422 S Dixie Hwy: what changed, what did not
422 S Dixie Hwy has not moved, and neither has the door. If you knew this place as Artisan Deli, you will recognize it from the sidewalk. Inside, some of it survived the handover intact and some of it is new.
The address stayed. So did the counter, and the way the counter works: you point, we cut, it goes on the scale and into paper while you watch. Monday is still the closed day. Why the name on the door changed is a separate story, and a short one.
The case is where the change shows first. Dry smoked sausage and a hot version of the same, house salami hung to dry, pastramă, and slănină rubbed with garlic and paprika. All of it goes over hardwood and comes to the counter to be cut, weighed and wrapped by the pound. Fresh mici are the exception: rolled in the house, sold raw, about twenty to a case for your own grill.
Behind the counter there is now a kitchen that cooks to order. Ciorbe by the bowl, twenty ounces. Mici, four to a plate with fries. Sarmale, four rolls with mămăligă and sour cream. Grilled pork neck rubbed with garlic, paprika and black pepper. Schnitzel, pork or beef, pounded thin and fried golden with a wedge of lemon. Every dish on the menu has its ingredients written under it, so you can read what is in something before you order it.
The plate of the day is new too. One main with a bowl of ciorbă, Tuesday through Sunday, a different plate each day and the same rotation week to week. It is what to order when you do not want to decide. Pick the day and its courses are listed with it.
Prices sit next to every dish on the menu page, and the case is priced by the pound, so a quarter pound costs a quarter of the price on the label. Ask for what you want by weight and watch the scale. You never have to phone for a number.
Any day but Monday, come in and look at the case, and ask what is in it if you do not know. The hours and the directions are kept in one place, so they cannot go stale in two. Here they are.