thrillist

East Coast transplants tend to moan about the things they left behind -- the culture of the arts, the stirring change of seasons, the...sandwiches. Well, stuff this: Tamarind Ave Deli.

Tamarind's a tiny NY/NJ-style sandwich shop started by the owner of the equally evocative Delancey (just like Little Italy), Bowery (Lower East Side gastropub), and Mission Cantina (Mexico City, byo kidnapping). The main thing's no-joke, made-to-order, thinly sliced meat-wiches (Boar's Head, Molinari, Staggs, and other glass display case classics) on your bread of choice (Italian baguette; whole grain), plus specialties like a roast beef brisket w/mozzarella, caramelized onions, and "wild" arugula, which must be flushed out with hounds. Hot standbys include the meatball parm, corned beef & pastrami, and a sausage-and-grilled-pepper number based on either the owner's memory of the Jersey Shore, or a Behind The Music on Bon Jovi.

Tamarind's also got homemade tuna, chicken, potato, and macaroni salads, as well as custom lettuce action w/over 20 mixed-in ingredients from diced ham to sun-dried tomatoes, all topable with the house's Italian dressing -- causing East Coasters to moan about the days when they were man enough to not ask for it on the side.

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