My Mother was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She would tell my brother and me stories of the magical delicatessens that city had to offer. She would get misty-eyed describing "real" pastrami.
One day, she read a review for Roses Delicatessen & Bakery in Portland, OR. The very next weekend, she decided it had been too long since the family had been to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, so we packed up the '68 VW Bug and made a weekend of it. We ate at Roses twice that weekend.
We had dinner there our first night. Mom ordered for us all, something very unusual for our family. She got us all Matzoh ball soup. I was not thrilled by this. I'd tasted the stuff sold in the glass jars and had been unimpressed. What arrived at the table bore as much resemblance to jar soup as prime rib does to boiled shoe leather. I was young, but I had enough manners not to lick my bowl - barely.
The main course was something called the Nosher's Delight. This massive platter had fresh bagels, different kinds of rye bread, cream cheeses, lox, "real" deli meats, spreads...more food than a family of four should (bit, of course, would) eat. Even my brother, who's idea of culinary adventure was Swiss cheese on his burger, enjoyed it.
We returned the next day for lunch. This began my long love-affair with the Roses Reuben. As I remember it, it was on grilled rye with mounds of corned beef, pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and maybe French dressing. I think I might have eaten half of it. Our waitress was an older lady with a Brooklyn accent thick enough to use as a schmear. She boxed up our leftovers and included a "little something" from the bakery next door - a Cinnamon nut-roll as big as my head.
"I wouldn't want you should get hungry on your drive home," she said. "You bring these handsome boys back here in a few years - I have wives for them!"
I don't know if that or the pinch on the cheek scared me worse at the time.
It seems we found excuses to make the ~200 mile trip to Portland almost every month. I think we got a membership at OMSI and the staff at Powell's Books knew us by name.
Around 40 years later, my wife and I decided to take an anniversary trip to Portland. We brought our dog with us and booked a room at The Benson Hotel, a pet-friendly hotel in downtown Portland. It was a bit on the pricey side, but it was a fun experience.
But I was most excited to take my wife to Roses. Even though they had moved from their old location, I was sure the food would be the same.
Oy, was I wrong.
There were many items on the menu that were familiar to me and a lot that seemed sport's bar inspired. I decided to revisit my childhood and order some Matzoh ball soup and a Reuben.
The soup was lukewarm and tasted a lot like it had come from a can...or jar. The Matzoh balls were so dense I had to cut them with my knife.
I was equally disappointed in my sandwich. The bread was obviously store-bought and had been toasted about 10 seconds too long. There was twice as much sauerkraut as there was meat and the meat itself was very dry. One thing was similar to my childhood memories. I couldn't finish this sandwich either. But I didn't eat the leftovers, my dog did.
Service was terrible as well. It took a long time to get menus, an even longer time to get our cold food and never got our drinks refilled.
Alert readers will notice that I did not include a link to Roses website. If you're desperate for mediocre deli food, I suggest your local Safeway
