Sherman's Deli & Bakery in Palm Springs: A Pastrami Oasis

When I headed to Palm Springs, the last kind of food I expected to have was juicy, piping hot pastrami on rye with pickles at this local institution, Sherman's Deli & Bakery. The sun was so hot that there were few people walking on the streets so the place looked somewhat deserted from the outside. But once inside, it was hopping. Pastrami is my litmus test for delis, ever since I fell in love with the meat at Katz's in New York City way back when.

The pastrami meat was good with just the right amount of saltiness but while the first half of my sandwich was pretty good albeit having some difficulty biting into the massive heap of pastrami. This sandwich was taller than any other pastrami sandwich I've had, perhaps with the exception of the one in Carnegie Deli in New York, although if you've ever seen that place's cheesecakes on display, that place seems to pride itself in ridiculously large portions.

One thing I didn't like once I bit into my second half was that the pastrami suddenly got super fatty. I hate biting into stringy fat because it doesn't taste good to me. So I had to deconstruct the sandwich and try to eat only the lean parts. The pickles were good too, complementing the meatiness with its tanginess.

Hence the mess you see to the left. I did have a beef with the rye bread though, which I thought wasn't as fresh on the edges (that's what happens to days-old bread). That's why I left those on my plate.

There were several options for mustard and I had the grainy one, which was good. The potato salad that came with it was mayonnaise-y with just the right amount of tartness from the vinegar. It was good.





My companions got a roast beef sandwich and a french dip sandwich with fries and while I didn't taste the sandwiches (the fries were fine but nothing special), they looked decent. I wouldn't really order those anyway because I'm a loyal pastrami-ite. While decent, Langer's remains my favorite deli in LA.