About a year and a half ago, a new building went up on Yuba Street next to the beautiful Dobrowski House. The designer had the good taste to mimic the California craftsman style of that lovely old home (now used as offices). A franchise restaurant called Blendz went in and went out again about six months later. Then last fall, county employee Shelley Wilson, at the urging of her co-workers, opened up Aunt Sheli’s Deli in the recently-vacated building. Wilson’s son Robert oversees the daily operations of the deli.
Femme de Joie has to admit she was a bit reluctant to try the food. Her one experience with predecessor Blendz had been slooooowww, and the deli’s initial takeaway advertising flier was so fraught with misspellings and creative grammar that it made her dubious about the care and attention being lavished on the food. (The current flier has fixed all the mistakes.) But greed and hunger overcame her doubts, and she is very pleased with what she found.
When you walk in, there is a menu taped up on the right side of the cash register, or pick up one to peruse at your leisure. Order and pay at the register, then either have a seat indoors or out (there is limited seating) or lounge around for a to-go order. The menu includes the usual things you’d find at a deli — ham-turkey-roast-beef — but there are also some specialty items worth trying, and some surprisingly delicious and unusual vegetarian/vegan options.
Kailey’s Delight — roasted red bell peppers, spinach, homemade red onion marmalade, homemade garlic hummus, on a sweet French roll ($8.49), served with a cup of the blue cheese, bacon, and spinach soup ($3.25).
Often vegetarian meals are served only as an afterthought for the random veggie who might wander in hoping to maybe be offered an avocado sandwich. But at Aunt Sheli’s, some real thought and effort has gone into the vegetarian sandwiches. Kailey’s Delight was crunchy with fresh spinach, sweet with the delicious marmalade, and given substance with the garlic hummus and roasted peppers. This was good enough to entice meat-eaters. And while the blue cheese, bacon, and spinach soup isn’t vegetarian, it was wonderful — like a spinach salad in a cup. Creamy and tangy with blue cheese, this had smoky bacon and grassy spinach flavors. Creative and unusual.
Hot pastrami ($8.49) and the world’s smallest cup of macaroni salad, $2.50. Aunt Sheli’s serves hot pastrami two ways: “Southern style” (pictured above) with brown mustard, Swiss cheese, and homemade coleslaw, or Reuben style, with Russian dressing, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut. This was a wonderful, messy, falling-apart-on-your-lap sandwich, with lots of hot, fatty pastrami and very fresh slaw piled high. The macaroni salad seemed insignificant — both in portion size (this was about 1/8 cup) and flavorings.
On another day, M. de Joie tried the Reuben style pastrami and it was quite wonderful – again, stuffed with good-quality pastrami plus the usual Reuben accompaniments. On the side she ordered the day’s special soup, chicken and dumpling — blindingly white and a bit on the starchy side; you might call it a Festival of Starch — but filling, tasty and packed with home-cooked chicken.
If you’re in the neighborhood — say, the courthouse or the downtown post office — Aunt Sheli’s is worth a stop for a cup of coffee and a muffin, a smoothie, breakfast (breakfast burrito $4.25, berry yogurt parfait $2.95), or lunch. There are two homemade soups every day. Servings are more than adequate and the staff is friendly and helpful. One caveat: they are sometimes a bit disorganized so it would behoove you to check your order to make sure it’s the right one and that everything you ordered is included.
Aunt Sheli’s Deli, 1730 Yuba Street, #A, Redding, 530-246-0400, fax 530-246-0401. Open Monday-Friday, 7:30-6:00 PM. Closed Saturday and Sunday. A few tables inside and also some outdoor seating. Street parking. No alcohol. Vegetarian and vegan options.
Femme de Joie’s first culinary masterpiece was at age 4, when she made the perfect fried bologna sandwich on white bread. Since then she has dined on horse Bourguignon in France, stir-fried eel in London, and mystery meat in her college cafeteria, but firmly draws the line at eating rattlesnake, peppermint and Hamburger Helper. She lives in Shasta County at her country estate, Butterscotch Acres West. She is nearly always hungry. Visit MenuPlease for more.
