Grand Central Market
57 Monroe Center NWWhat to do for lunch when you don’t want grease. That’s always a problem for me. Sure, I could go to one of the national chain sandwich shops, but that’s so boring. I love getting to explore a new town and that’s what I’m still doing with Grand Rapids. I’ve found there are a lot of neighborhood centers that offer shopping and dining. I’m so lucky to be working so close to Wealthy Street which is full of great restaurants, but today, I wanted to head downtown and see what I could find. Almost every downtown has some sort of deli or sandwich shop and that’s what I went looking for.
It didn’t take me too long to find Grand Central Market on Monroe Center NW near Division Street. It actually took me longer to find parking than it did to find the restaurant. Monroe Center is a very tight one-way street with meters on either side. On my first pass there were no open spots. After going around the block and finding my way back to the storefront, I found two spots right smack in front of the building.
I put a quarter in the meter knowing I was only going to be gone a few minutes. Grand Central Market doubles as a deli and a market in a busy area of downtown Grand Rapids. When you walk in, the deli counter is to your left. There’s not a lot of meat in the cases, but there’s a menu board hanging on the wall with twenty six sandwich options.
I was leaning towards a roast beef sandwich until I came across the pastrami. I’m not really a pastrami expert, but I do know I like the meat. I’ve never had a real New York pastrami sandwich, so I have no accurate comparison. I just know what I’ve had in the past and that’s pretty much just the stuff from any midwestern deli.
After the clerk got done with the lady his was helping, he turned toward me and asked what I wanted. I ordered the #16 which is called the New Yorker. It’s a simple sandwich of pastrami, Swiss cheese, and Dijon mustard. You do get the choice of wrap or bread. I went with bread and got the sourdough.
I was handing a ticket and told to grab a bag chips. I picked up a bag of Lay’s BBQ chips then headed over to the pop cooler and picked up a bottle of Diet Mt. Dew. While my sandwich was being made, I took the order slip to the cash register and paid the My meal was a little over eight bucks and as I was handing over my credit card, I felt a tap on my back. My sandwich was done and wrapped up. I was in the market about a whole ten minutes. Plenty of time to get lunch, drive back to work, and still be ok if I had only a thirty minute lunch break.
I ate the bag of chips in the car, but waited on the sandwich until I got back to work and in the break room. The sandwich is not a New York style sandwich. There’s a pretty good pile of meat on it, but not a huge mound like you’d expect from a New York deli. The meat is complimented by a slice of cheese and a very strong mustard. My nose was actually burning if I took too big of a bite. The bread was very light to the point I wasn’t even sure if I was eating any. It was definitely there though.
Grand Central Market is exactly what I was looking for today. When I left work, the only thing I was really thinking is that I didn’t want McDonalds. The sandwich was a nice light lunch that I could eat quickly and get back to the days assignment.
SW Michigan Dining 