But what I'm about to share with you is quite literally melt in your mouth: I just experienced melt-in-your-mouth pastrami just off the beaten path in Boca Raton, and it was so good it might even be just as good as the pastrami you'd find at Katz's Deli in New York City.
It happened at Beauregard's Fine Meats & Butchery, which opened a few months ago at an unsuspecting strip mall just west of Federal Highway and north of Glades Road in Boca Raton. It was founded by 37-year-old Cameron Falls, who's had a love affair with perfecting pastrami for much of his life. "My grandma lived in Los Angeles and came from a conservative Jewish family, so, when we'd visit her from Seattle as a kid, there was always bagels and lox, corned beef, and pastrami at her home," he tells New Times. "I've just always loved corned beef and pastrami. My Dad was Irish, too. When I moved to New York City in 2010, I had Katz's Deli for the first time and it was life-changing. I was blown away by something that is usually so humble."
It was at that moment that he kicked his love of pastrami sandwich-making into high gear to concoct the perfect recipe. After living in New York City and before heading to Boca Raton, he worked as a sous chef at a Pebble Beach, California, restaurant, where he put a pastrami sandwich on the menu. Although it was quite the hit then, he didn't have the same level of equipment to perfect his inevitable masterpiece that he does now.
The pastrami from Beauregard's Fine Meats & Butchery takes seven days to brine.
Beauregard's Fine Meats & Butchery photo
How Beauregard's' Katz's Deli-Style Pastrami Is Made
The new Boca Raton butcher shop has a massive walk-in refrigeration space where Falls says he can brine 1,000 pounds of pastrami if he needs to. He also has a smoker-steamer that cost him about $15,000. Plus, to make each customer's steam-to-order sandwich on the fly, he also has a large stainless steel steamer on site.Process-wise, his pastrami takes eight days to prep, which is part of the magic behind why it's so good.
"We trim the beef of excess fat, submerge it in a brine for seven days, rinse it off, and let it sit overnight," he explains. It's then rubbed with our spice blend, slowly smoked with applewood, and steamed for 14 hours. We cool it overnight, hand slice it, and steam it to order."
Core to the pastrami experience is the navel (beef belly) sourced from local Florida ranches. All of the meats are sourced from small farms statewide, spanning Berkshire pork loin, chicken liver, and ingredients for a housemade pork pâte. In true butchery fashion, the take-home goods are displayed in quaint glass cases near the shop's front register, in addition to refrigerated goods awaiting carving.
Behind the register, Bearegard's has a simple menu on a white subway-tiled wall, donning an often-changing rotation of sandwiches for either takeaway, to enjoy at one of the shop's handful of simplistic tables, or along a bar where you can watch the slice-and-dice butcher shop in front of you.
The sandwiches typically run in the $16 to $23 range, with the staple pastrami sandwich costing $20. For $3 more, customers can transform the pastrami sandwich into the Reuben, with a couple of slices of thin Jarlsburg cheese, sauerkraut, and a perfectly dill-forward Russian dressing stuffed between Sullivan Street sourdough bread.
For those who want more than just pastrami, definitely go for the Reuben. It puts the mounds of that soft, melt-in-your-mouth pastrami front and center, with trailing hints of its proprietary spice blend, which is heavy on peppercorn and coriander.
Sure, $23 can seem hefty for a sandwich, but you can certainly taste the care that went into it. Reader beware: During my first attempt at snagging the growingly prized pastrami, the butcher shop was out of it by 1 p.m. So, either get there early or call ahead to make sure the pastrami is available.
As Falls says, he now has room in his refrigerator to brine 1,000 pounds of pastrami if need be. However, based on how top-tier his pastrami is, he may actually need a bigger fridge.
Beauregard's Fine Meats & Butchery. 497 NE 20th St., Boca Raton; 561-409-4783; beauregardsfinemeats.com. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
