Delis are known for their sandwiches, especially ones piled high with turkey, corned beef or pastrami. A new deli in Lincoln park - from a familiar name in the South Loop - is hoping to up the ante a bit with a mile-high sandwich.
Eleven City Diner on South Wabash recently opened a second location in a Lincoln Park space known for burning through quite a few delis. The owner is hoping for better luck, obviously, and part of the plan is to offer a massive sandwich with few peers in town.
Neighbors wouldn't be completely wrong to say there's a deli curse at this address, but Bradley Rubin is hoping to break it, by bringing his successful Eleven City Diner here, and branding it Eleven Lincoln Park. Most of the staples will stay, but there are some changes, like draft root beer and a couple of sandwiches.
"We've got several additions to the menu that we don't have at the South Loop store, that are very special to the Lincoln Park location," said owner Bradley Rubin.
His "number 43" is one of them.
"It is a double-decker of corned beef that is separated by a beautiful, griddled latke - the old-school latke, the shredded latke - and a little shmear of sour cream and some fried onion strings served on a challah twist roll," he said.
The architecture is pretty straightforward: sour cream on the challah; a baseball-sized fist of sliced corned beef; then the crispy potato pancake, or latke; another mound of corned beef, plus a handful of crispy onion strings, topped off and held together by a pair of long toothpicks.
"I'm 43 this year, turning 44, so it was the last sandwich that I'm able to sneak under the wire before I turn 44. And if I want to live to be 45 it'll be a sandwich that maybe I won't be eating every day," said Rubin.
There's no denying its inherent richness, but you could easily share it with a friend, and besides, this is a deli trying to distinguish itself in a crowded sandwich field.
"The sandwich itself and how it's made and the size of it - the girth of the sandwich - really comes from wanting to have another signature honker of a sandwich on the menu," he said.
The number 43 sandwich runs $13.50, but remember, you can easily share it with one, or possibly two people. It's that big.
#43 Sandwich
Eleven Lincoln Park
2301 N. Clark St.
(773) 244-1112
elevencitydiner.com
(the #43 is NOT available at the South Loop location: 1112 S. Wabash Ave.)
