The first day Mitchell Delicatessen opened for business, it ran out of food.
Owner David Mitchell had figured the Inglewood neighborhood of East Nashville would welcome a place to buy high-quality deli meats, but he didn’t realize quite how enthusiastic the welcome would be. Neighbors jammed the cozy deli starting early in the morning that Saturday, and the line stretched far out the door. By the afternoon, there wasn’t a nubbin of deli meat left in the cooler.
Fortunately, the next day was Easter, and Mitchell was able to close for a couple days to reorder and regroup.
Even before Mitchell Delicatessen opened, the buzz about it was excellent. Happily, the restaurant doesn’t disappoint.
Feeding a neighborhood need
The crowds have calmed a bit (and Mitchell has adjusted his ordering so the pantry stays full), and Mitchell Deli has more than fulfilled its promise. The sandwiches are wonderful, and though the space isn’t huge, Mitchell has worked in a salad bar, a hot-food station and even a couple shelves of gourmet groceries and produce.
Mitchell, an East Nashville neighbor himself, was working across town for Wild Oats/Whole Foods when he dreamed up the idea of a quality deli to serve Inglewood. He staked out a spot in Riverside Village, a retail strip that has been redeveloped in recent years as part of a neighborhood renaissance.
Mitchell recruited a couple more team members, Julia Helton, former chef and co-owner of Family Wash, as catering manager; and James Brabson, who has worked for Family Wash, Firefly Grille and Plumgood Food, as chef.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, the scene at Mitchell Deli was busy but efficient. The sandwiches take a little longer than, say, Subway, but each one is made with care. The salad bar and the hot-food station provide almost-instant gratification.
Meaty choices aplenty
Mitchell thought long and hard about which deli meats to offer, and selected a couple providers of natural, additive-free meats: Dietz & Watson for turkey, and Creekstone Farms for corned beef, pastrami and roast beef.
Then there’s the bacon. Mitchell grills up Benton’s bacon, which is made in Madisonville, Tenn., but has foodies across the country hooked on its smoky goodness. In fact, it may be one of Mitchell’s cleverest selling strategies, because the rich bacon aroma perfumes the air and wafts out onto the sidewalk.
Given the multitude of choices, I actually had to skip the deli meats and went straight for the jalapeno-pimiento cheese salad, which, like all of the deli’s sandwich salads, is made from scratch.
Though I’ve spent most of my life in the South, I’m not normally a fan of pimiento cheese sandwiches, since the filling is almost always bland and pasty due to an excess of mayonnaise. I figured Mitchell’s shop would do better — and boy, was I right.
There was just enough mayo to moisten the cheese, heightening the intense cheddar flavor. Which was a good thing, because I ordered my sandwich topped with a couple slices of the divine Benton’s bacon. The cheese stood up to the bacon in a flavor explosion I can’t describe. (The pimiento-cheese-and-bacon sandwich was a special of the day for $5.)
My dining companion, who’s a big fan of breakfast food, went the brunch direction, ordering a plate from the hot bar. The cheese grits were creamy and wonderful, and the scrambled eggs were shockingly good for a buffet-style offering. Also on the hot bar was a lunch entree of braised beef, which actually enhanced the breakfast plate, all savory juiciness to complement the eggs and grits.
On another visit, I had to try a sandwich that I haven’t seen at any other deli in Nashville: roasted lamb with a mint raita ($6.50). The lamb, which is cooked in house, was thrillingly succulent, and the yogurt-based raita sauce was fresh and sprightly.
Local ingredients shine
The sandwiches are served on fine bread from Silke’s Old World Breads in Clarksville, another example of Mitchell’s efforts to secure local and regional products. He says he goes to the Nashville Farmers’ Market two or three times a week, and he’s finding some local and organic products are actually cheaper than the California stuff, a rare happy consequence of the surge in gas prices.
Some of the produce Mitchell finds, such as heirloom tomatoes, is offered for sale on the tiny produce stand inside the deli. Along with meats, salads and cheeses by the pound, it’s a useful offering for people who plan to put together a meal at home.
In fact, “useful” is a useful word for describing Mitchell Delicatessen. It’s a neighborhood deli that any neighborhood would be lucky to have.
Please log in to comment