“Ohhhh, Cherry Street Deli. I love that place!”
That’s the response we got whenever we told people where we were going this week.
Like most of our Local GR Eats selections, this was a restaurant we had never been to before. My first thoughts when pulling up…what a cute place. They have a wonderful pergola out front with tables and chairs, and hanging baskets on the pillars. I couldn’t wait to check out the inside.
The deli itself was pretty simple. A few tables, a cooler full of great beverages (including Grand Rapids’ own “Boxed Water“) and menus written on chalkboards. The thing I found most amusing was that each menu item was named after a street, monument, or park in Grand Rapids. Talk about adding local charm.
The (extremely abundant) menu consists of sandwiches, soups, and salads. It honestly took us about 15 minutes to figure out what we wanted to order because there were so many choices. Luckily, the folks behind the counter were kind enough to offer samples of some strawberry soup and deli soup to help us make up our minds. That’s right, I did say strawberry soup. Its sort of like a smoothie, a dessert soup. Very, very good. Ultimately we ended up ordering a variety of sandwiches, 2 soups (the deli and broccoli cheese), and 5 cookies. Each meal came with a pickle spear, and the soups came with homemade crouton-style bread slices. You can see the entire menu here.
Pictured below is the Vito sandwich, which was the special of the week. It has turkey, smoked gouda, red onion, fresh greens, and spinach & artichoke spread on rosemary sourdough bread.
Comments we continually got from members of our group related to how fresh the food was, and how generous the meat portions on the sandwiches were. No fear if you’re a vegetarian, the Cherry Deli has 15 vegetarian sandwiches to choose from. In true Local GR Eats fashion, we offered to let everyone in our group take a sample of what we had ordered. Overall, I don’t think there was a clear favorite because they were all so good. Should you go, I might recommend the deli soup and the Blodgett sandwich. Although, people in our group had been raving out the Chester and the Calder, which coincidentally are both made with corned beef.
Check out the Calder here. You’re hungry now, aren’t you?
While dining, we did not get the opportunity to meet the owner, Scott Schulz. I guess we got lucky the first 5 weeks of our search because we met the owner at each of those places, but since then its been hit or miss. Nonetheless, we chatted with the employees to get the scoop on the deli. Scott previously worked for the Gilmore Collection and Amway, among others, before opening the Cherry Deli 5 years ago. They recently opened a second location downtown, near the corner of 4th and Seward. Its called 4th Street Deli and they have an incredible 100 sandwiches! You can see them all here.
Overall everyone had really positive things to say about our selection this week. I am now looking forward to trying the 4th Street Deli. 100 sandwiches, 20 salads, and 6 homemade soups sounds just fantastic to me.