Sidestreets Deli & Bakery
116 S. Cochran RoadWednesday afternoon I got a text message from one of my supervisors asking if I could meet a colleague in East Lansing on Thursday.
If it was early in the morning, that was going to be a challenge because I have to get B to school. It wasn’t early in the morning though. It was a job at 12:30 near Michigan State University.
That gave me plenty of time to get B off to school, finish up a few things in my office, then pack up and head to East Lansing.
I always try to find some place to eat when I’m in the Lansing area. This blog started 17 years ago when J and I lived on Lansing’s east side as midmichigandining.com. It started as a hobby because I moved to Michigan with J without a job.
Since then, it’s kind of turned in to a journal so I keep going.
I don’t always like finding places to eat in East Lansing because we spend time there every spring for a figure skating competition. That’s when I usually try to find new places.
Instead of looking for places in East Lansing proper, I looked for places on my drive. I’m not sure how I eventually found it but a while ago I found a deli in Charlotte that looked really good. This was my chance to take a little detour off the highway and grab a sandwich.
Sidestreets Deli & Bakery is on Cochran Street south of Lawrence Avenue in downtown Charlotte. This space downtown is actually a relocation and growth from the original deli which was about a block away in a very tiny 456 sq-foot space. The move in to a building which house a market and a cabinet making shop prior to becoming a deli gave them a lot of space to expand.
The storefront faces Cochran Street where there is parallel street parking but there is also an entrance off the back of the building on Bostwick Street where there is also a large parking lot. The back of the building is painted in red in what I can assume is a homage to their original deli.
There is a huge deli counter right in the middle of the store with all of the fresh Boars Head meats and a menu board that you really need a few minutes to look at hanging behind the counter. I had an idea of what I wanted but I really didn’t want to rush myself. There were a couple of people in line in front of me doing the same thing so I didn’t feel the pressure to make a quick order.
When I figured it out, I headed up to the cash register to put in an order for the Pastrami & Swiss with Mustard. The cost was a little over $13.
I stepped back by the bakery case to get out of the way….and also look at the baked goods that they have in a display case directly across from the deli case.
So. Many. Tempting. Things in that display case but I had to pass this time.
It took about five minutes for my name to be called. I grabbed the bag and started out to my car parked in back. I had I chosen to eat in, there are two dining areas in the building. The larger one is near the front entrance off Cochran Street. There are a number of two top wooden tables sitting on a distressed, creaky, (and probably) original wood floor. There’s also an area with a newer wood floor near the entrance with the same type of tables and chairs.
Towards the back entrance, there is a row of booths along a blue wall giving the space a much calmer aesthetic than coming in off a busy street in to an Italian courtyard vibe.
The Pastrami and Swiss is a simple sandwich with steamed, hot Pastrami and Swiss cheese. There’s a layer of deli mustard on the Rye bread. All of the other pastrami and corned beef sandwiches had either 1000 Island, slaw, sauerkraut, or chopped liver. That’s fine though because I really do like a simple, warm Pastrami sandwich and that’s what this is. It’s not sliced fresh off a brisket nor is piled as high as you would get in a New York deli, but the flavor is there with the Boars Head meat and it’s the delicious Pastrami sandwich I wanted when I pulled off the highway and made my way to downtown Charlotte.
Sidestreets Deli & Bakery is a great little sandwich shop in the middle of Eaton County. I’m sure the super small deli had charm and I really wished I would have realized it existed because it sounds like a place that’s right up my alley. This much larger building is probably better for business and for customer experience though. I love deli’s like this and wish there were more of them. Sidestreets Deli is the kind of place I’d be eating at least once a week if they were across the street from my office.
SW Michigan Dining 
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