Farmer in the Deli

I was doing something in Brooklyn one day, the details are not too important, and at lunch time there were 11 of us in need of food. I volunteered to go pick up sandwiches. After looking on the ipad, Farmer in the Deli appeared to have good reviews. I brought up a menu, showed it to everyone, and wrote down their orders.

When I got there, the man behind the counter didn't like the way my order was written down and asked (actually ordered) me to do it differently. (Well, first he yelled "Why you no call first?" But when I said "Okay, I'll just go to Subway," he agreed to help me.)

I am not sure why he needed me to write down the order in a different fashion: only three of the eleven were made correctly. (One of the guys for whom I picked up a sandwich had been here before. "Oh, that place?" he said. "It doesn't matter what you say, they make the sandwiches however they feel.")

Three people wanted wraps but they only had one tortilla in the deli, so two of them had to settle for sandwiches. And there are other anecdotes I could share about the level of customer service, but you get the point.

I had a pastrami hero with cheese, lettuce, pickles, mayo and mustard. And you know what? It was damn good. The ingredients were all Boar's Head and the roll was fresh. I also took a couple of bites of my brother's buffalo chicken sandwich because, despite the fact that I had written "chicken and cheese only," they had slathered mayo all over it, and my brother hates mayo. But I like mayo, and I thought his sandwich was good too.

The total for all 11 sandwiches was $54, one of the better deals I have found in the last year. I don't see any reason why I would ever return to Farmer in the Deli - there are plenty of delis around with Boar's Head ingredients and I imagine some have comparable prices - but if I have to, that would be okay. It's an adventure ordering, but at least the product is very good.