The new deli on Atwood Avenue, Stalzy's, had a soft opening tonight. Facebook friends were invited to check out the new digs, sample their food, and drink free beer.
The interior looked nice with plenty of wood and some stools at the counter. One side of the place had coolers of soda, wine, and beer (including German Weiss beers) as well as some shelves holding more wine bottles, candy, and German pickles along with Polish cucumber salad.
The deli case is on that same side and slices of their meats were atop it for the sampling along with white bread and onion bialy. The bialy were not as I'm used to but were tasty nonetheless. The ones I get from Chicago were more chewy and became less so when heated. These, which are made fresh onsite, were thinner with a crispy outside and fluffy inside.
All of the meats that I had were sliced thinly as they should. The roast beef was plenty rare and flavorful. My corned beef sample was very good. The piece I had was really tender and it melted like butter in my mouth. My tongue was treated to a nice, rich flavor but it could have used just a touch of salt. Pastrami lovers have nothing to fear at Stalzy's. This meat was likewise very tasty with the paper thin shaving being very rich with a healthy smoke flavor.
We were also treated to Stalzy's sides. The sweet and sour slaw was good with roughly equal parts of each permeating the shredded cabbage. Next to it were samples of their potato salad which was described as being German. While there are no doubt many variations of Kartoffelsalat, this was not the variation made with vinegar and laced with bacon. Instead it was made with mayonnaise and what I think was mustard seed. I liked the stuff but it was your basic potato salad. So far so good. Then I tried the kraut and was disappointed to find that it was pretty weak tit stuff. It wasn't very crunchy, which I can live with, but worst of all, it wasn't very sour. The kraut clearly needs more lip-puckering sourness. The relative mildness of the stuff might explain why hell froze over tonight when our 11-year old actually ate some and, following in Mikey's footsteps, he liked it. Up to this point in his life he has been completely repulsed by both the smell and sight of fermented cabbage. Even a tiny shred of it on a piece of kielbasa was enough for him to engage in a thorough regimen of dekrautification. He gave no quarter. So, when he put a forkful in his mouth, I fully expected to see a look of revulsion on his face and for him to spit the stuff out. Lo and behold he liked it. He really liked it. Thank you Stalzy's.
Still, I think it needs more sour. Your gustatory mileage may vary.
I did not taste their borscht but The Dulcinea did. Her first impression was that it was merely OK. But as she ate more her opinion improved and I believe she finished having given it a rating of pretty good. I am also told that the macaroni salad rates similarly. To the best of my knowledge, there was no mushroom & barley soup to be had although it will be available once the place opens properly on Sunday.
As you can see from the menu above, they smoke and roast their own meats, make the salads from scratch, and bake the bread. I asked and found out that the bialy are also made in-house. The sausages are from Bavaria Sausage so there are no surprises to be had in that department and the ability to add bacon to any sandwich earns good marks from me.
From my impressions tonight I'd say that Stalzy's is off to a fine start. What I tasted was good overall and the staff was very friendly. While I'm not expecting a $17 corned beef sandwich like I'd get at a deli in Chicago piled high with a full pound of meat, I do hope Stalzy's will load their sandwiches more than Ella's and put the skimpy Ruebens at Cooper's Tavern to shame. I'm also hoping that they'll have good rye bread. Madison seems to be Kryptonite to good light rye bread - the stuff with the chewy crust and light, fluffy interior. And the more I think about the prospect of their latkes, the hungrier I get.
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