I was hoping to eat a Reuben at Zaidy’s, a “Jewish Deli” in Denver that was recommended to me by my friend and fellow PBaser, Dan Greenberg, the next time I was in Denver. It turns out that I had a reason to go to Denver for a very short window and was hoping that time would permit a visit there, but it was not looking good and I pushed the thought away, but my younger son and daughter in law were insistent that we try to get there before their 4pm closing time hit. We arrived at Zaidy’s with 15min to spare, and placed our orders. The waitress, who was not happy with our last minute arrival, came back and said they were out of ryebread! Such is my luck. I was not going to diminish my Reuben experience with something other than ryebread. Instead, I had the chicken matzo ball soup, which was decent but not as good as what my grandma used to make…..
But I digress with the back story because later the same day, my son, feeling sad for me, asked me to go with him somewhere and before I knew it we driving to get to another place before they closed @ 8pm, to pick up “one of Denver’s best Reubens”, from The Bagel Deli. We made it there with about 10 minutes to spare and the telephoned in order was waiting for us.
The $15 Bagel Deli’s Reuben was served with a small container of their “Reuben Sauce”, a small container of something that may have been pickled beets or horseradish (it did not go on my sandwich), a bag of Lay’s potato chips and two small packets of Gulden’s mustard. Had we gotten there earlier I could have had fries instead of the chips, but their fryer had been shut down for the evening. There was no pickle. I put a generous amount of their Reuben sauce on the sandwich, as well as some Gulden’s. There was more corned beef on their Reuben than any one I have had to this point. I could barely fit my hand around the sandwich (which is sliced in half), and I have a pretty large hands! There was a generous amount of sauerkraut placed throughout it. There could have been more swiss cheese- it was a little on the light side. The corned beef was pretty good, fairly tender, and I did not have any encounters with pieces of fat or gristle. I was not a fan of their Reuben sauce, which appeared to be made with pickles, mayo and possibly Russian or Thousand Island dressing. I did enjoy getting messy eating the huge Reuben, and am giving it the grade of a solid B.