Stateside Deli & Restaurant (Okemos)
3552 Meridian Crossing DriveIt’s been a while since I’ve pulled a job in East Lansing. I’ve been to the City of Lansing a few times recently but never really get past downtown. Last week, I got assigned to work in East Lansing on a Friday night.
I was meeting a co-worker from Grand Rapids. She wanted to drop her car somewhere on the east side of town and just ride together to our job site. She was heading east for another assignment on Saturday while I was heading home.
I got to town pretty early and found a park and ride right off I-96 at Okemos Road. I sent her a pin to meet me there. I still had about an hour until we were supposed to meet so I went looking for food.
I lived in Lansing about 13 years ago and wrote a blog while I was there too. I was pretty familiar with the Mid-Michigan dining scene while we lived there but it’s been over a decade. Some places are still there but a lot of the places I really liked are long gone.
The place I remembered really liking in this part of town was Stateside Deli. The restaurant is still there and wasn’t too far from where I was sitting so that’s what I decided on for lunch.
Stateside Deli & Restaurant has a Meridian Crossings Drive address but you will likely see it from Okemos Road just north of Jolly Road in Okemos. The deli is part of a pretty large shopping center known as Meridian Crossing. There are entrances to the restaurant on both sides of the building…the Okemos Road side and the Meridian Crossings Drive side. I parked on the Okemos Road side but that’s actually the back of the restaurant. The main entrance is actually on the Meridian Crossings Drive side..just like the address implies.
I know it’s been a while but I remember this place as being counter service. That’s not really the case any more. It’s more of a sit down restaurant. There is an order counter which I walked up to so I could look at the menu. A lady came out from the kitchen and asked if I wanted to put in a take out order or eat in. I was always planning a take out. She said she would take it when I was ready.
There’s a lot on the menu that I wanted. The sandwiches are as close to a New York deli style sandwich as you’re going to get in the Lansing area.
I put in an order for the NY Style which is #5 on the sandwich menu. I also added on an order of seasoned fries. The meal set me back right around $20 before tip.
I took a seat in the dining room while I was waiting. It was pretty close to closing time so the waitresses were starting to clean up but one did see me sitting there and checked in to make sure someone had helped me. The dining room is really simple. Just a lot o blacks and greys with very little decoration on the walls. I kind of expect anyone who uses “State” in their name in the East Lansing area to go heavy on MSU memorabilia but that was noticeably missing here.
It took about ten minutes for my sandwich to be passed out of the kitchen and bagged up. I headed back to my park and ride to eat and wait for my co-worker to arrive.
I started with the fries when I got parked. They’re pretty simple frozen, battered fries with a seasoning salt on them. There was a lot of them so it made for a pretty filling start to the meal. I ordered the fries, even knowing the sandwich was going to be huge, because I figured I wouldn’t get a chance to eat again until after midnight.
The sandwich I ordered, the NY Style, was exactly what I remembered Stateside Deli as being. A large portion of corned beef stuffed between two slices of rye bread with Swiss cheese and yellow mustard. The sandwich is so simple yet so dang tasty. The corned beef was warm and the juices were oozing out with every bite. I ended up getting out of the car and eating on the hood so I didn’t drip any of the beef juice or mustard on my shirt. I don’t need to perpetuate the fat guy stereotype of always have food on my shirt.
Stateside Deli & Restaurant is exactly what I was hoping it would be. It’s a fantastic meal with large, quality portions.
I don’t miss a lot of things about my time living in Lansing but some of the food that I had while living there is a definite thing I miss. It’s always nice when I can go back to some of those places whether it be while I’m there working or if we’re in town for an event.
SW Michigan Dining 