Monday, February 4, 2013

The General Muir - Jewish Deli Comes to Town

I made it over to The General Muir yesterday for brunch and I left content and full. For those of you that don't know, The General Muir is the new Jewish deli concept by the folks at West Egg and the former chef of Bocado. It's located in a new retail district on the Emory Campus and across from the CDC.

The menu is made up primarily of Jewish deli items like bagels with smoke/cured fish, matzoh ball soup, and the "what would a Jewish deli be without a" pastrami sandwich. I got the latter and I think it's safe to say it's the best pastrami sandwich in Atlanta. But consider this - is there any competition? If you say Jason's Deli, I'll smack you in the mouth I'm Neal Diamond. The pastrami comes stacked high with some mustard on rye, as it should. Overall it's a delicious sandwich but once you've had Langer's (which I consider to be the best sandwich on the planet) to compare to, well it's no comparison at all, really. The pastrami was peppery and had the unctuous fatty flavor/bits that we all love, but could have been a bit more flavorful and certainly more tender.
The infamous Bocado burger stack is on the menu at the Muir and looking around the restaurant, it seemed to be one of the more popular orders. They've switched out the traditional bun with a poppy seed one. I also had a chance to taste the reuben which was also very good and of the same caliber as the pastrami.

One thing I was delightfully surprised by was the bakery. We started our meal with a pastry basket and got a wide sampling of what they had to offer and the Muir just knocked it out of the park. There was a sweetened yeast roll, some sour cream coffee cake, a cheese danish and chocolate babka. All items were stellar and I couldn't help myself from visiting the bakery counter after brunch to grab a black and white. The black and white was also quite good, but slightly less traditional. The cake portion was actually more tender and flavorful (an improvement) than what you'd get in New York. The icing was also less traditional in that the entire cookie was covered in the white icing first and then half dipped in chocolate. Also, the white icing was heavily and visibly flavored with lemon. If you can't tell, I'm a black and white purist but again, this rendition was probably the best available in Atlanta by a long shot.
Overall, The General Muir is a great spot for Atlanta and judging by the weekend crowd in its first week, will remain a popular destination for quite some time.
The General Muir on Urbanspoon
 

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