Tous Les Pastramis en B-More

A few months ago, Noonan and I started a new project: taste as many Pastrami sandwiches in the greater Baltimore area as existed. The first and the best pastrami sandwich that I ever had was the one at Pickle’s on the boardwalk of Atlantic City.

For our B-more pastrami tour, we started at Steve’s Deli in Owings Mills, chomping our way through pastrami on rye and a corned beef sandwich.

​The verdict: It would have been halfway decent if the rye bread they used held up and didn’t get so soggy. The soggy meter was the same with the corner beef.

​The next stop we made a week later was at the Knish Shop. Proof you can’t always trust the Yelp reviews.

The verdict? Not only was this place was in need of good scrubbing but the Pastrami was heated in the microwave–not good!

And since this place was called The Knish Shop, I figured I needed to try their knishes. So after finishing our sandwiches, the guy at the counter misunderstood my order and gave me almost $30 worth their knishes–not good. After taking one bite, Noonan refused to take another and she thought that it was old. I, on the hand, was not so smart and tried to eat most of it in two days–my mama told me to never waste food.

​The verdict: An upset tummy and some regrets that I wasted my calories on those giant globs of dough.

After the disappointing bites at the Knish Shop, our next pastrami stop happened at Neopol. Famous for their salmon BLT, I ordered their take on the pastrami sandwich.

Verdict: Although not bad, it was way too heavy in the grease department and the pastrami had a smokey fish after taste. Again, not good. Instead of fries, I think a good pickle was in order.

Our next pastrami destination was a former coffee shop under the Four Seasons. The newly minted joint, called Loch Bar, is a swanky causal bar that we stopped in for midweek “date night”. With the intention of just going in for drink, I had to try their take on the pastrami sandwich.

Verdict: The sandwich arrived accompanied by perfectly cooked light and crunchy shoestring fries. The sandwich was the best we’ve had so far. Bookended by toasted pumpernickel bread, the thinly sliced pastrami was topped with healthy layer of chopped pickle mustard–very good.

Next and probably our final pastrami stop Attman’s…stay tuned!