake, what's so hard about cooking an ACTUAL FREAKING TURKEY and then cutting some off and putting it between two pieces of bread??!!! Really, what? And if that WASN'T a turkey roll they served, then how did they make it taste like it was made by DuPont instead of Heritage? Oy.
So will we go back? Maybe, probably, who knows. I DO know, however, that it won't be for the corned beef or turkey sandwiches.
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