Critic's Review
I've avoided trying Smoke as a matter of principle; I've thought the owners were a bit shady based on their first location in Delray, but after trying the pastrami at Blue Willy's I wanted to try theirs.
This space was previously Julian's, a decent venue stuck in this armpit neighborhood that has zero foot traffic during the daytime hours. I drive through here every once in a while; hardly ever seeing a sole on the streets. Half of the restaurants are closed until dinner time; the rest mostly empty.
There's metered parking here, luckily the meters don't have a minimum. A dime bought me enough time to go inside and get a take-out sandwich.
I walked in and there was no-one behind the counter and one woman with a cup; it wasn't clear if she worked in the place or not. She didn't greet me, but in Fort Lauderdale it wouldn't be unusual for an employee not to greet a customer. I took a picture and then another woman came out of the bathroom; apparently they were customers;
I get up to the counter and check out the blackboard/menu; still no-on behind the counter. Time for another picture.
Despite the bright sunshine and blue sky outside; this space is dark and dreary.
At this point I'm the only one in the place at 2:35p. Still nobody behind the counter.
Suddenly, there's a guy behind the counter checking his phone. Interesting that he didn't say a word to me.
I'll have a pastrami sandwich on rye with mustard to go please.
He punches it up, I pay, and he makes the sandwich. No banal banter here.
I didn't get the camera positioned to show the pastrami slab, but it was more organized that Willy's version. Willy just had a big ole brisket with a sloppy coating; this was a round piece that yielded clean cut slices.
When I got home I opened it up. No fancy packaging at Smoke.
I didn't know I was getting chips; I'm not a fan of chips that are dusted with anything other than salt. These could have been really good without the dust.
The sandwich was well organized with good, sturdy bread; a much more professional sandwich than Willy's.
Opening it up provided a bit more insight. (notice the peppercorns on the right, more on this later).
The taste of the meat was superb. Tender, just enough smoke; still not the same as Deli Pastrami; this is smokehouse pastrami; and the sandwich stayed together unlike the mess at Willy's.
People from NY need more mustard than this on our pastrami, I lathered some of the mustard I had left over from Blue Willy's on the 2nd half of this sandwich.
Overall, a pretty good sandwich for $12.95.
Conclusion
A restaurant that doesn't care if they're empty is something to notice; I wasn't really surprised about the indifference of the staff here. While I enjoyed the sandwich, I spent the rest of the day picking and spitting out peppercorn husks, which ruined the entire thing for me. While I liked the sandwich, I think I'm done with smokehouse pastrami. When I'm done with food I want to be done with it; I don't want it to rule the rest of my day.
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