Market-House Corned Beef

Four sandwiches priced at $6.95 each-- pastrami, corned beef (I ordered mine with added lettuce, tomato and horseradish), BBQ brisket (the sauce is homemade and sent out to be smoked) and Reuben-- served on fresh Franz caraway rye bread (so soft it will stick to your teeth) with cole slaw or scrummy potato salad (from Northwest Potato Salad), a choice of cookie (sugar or oatmeal, baked in-house) pickle spear.

Optional, fresh horseradish hot enough to clear your pipes out. A canned pop from the cooler and that is pretty much the extent of it. Of course, you can always purchase one of their beautiful pastrami or corned beef to go (cryovaked) and cook it at home ($5 per pound), aided by Mr. Embry's expert ( A Kentucky native) and friendly advice.

Or you can give them 24 hours notice and they'll cook, slice and vacuum pack your order for only $9 per pound.

The choices are simple and top shelf. No, make that the best in the city in this category. Mr. Vic Embry has been offering, since 1948 what without a doubt is THE best corned beef and pastrami in the city.

Many of the top restaurants in town order their meats from Vic (Palace Kitchen and the WAC among many others). In fact, the Corned Beef used by Palace in their Breakfast for Dinner Corned Beef Hash is Market House's. Even a certain deli in Factoria is currently in talks with Market House to star carrying their meats as opposed to trucking them all the way from Detroit.

For St. Patrick's Day, the line goes out the door and around the corner. Their Corned Beef (cured for 14 days) is THAT good.

Which reminds me, for a deli sandwich (non kosher) in the downtown Cascade neighborhood, this is the place to go. It is still, in essence, a meat shop but there are at least nine stools where one can sit at to enjoy a quick, no frills lunch.

You might not (I couldn't) be able to finish the sandwich or eat one of sweet Josephine's (with a fabulous smile and laugh to boot) cookies but by all means take any leftovers back to the office or home with you.

Everything here is utterly delicious and one of the last remainders and reminders of old Seattle, hanging tough just a few meters away from the Howell Street exit to I-5 South.

Market-House Corned Beef & Deli
(also known as Market House Meats)
1124 Howell Street
Seattle, WA 98101
206.624.9248
markethousecb@yahoo.com

*Corner of Howell & Terry, across the street from Metropolitan Park (and next to Re-Bar)