Amer’s Deli
314 S. State StreetWe’re right in the middle of a tough stretch of figure skating competitions. We have three over the nex month and a half then one in July and one in August…plus (hopefully) one in September.
The first of the three right now was this past weekend in Ann Arbor for the Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – Ann Arbor. It’s not usually one of our favorite competitions but (spoiler alert) the kids did pretty well. That doesn’t always happen in Ann Arbor.
I wasn’t planning on going for Thursday’s competitions but last month, I skipped out on a trip to Nashville because I was working in St. Louis. I saved a vacation day from that trip and decided to use it so I could go to both days.
We got the schedule a couple of weeks ago and both kids started pretty early on Thursday morning. We have driven over at the crack of dawn in year’s past but we also found a decent, cheap hotel for Wednesday night so we decided just to pack up and go after I got home from work.
The rest of the family really didn’t beat me home by that much. L still had a lesson Wednesday night with her coaches at Wings West. J picked up Culver’s for them but I wasn’t really hungry at the time and I didn’t want a cold burger so I passed.
As we were driving to Ann Arbor, J asked if I had plans for dinner. I told her there were no Italian beef joints in Ann Arbor like there was on our last trip to Flossmoor, IL. She didn’t believe me, so she looked it up.
I was wrong. There actually are a couple of places that serve Italian beef.
We got to our hotel around 8:00 and got settled in. I asked if anyone else was hungry. B was the only one that responded. Since J had found an Italian beef joint, I figured I should probably get myself an Italian beef.
I ordered my dinner from Amer’s Deli on South Street just to the north of University Avenue in the heart of Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan campus. The restaurant that has the feeling of a traditional New York deli, is right across from the Diag on U of M’s campus and has been a staple of campus life for over 30 years.
Had I walked in to the restaurant to order, I would have found a huge menu hanging on chalkboards above an equally as huge deli case. The restaurant is well known to students for it’s house cooked corned beef and pastrami that will rival anything you could get in Manhattan. I didn’t do that though. I ordered online knowing it would take me about 15 minutes to get there. My hope was the sandwiches would be ready so I could get back to the hotel and eat before having to get to bed (it was going to be an early morning)
There aren’t a lot of students left on campus for the summer and it was pretty late on a Wednesday night so the dining room wasn’t full by any stretch of the imagination. The tables are all kind of pushed together to make long, communal tables instead of two tops that take up more space. The decor is pretty plain with the tile floor being the focal point when it comes to design.
I had put in an order for an Italian beef sandwich, an order of fries, and a grilled cheese. The cost was a little under $30 before tip and it was ready when I got to the store to pick it up. It took me a bit to find parking but I eventually found a parallel spot on University Avenue about half a block away.
B’s grilled cheese was pretty simple but man was it tasty. The sandwich is made with just American cheese and challah bread. I never know if B’s going to throw a fit about different kinds of bread but he ate every last bite of this grilled cheese. Crust an all. With Culver’s grilled cheese, he eats the middle portion but won’t eat the crust. I went looking for what he leftover after he was done and the plate was empty.
I ordered the small order of fries and I’m pretty glad I did. The order was huge. Way more than I could eat at that time of night. They were just dumped out of a bag frozen fries but there was a lot of them. J came over and grab a handful or two to help out.
The Italian beef sandwich is part of the restaurant known as Chicago Reds. That’s actually what came up when J found it on Google but Chicago Reds is just part of Amer’s Deli. It’s the part that strays from the New York Deli into the Chicago food world.
This Italian beef was a Gonella French roll filled with thinly sliced beef dripping with a house made gravy. I had it topped with hot giardiniera and, of course, asked for the whole thing to be dipped in to the gravy.
The Gonella roll is what really makes this sandwich. The crusty French rolls from Chicago really hold up well to being dipped in gravy. It soaks up all that beef goodness. Despite being dipped, the beef itself comes off as a little overcooked and dry but juice soaked up in the bread brings the meat back to life. There was enough giardiniera on top to give it that spicy kick that I love from a Chicago sandwich.
Honestly, I figured I was just going to get fast food when we got to town but a random conversation about our last road trip for a competition found me a pretty tasty Italian beef sandwich in a place I’d never expect it.
Amer’s Deli has so much more to offer than just delicious Chicago style food. I went to order with every intention of getting a beef but after looking at the Pastrami for quite a while, I’m going to need to make a trip back.
SW Michigan Dining 