When we talk pastrami, we mean business, and we don’t give just any tower of meat a seat among the borough’s best sandwiches.
So it comes as a bit of a surprise when one delicatessen blows the competition out of the water and throws in a curveball. David’s Brisket House on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights did just that, and gave us the most buttery, melt-in-your-mouth stack of brisket and pastrami we’ve had in a long time.
We went the more expensive route ($13 for the brisket-pastrami combo), but with the standard pastrami at such an affordable price ($7.50), it’s hard to resist going for the double (especially when the counterman hands you a salty, succulent portion of protein while you’re waiting in line. All propriety goes out the window).
The components are simple: a few inches of fatty brisket, another three of pastrami and a dollops of luscious gravy, making it a behemoth (and a mess) to finish. Top it off with a bucket of the deli’s homemade lemonade and you’ve got yourself a nap waiting to happen.
The spot used to be under Jewish ownership until it was bought in the late 1980s, but the skill and care with the curing process are still there — the marriage of juices, salt and intricate flavors in this sandwich are easily on par with the supposedly legendary Katz’s on Houston Street in West Brooklyn, leaving the mouth with its own saucy rendition of the Hora.
David’s Brisket House (533 Nostrand Ave. between Herkimer Street and Atlantic Avenue, no phone).
