Growing up in small town Middle America, I didn’t have much exposure to different types of food. The most exotic place in our town was a Mexican restaurant called La Posada where I and my family always had lunch after church on Sunday. We did, however, have a good supply of pizza and burger places because of the university in our town. The pizza places all served the wonderfully thin crust Chicago style tavern pizzas cut into little squares. Only on my twice yearly trips to Little Rock, Arkansas, was I exposed to the wonders of BBQ: Sim’s, Wright’s, and H.B.’s were the go tos for my family. And I always went for the pulled pork sandwich with spicy, tangy sauce and creamy coleslaw on top. These were the best sandwiches I had ever tasted.

It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago for university that I discovered how much great food there was in big cities and foods that are still my favourite: Thai, Korean BBQ, Italian beef, Chicago style hot dogs, deep dish pizza, Greek diners, and much more. But it was the Italian beef sandwich, deep dish pizza, and hot dogs that opened my eyes to how different food can be in different regions of America. We had nothing like this where I grew up.

When I moved to New York City after uni in the naughties, I was thrown into a whole new level of food possibilities. New York had literally everything under the sun…and it was cheap. Eating out was just what you did in that city; the quality was so good and prices so low, especially in Queens where I lived. When you think of New York, you probably think of pizza, and rightly so. There were hundreds of different pizza places, if not thousands. A slice of pizza was always my go to meal when I was on the go in the city and didn’t want to spend much. $2 and I was full. But probably the most uniquely New York places to eat, especially in Manhattan, were the Jewish delis: Katz’s, 2nd Ave Deli, and Carnegie were the ones I frequented the most. Usually the pastrami was piled so high on the sandwich that you had to unhinge your jaw to eat it. Magnificent.

Since moving from New York to Reading in 2008, I have really missed certain foods from the States. And the sandwiches from the South, Chicago, and New York are among the foods that I miss the most. With Nate’s American Deli, I intend to make the best sandwiches America has to offer and show Reading the amazing flavours that can be achieved from the humble sandwich.

Homemade Deli Sandwiches

Open 4pm-9pm Friday and 1pm-9pm Saturday & Sunday
The Roebuck Pub, 37 Auckland Road, Earley, RG6 1NY