L’Chayim Delicatessen
274 S. Benzie StreetWe have never been to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We’ve been in Michgan almost 14 years now and have never taken the trip to the northwest corner of the state. We needed to fix that.
We’ve obviously gotten in to hiking over the last year and a half and become much more outdoorsy people. One of J’s friends took a trip with one of her friends to Sleeping Bear Dunes a couple of months ago and couldn’t stop talking about the trails. J had to go….so we booked an AirBnB.
Our cabin was in rural Thompsonville. I had to work much later than I had hoped Friday night so we didn’t leave Kalamazoo until 8:00. We got to our cabin around 11:30 and everyone pretty much went straight to bed.
J wanted to get up and get moving on Saturday morning. We were only going to be in town for the weekend so we had a lot to pack in to two days.
J’s plan was to find a gas station and grab donuts for breakfast. Nah…we can do better. I started looking for bakeries. I couldn’t really find anything close but I did find a highly rated deli that makes their own bagels.
L’Chayim Delicatessen is in downtown Beulah on Benzie Street near Prospect Avenue. The buildings in this older section of downtown are all connected and this little one story deli is squeezed in between larger buildings on the west side of the road.
L’Chayim was a pretty popular place early on this Sunday morning. We walked in the door to find a line wrapped through the small space in front of the deli case leading to the cash register. We’re nervous bringing the kids inside public places right now so it was very relieving to see almost everyone in line was wearing mask.
L’Chayimg is what you think of when you think of a deli. They make their own breads and they have a large meat case full of meats that are sliced fresh. Yes, I thought about asking if I could order a Pastrami sandwich for breakfast but I didn’t. I stuck with a breakfast sandwich instead.
L was really excited. She eats bagels with cream cheese for breakfast almost every morning at home. When we told her we were going to a place that makes their own bagels, she couldn’t wait to get there. She’s not very adventurous though. She stuck to simple. A plain bagel with plain cream cheese….but there was A LOT of cream cheese. The house made toasted bagel was dripping with a thick layer of cream cheese that oozed out of between the two layers. L devoured her bagel in what was likely a record time. If we lived in this area, L would be there every morning for breakfast.
J was a little more adventurous than L. She also got a bagel (sorry, I forgot what kind but it wasn’t plain) but she went with the fruited cream cheese that had chunks of strawberries in it. Like L, she really enjoyed this bagel for it’s simplicity while also delivering a ton of flavor.
J also couldn’t pass up something she saw in the sweets case at the cash register. She got her self a macaroon and didn’t offer to share.
Pastrami was tempting but it was breakfast time. I ordered a cheddar cheese bagel with egg, cheddar cheese, and Canadian bacon. It’s a simple breakfast sandwich but it is so good. The bagel puts this sandwich on the next level. So much better than finding a fast food drive thru for a similar sandwich.
B was the odd one here. He didn’t want a bagel but he saw a cupcake he wanted. Fine, we’re on vacation. It was a Carrot Cake Cupcake though so we were a little concerned he wouldn’t eat it. He said he would so we got it for. He never even tried the cake. He just wanted the frosting. We took our breakfast to a nearby park to eat and could see the beach from where we were so he really just wanted to get done to go play at the beach for a little bit.
J also got a coffee to go with our breakfast order so the total for everything was a little under $25 before tip.
I am so glad I did a little research before I went to bed Friday night. L’Chayim Delicatessen was a great way to start our day. We all got a little bit of energy before a couple of big hikes and the food was fabulous. We had some friends that were coming up for a trip of our own that overlapped on Sunday and J couldn’t stop talking about L’Chayim to them…telling them they had to go before starting the day. She’s right though….it’s a great start to the day and one of these days, when we go back, Imma get that Pastrami sandwich.
SW Michigan Dining 