Baseball and a
sandwich
By Brad
Horn, Outpost
staff
When you enter Newman's Deli, the variety of people sipping on Snapples and enjoying fresh-made sandwiches makes you feel like you are in a downtown deli of a big city.Men in three-piece suits talking over each other about trends in the stock market. Casually dressed women picking the tomato off their daughters' sandwiches and then cutting them in half.
Kinkos employees refilling their sodas. And a line of high school students that overflows 12 feet onto the sidewalk. This is the typical lunchtime crowd that has been filling Newman's Deli for 11 years.
The refreshing thing about
Newman's is that owners Peter and Karen Newman can been seen
every day working alongside their
employees. Just like mom's:
Sandwich makers at Newman's Deli hurry to fill the
appetites of the deli's lunch crowd Wednesday
afternoon.
Photo by
Brad
Horn
Newman's Deli serves
breakfast and lunch. Traditional breakfast items offered
include pancakes, eggs and cereal. Lox, eggs, onions and
bagel ($4.95) and huevos rancheros ($4.25) also are included
on the breakfast menu.
Cold sandwiches like liverwurst ($3.50) and avocado, tomato, cheese and sprouts ($3.95) are offered along with sub sandwich combinations ($3.60-$5.15) and mile-high sandwiches ($7.25). The mile-high sandwiches include pastrami, corned beef and roast beef. Italian sandwiches, like a meatball ($3.75) and an eggplant parmesan sandwich ($4.50), are offered for those seeking a hot sandwich.
If you like sports, baseball in particular, your eyes will never tire looking at the photographs of the baseball legends that adorn the walls. One wall is dedicated to America's team, the New York Yankess.
Hanging on the walls of Newman's is one of the best collections of photographs and signatures I've ever seen, aside from a sports card shop I used to frequent in Old Sacramento.
The sandwiches Newman's makes are simple. There is nothing special about them. But they are fresh, brought to your table by one of Newman's smiling employees or maybe even by the owners.
I ordered a turkey sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce and onion. The day I was there, the place had just recovered from their busy lunch rush and there were only a handful of businessmen reading the daily news while filling their stomachs with Newman's wonderful food.
The sandwich was good. The turkey and vegetables tasted like they were freshly cut to order.
One of thing about Newman's Deli that separates them from the rest of the sandwich shops in town is how clean the place is kept. I was there for about an hour, and every time a diner got up from his table and left, an employee, most of the time Karen Newman, rushed to the table to clean it. Often in delis, remnants from the previous inhabitant can be seen hours after they departed. The cleanliness reminds me of my mother's dining room. This was nice.
Right before I left I noticed a picture of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Ruth's arm was wrapped around Gehrig, and both Yankee greats were smiling. Memories flooded my mind. I couldn't shake the feeling I get every time I see Gehrig's retirement speech when he said to a packed Yankee Stadium that he was the luckiest man alive, even though he was dying.
The pictures that hang on the walls of Newman's reveal a time when life was simple and athletes were considered blue-collar workers. It was a time when people could relate to the players, a time when the athlete wasn't put on a pedestal, a time when pride in a baseball team was part of pride in the community.
Newman's isn't much different. Pride and simplicity are their signature &emdash; a reason to come back for more. Newman's Deli is a haven for what used to be the norm.
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Newman's Deli 20 California Ave. 348-8884 |
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High point: Sandwiches and baseball
photographs |
Posted
April 29, 2000
Copyright 2000
Nevada Outpost
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