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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Bread Basket Deli; Oak Park, Michigan


It seems lately that most of my entries are coming at the tail end of a medical procedure and always with my friend Cliff in tow.  Well, this is one is to follow the same course.  Cliff and I left Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan this morning and my friend was in a "hankering" for some good old Jewish Deli.  Well, me being me I am not one to shove that request away, and I immediately suggested the Bread Basket Deli located at 26052 Greenfield Rd in Oak Park.  This restaurant has a lot of memories for me as this was where my Bubbie (Yiddish for grandma) used to take me all the time as a kid.  Though my stomach was still a bit upset from my procedure I was still looking forward to a great meal.

The Bread Basket has the exact same decor since I was a child in the 70's, and I do mean the exact.  Somehow the owners have seemed to keep the same vinyl entact on the booths, I don't know how they did, but they did.  As you walk in you will stroll by a glass case of new and old dill pickles (I prefer the new), hard Vienna salamis, cheeses, fresh baked rye breads, and so much more.  I couldn't help but notice the blintzes that seemed to be the size of softballs, I do wonder what they where filled with.



Cliff ordered a corned beef and egg omelette.  His first reaction was the same as his last and that was, "there is enough corned beef on here for two sandwiches."  Yet, he somehow, and I have no idea how, he found the room to finish it, along with his pumpernickel toast.  Cliff gave it top marks, in fact during his first bite his eyes did roll into the back of his head.

Now I ordered what would have to be my favorite meal in the world outside of scallops, they call it "Lox of Luck"  The Lox of Luck is a platter containing a bagel, cream cheese, sliced red onion, tomato slices, green pepper slices, black olives, home fresh sweet gherkins and Nova Scotia Lox.  I like to call this "Jewish soul food."  To say I enjoyed it was beyond the proper adjective.  There is nothing like fresh Lox, but at $24.95 a pound lox better be good!

I also should also mention the coffee which was OK, nothing to write home about, but not swill either.

There was one downfall to our meal and that is pretty much a staple to a good delis, the price.  Cliff's omelette was around $8.50 and my Lox platter was $9.75.  I would complain about the prices, but first all good delis are priced as such and second, my food was too good.

The cleanliness of the store was good.  The restaurant is old and some might mistake that for dirty, but I looked things over and I was impressed.  I did used the bathrooms and they where newly cleaned.

Overall I loved my trip to Bread Basket Deli in Oak Park.  Two months ago I took my daughter to the Waterford branch of the deli (see blog entry).  I was not as impressed with that store as I was with the original.  It helped that good memories of my Bubbie filled me through the entire meal.

Overall:

Service:                   ****(4)
Food:                      ****(4)  Coffee kept it from a five.
Affordability:           ***(3)
Cleanliness:             ****(4)
Decor:                    ***(3)

Overall:                  ****(4) The food wins it!!!!

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