Shapiro's Deli: Welcome

"Cook good. Serve generously. Price modestly. People will come." Louis Shapiro's motto started a legacy back in 1905. That motto holds just as true today. What was "The American Grocery Store" is now this country's "granddaddy" of delis.

	Home	About Us	Locations	Contact Us	Menu / Order Online	Party Trays	Gifts & Clothing	Photo Album

RoadFood by Jane & Michael Stern

The following is an excerpt from Jane & Michael Stern's book, "Roadfood", Copyright © 2002 by Jane and Michael Stern. All rights reserved. For more information, go to www.broadwaybooks.com. Shapiro's is one of eleven Indiana restaurants highlighted in this publication.

SHAPIRO'S

Funny, Shapiro's doesn't look Jewish-at least not like the familiar Jewish delicatessens in New York or Miami or Los Angeles. It looks like a modern midwestern cafeteria-style restaurant, with ample parking outside and a spacious interior dining room with plastic chairs and Formica tables. Instead of crabby old men who traditionally staff deli counters in the East, the servers here are a heterogeneous group of men and women - some rather pleasant.

Despite the anomalies, this genuine delicatessen is the best in Indianapolis, and one of the best in the Midwest. We would stack Shapiro's corned beef sandwich against any corned beef sandwich from anywhere. The meat itself is lean but not too much so; each slice is rimmed with a thin halo of smudgy spice and glistens underneath the fluorescent lights of the dining room. The slices are piled high and heavy inside slabs of rye bread with a shiny, hard, sour crust. Slather on the mustard, crunch into a dill pickle to set your taste buds tingling, and this sandwich will take you straight to deli heaven.

Get some latkes (potato pancakes), too. They are double-thick, moist, and starchy: great companions to a hot lunch of short ribs or stuffed peppers; Shapiro's supplements ordinary latkes with cinnamon-scented ones - wonderful when heaped with sour cream. And soup: bean, lentil, split pea, and chowder are daily specials; you can always order chicken soup with rice or with matzoh balls.

Shapiro's serves breakfast every morning, including classic platters of bagels and lox with cream cheese, onions, tomatoes and olives; also salami omelettes, fried matzoh, cold corn flakes, and hot oatmeal. Even after breakfast, desserts here are mighty fine. We like a gigantic slice of cheesecake with a cup of coffee; but if you want an end for your meal that is more Midwestern than Jewish, Shapiro's peanut butter pie is grand.