JERRY’S FAMOUS DELI
Address:
3210 Park Center Drive (a half-block west of Anton), Costa Mesa
Phone:
(949) 662-3354
Cuisine:
Deli food and international dishes
Hours:
7 a.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday; till 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Prices:
Appetizers, etc. $4.25 to $11.75; entr & #233;es $5.75 to $15.50
If you have no desire to wade through a very massive menu, Jerry’s Famous Deli in Costa Mesa may be over the top for you. If you prefer sedate and understated surroundings, it will not be your cup of tea, either. If dainty plates of food best suit your personality, Jerry’s show of enormous portions will not enthuse you. But, if you like the idea that a restaurant has the courage to address every conceivable dish that’s ever been associated with deli dining and a theme that is not shy about its roots, then this can be the happy and campy experience.
They shamelessly let us in on their concept with enough studio lights to have illuminated the best Hollywood Technicolor production a couple of decades ago. The parade of colorful shades covering these klieg lights, which are secured on overhead roller coaster-like tracks, adds to the playfulness. There are faux catwalks crisscrossing the ceiling. Then there’s the sheer girth of the restaurant with it’s great splay of red booths, a large wall covered with movie playbills and the de rigueur display case of the deli’s most popular foods. Sports-addicted diners can glimpse their favorite teams on a few judiciously placed TV sets. And, there’s the stream of news highlights and stock quotes marching along the electronic board at the front of the restaurant, visible from most seats.
Describing all that was the easy part! Now, I’ve got to get my thoughts on the food down to a concise, manageable accounting. Starting with the big numbers, there are approximately 450 items on the menu, and that’s not counting the slight variations on themes, or the 48 desserts, including fountain treats (a good egg cream,hint, hint). It’s truly the biggest menu I’ve ever seen. That they generally do very well in preparing all this food might be considered a near miracle.
Starting out with some of the obvious choices, I think they make the very best matzo ball soup. They get high points for serving all their soups piping hot. This soup starts with a fresh, well-seasoned chicken broth, has a sufficient amount of thin noodles and bits of chicken and a sphere of fluffy matzo the size of a softball. It is, at $5.75, a big and delicious meal unto itself. I am also fine with the beet borscht and slightly spicy goulash soup. However, my taste memory still leads me back to the matzo.
Isn’t the most common deli order a sandwich? You better split one here, as the meats are stacked so high it’s both a test for the jaw to embrace it all and, of course, it’s a meal fit for a macho man. I find the pastrami first-rate and juicier than the corned beef, and the brisket sandwich is tremendously flavorful and moist. The chopped chicken liver was a little dry the one time I tried it, while on the flip side the tongue was tender and reminiscent of my childhood when it was a staple in our house. The lox are very good and belong, naturally, on one of their bagels slathered with cream cheese. Blintzes feature freshly made crepes. I vote for the banana- or blueberry-filled ones, though the cheese version is light and the default choice for many. If you enjoy salads, there’s nothing wrong with their takes on the theme here,I really like the very hearty Ni & #231;oise.
Barbecued meats and poultry done several ways can be ordered as sandwiches or entr & #233;e platters (a plate is much too small to handle these portions). In many visits, I’ve still only gotten to a few of the entr & #233;es. The stuffed cabbage rolls were fat and filling and fine tasting and chicken potpie is pretty full of chicken pieces and vegetables in a nice chicken cream sauce. The turkey platter was piled with mashed potatoes, dressing (very good), cranberry sauce and several thick slices of moist meat.
Barbecued baby back ribs, charbroiled chicken, several pasta dishes, beef stroganoff, tacos, fajitas, burritos, teriyaki steak, stir-fried chicken and even Romanian skirt steak embellish this menu. My advice: skip all this. You can have these things elsewhere. Stick with the original intent of a deli.
Well, I will make one exception to that. There’s a separate page of pizzas and pastas aside from their big, already laminated menu. They did a downright good job making the three pizzas my time has allowed. The one layered with lox and cream cheese, tomatoes and onions is a takeoff of the famous Wolfgang Puck specialty. Since I really like anchovies, the Greek pizza with those salty little rascals, mozzarella and feta cheeses, olives, spinach and tomatoes is on my reorder list. And finally there’s the Proven & #231;al-style pizza that was an ideal lunch for me one day. Just like in the south of France, they put salad variations on the already-cooked crust. The Cobb salad pizza was the one I tried.
This kitchen never winds down. There are 127 breakfast items on the menu, served all day. For me, it’s scrambled lox and eggs and onions, blintzes or corned beef hash and eggs. One of very few late-night dining possibilities in the county, its well suited for my occasional middle-of-the-night egg indulgences.
All in all, Jerry’s Famous Deli satisfies several of my cravings.
