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The waiting game
By the time it was my turn to order lunch (after waiting 25 minutes), I had been given enough time to become thoroughly conversant with the menu. Part of it is on chalkboards behind the counter, part of it is printed on a paper tri-fold and part of it is not written down anywhere but is somehow just known to diners. Before I got a chance to start my order I was informed that they were out of pizza dough so pizza, calzones and cheese bread were off the menu that day. OK, I said, I'll get something else. I ordered a couple sandwiches, an order of garlic bread, a small Greek salad and an order of what they refer to as "the buffet"—four different Indian curry dishes served on rice. Then I sat down to wait. My slight irritation about the length of the wait slowly changed into amusement as I watched the two guys behind the counter behave like bumper cars, bumping off each other and the kitchen equipment as they tried to make a meal that should have taken a maximum of 10 minutes to put together. It took these guys 30 minutes. With the smell of curry, the questionable cleanliness of the floor, the confusion about the simple order I had placed and the mañana attitude, I began to think I had fallen down a rabbit hole into some bizarre Calcutta-Tijuana-Ward triangle. That impression only became stronger when another deli worker arrived for his shift, complaining about working too much and being burned out and hastily picking a CD for musical ambience. It skipped, of course. When the final box was closed, the interesting bottles of boutique sodas added to my bag of lunch and the check paid, I went out with a smile on my face. When I got home that smile faded a bit when I realized that the hot sandwich and garlic bread had, for some inexplicable reason, been made before the cold salads thereby guaranteeing they were cold and soggy when we ate them. The eggplant parmiagiana sandwich would have been great hot—I didn't even mind it too much cold. The other sandwich we tried—what they call bruschetta—consisted of fresh mozzarella, basil and red onion with a dash of balsamic vinegar. It was tasty enough, but not worth waiting an hour. The same was true of the Greek salad, but there is not a single nice thing I can say about the garlic bread. The curries from the buffet were delicious. As they are ready-made and held in a steam table my advice is to order that—it is fast, the right temperature and filling. I hear their pizza slices are also good; I didn't get a chance to try it and didn't fancy the surreal waiting experience two days in a row. There is some reading material to distract you while you wait. The Onion newspaper compendium and Grateful Dead books are popular choices. And that might tell you everything about the non-complaining nature of the clientele. Other than the sandwiches, salads, pizzas, calzones and Indian food you can also order baked Italian specialties like lasagna and stuffed shells. Howie's vegan cookies are available for purchase on the counter, and the full spread of candy-bar choices are also on offer, along with pints of Glacier ice cream. And the other half of the deli is a liquor store. It is the only one in town that delivers—just order some food and have your ID ready, and you can get them to bring your tipple straight to your door. Of course, by the time it arrives you could have distilled your own bathtub gin, drunk it and started the process over. But the person who brings it will probably be really nice, dude. Sun Deli
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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The other day I found myself with a couple hours in the
middle of the day and an appetite as I was driving down Pearl. Why not pick up
some lunch for the husband and me, I thought, and it was but a moment's work to
turn into the parking lot at 22nd Street and dash into the Sun Deli. It quickly
became obvious to me that I shouldn't have bothered dashing—this deli
operates in a non-hurried, no-rush, slooooooow-moving mode. In fact, from the
moment I walked in to the moment I walked out with my bag of food an entire
hour had elapsed, which was an even more impressively long time, as there were
only three people ahead of me in line.
