ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606210005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Dining Out
TYPE: RESTAURANT REVIEW
SOURCE: DOLORES KOSTELNI SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on June 22, 1996.
A detail describing the doors on the restrooms in the Brambleton Deli
was wrong in Friday's Extra. The doors don't close properly.
Three years ago, Chip Moore and his wife decided to go into the restaurant business. At the time, he was employed by a company that was laying off workers. Instead of waiting for a critical situation, the Moores took control of their livelihood and opened their first restaurant, Brambleton Deli.
Today, they have two restaurants. The Deli has been moved (to the building that originally opened as Winston's), and their second restaurant, Brambleton Barbecue, is where the Deli used to be. They're a stone's throw from each other on the same side of the block.
Brambleton Deli serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The combined lunch and dinner menu does not break any new ground, but it offers appetizers, soups and salads, subs and sandwiches, and the generally popular casual foods of the moment, such as grilled chicken salad ($4.50), jalapeno poppers ($3.75) and a vegetarian sub ($4.50). In addition to the regular listings, freshly made shrimp (market price) dinner specials can be an off-the-menu surprise.
Neatly turned-out plates, generous portions and the best prices in town are the characteristics that will bring me back time and again. Service is energetic, efficient, and considerate. Most of the servers are local high school and college students.
The place fills up quickly during the lunch hour, and it's the sandwiches and salads that everyone wants. A warmed, well-stacked specialty sandwich, crisp potato chips and a dill pickle make a substantial lunch. Two of the most-ordered sandwiches, the sizzler and the house-named B.D. Special, evoke memories of grinders and hoagies, those large, ample sandwiches of the past.
Absolutely fresh fillings, layered between good-tasting rolls that don't fall apart or get soggy, are brought together with some lively spreads. The sizzler ($4.85) incorporates thinly sliced pastrami, Lebanon bologna, pepperoni, Muenster cheese, lettuce, onions, hot peppers and a lacing of zippy, homemade horseradish sauce. The B.D. Special (half $2.95, whole $3.95) stacks Genoa salami, two kinds of bologna, pepperoni, Provolone cheese, onions, slaw and hot peppers on a roll.
My favorite, the club sub (half $2.95, whole $4.50), unites ham, roasted turkey, crisp bacon strips, Swiss and cheddar cheese with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on an 8-inch toasted roll. Like the other sandwiches, it's not overloaded; the tasty roll rounds out the filling, and there's just enough mayonnaise to unify the separate parts. It's not a complaint, just a wish - that there had been a few more of the tasty, true-flavored bacon strips criss-crossed in the filling.
A chicken salad platter ($3.95) is just fine. A hefty mound of moist, diced chicken combined with mayonnaise and chopped celery comes with a dish of refrigerated fruit salad and a pile of cole slaw. This filling lunch kept me satisfied through the afternoon snack hour until dinner.
On a day I yearned for a hot dog, I found my answer in the Mexican Cowboy ($4.25), a soft flour tortilla wrapped around a spicy sausage with Tex-Mex seasoned beans and an oozing layer of melted cheddar.
Sometimes there's room for dessert. On one of those days, we ordered slices of peanut butter pie and key lime cheesecake ($2.50 each). Two of us enjoyed every bite of the creamy, tart cheesecake, even though the smashed top made it look as if it had been through a war. But "sweeter than sweet" was the consensus on the larger-than-life slice of peanut butter pie. This solid chunk of peanut butter mixed with a cloyingly sweet substance needs to go back to the drawing board.
The dining room, tables, chairs and most of the carpet are in remarkably good condition, especially taking into account that two other restaurants have been housed here before the Brambleton Deli. The one complaint I voiced when it first opened as Winston's is the same I repeat now: The short cafe doors in the ladies room must be replaced with full-sized doors that can swing easily.
During the work week, a $5 pleasantly served and well-timed sit-down lunch in a comfortable dining-room environment creates an energizing break from the usual routine.
Nicely made sandwiches and neatly arranged plates, plus honest, unpretentious food at the right prices, make Brambleton Deli a favorite destination for me.
Brambleton Deli
3655 Brambleton Ave. S.W.
774-4554
Hours: Open all week. Monday-Friday, breakfast, 6 a.m.-11 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 7 a.m.-11 a.m. Lunch and dinner all week, 11 a.m.-1 a.m.
Beverages: Full range of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages
Prices: Breakfast, $1.89-$5.25; lunch and dinner, $1.50-$6.95
All major credit cards accepted
Reservations required? No
Nonsmoking section? Yes
Handicapped accessible? No
Evaluations of restaurants' accessibility to the handicapped are made by Blue Ridge Independent Living Center, a non-profit organization.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB