DELI PILES BEEF ON KUMMELWECK BREAD

By CAROLE DICKEY

There aren’t too many – if any – restaurants this side of Buffalo, N. Y., that serve “beef on Weck.” That makes Weck’s Deli, which opened in June in Village Lakes Shopping Center in Land O’ Lakes, the place to go for the sandwich. On the menu, it is described as “a true tradition of Western New York, slow roasted, thinly sliced roast beef piled high on a Kummelweck roll served with au jus and fresh horseradish.”

John Miller, who co-owns the full-service restaurant with Alex Altenhoff, said the idea for the name Weck’s Deli, and their signature sandwich, came from the Buffalo area, where sandwiches made with roast beef on Kummelweck bread are popular.
“But in Buffalo everybody calls it beef on Weck, so we decided that’s different, and so the name Weck’s Deli,” Miller said.
The sandwich isn’t the only thing they brought from Buffalo. The sandwich offerings on their menu are named after streets in Buffalo. Main Street is baked ham, roasted turkey breast, roast beef, cheddar and Swiss cheese piled high on a fresh Kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato and mayo.

Allentown is thinly sliced corned beef, havarti cheese and Weckslaw piled on pumpernickel swirl and pressed.
Niagara is tuna salad; Hertel Avenue is ham, salami and provolone.

And those are just a few of their specialty and house sandwiches.

Their menu includes soups and salad dressings, homemade desserts and fresh salads made in the restaurant using family recipes dating back through four generations. Customers have even brought in their own recipes and asked that they make them, which they do. Every recipe has been taste tested before being added to the menu, Altenhoff said.

Before deciding on their Cuban sandwiches – which meat to buy, which bread to use – Altenhoff and Miller invited friends to a taste testing.

“The taste testing was at the house and we tested lots of different products and different ways of making certain things,” Altenhoff said.

When it was time to test the Cuban sandwiches, they realized they didn’t have a sandwich press. Altenhoff improvised by using a cast iron skillet, but that wasn’t enough weight, so he piled pots and pans on top of that.

“That still wasn’t enough, so I get the footstool out and I’m pressing on them,” he said. “We didn’t like this particular kind of bread; it wasn’t flattening the way I wanted it to flatten, so it took another whole layer of pots and pans and a little more pressure, but finally we got it down pat.”

Now, in Weck’s Deli, they have a sandwich press, and it’s much easier – and not as comical, he said.

Customers not interested in taking a walk down Buffalo streets can request their own combination of meats, cheese and bread for sandwiches. Prices range from $5.95 to $7.25 for their piled-high sandwiches. Weck’s also caters sandwich trays, salad trays and full course meals.

Hours are Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information, call 948-1615.