For a number of years, the quaint little downtown building that once famously housed Lucky 7 Delicatessen stood empty, one of those structures dotting the MacArthur Park District that appeared destined not to make its way back into regular use.
Surprise, surprise. The building took on a coat of bright yellow paint and became Downtown Deli & Grocery, a one-stopper that packs in quite a bit and has quickly become a go-to place for lunching downtown workers and foot-traveling locals.
The store still has the same small interior space as the former Lucky 7, but there’s no longer an eat-in area. The east side of the store is dominated by a long counter behind which a friendly employee prepares orders of burgers, cold-cut sandwiches, salads, pizza, wings and more. Customers go in, order their food, then pay the cashier, who sits behind a glassed-in counter that’s also home to tobacco and personal-care products as well as a few clothing items. The rest of the store offers usual convenience-store items - junk food, sodas and the like.
My dining companion and I visited on a recent Friday and people-watched our way through a 15- to 20-minute wait on one of two benches provided for deli customers. Various colorful characters came in and out … many of them apparently regulars, as they addressed the cook and the store proprietor with breezy familiarity.
We took home and divided a cheeseburger combo ($5.99), a gyro ($4.99), an order of wings ($6.99-$15.99, depending on the number of wings) and a salad ($3.75-$5.75, depending on size).
The generous-size cheeseburger, whose combo incarnation includes fries and a canned Faygo soft drink, may be the best offering in Downtown Deli’s arsenal. It bore an enticing, homemade taste and look - thick, jagged-edged patty and all. We got it with all the usual burger trimmings and a choice of several cheeses (we picked pepper jack). Dining Companion observed specifically that the burger tasted “just like my great-grandmother’s and my mother’s hamburgers back home.” The fries were generic and adequate, something to pad the meal with. The Faygo punch was, predictably, sweet enough to cut with water a couple of times and still satisfy anyone with a sugar addiction.
Our second-place award went to the gyro, which overflowed with thick hunks of meat rather than the customary shaved, thin slices. We admit to not having eaten a gyro in a long time, and therefore, not having much of a point of comparison … but it was simply delicious.
The wings - part of the store’s heat-and-eat Hunt Brothers pizza and wings offerings and also accompanied by fries and Faygo - were not bad, but they were a far cry from what one would find at a place specializing in wings. They were a step up from bland and more than a little salty. The salad featured only iceberg lettuce, but the toppings we chose - black olives, onions, pickles, tomatoes and a bit of cheese - livened things up a bit.
Some purveyors of carryout can be chintzy with the sauces; luckily, this wasn’t the case at Downtown Deli. The server offered us ketchup, a choice of sauces for the wings and a choice of dressings, all of which she placed in shot-glass-size paper cups. She thoughtfully asked us if we were sure we didn’t need more than one cup of ranch dressing, since we had the salad and the chicken wings to adorn with it.
All in all, we were impressed with the quantity of the food we were able to obtain for less than $25, and when it came to the cheeseburger and gyro, the quality wasn’t half bad either.
Other Downtown Deli offerings include Philly Steak or Chicken ($9.49 single, $10.99 combo), Chicken Tenders ($4.99-$8.99), nachos ($1.69-$3.75), the aforementioned Hunt Brothers pizza, whole, by the slice or as pizza sticks; hot dogs, Polish dogs and corn dogs; burritos; and “sides” that include such retro foods as whole dill pickles and pickled pigs’ feet.
By the way, we’re sure that Downtown Deli & Grocery has nothing against the over-40 crowd, but we note that its postcard-size take-out menus are nearly impossible for most over-40 eyes to see, even with reading glasses. Luckily there was a copy machine available to double the size of ours. Even then, we needed the reading glasses.
Downtown Deli & Grocery Address: 314 E. Sixth St., Little Rock Hours: 7 a.m-11 p.m. Sunday-Saturday; 8 a.m.-11 p.m. for food orders Cuisine: Burgers, hot dogs, pizza, chicken Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D Alcoholic beverages: No Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: No (front-door step makes easy access difficult) Carryout: Only (501) 244-9800
Weekend, Pages 34 on 07/11/2013