Welcome to Vegan Paradise, Otherwise Known as Smith & Deli

My love for Mo and Shannon knows no bounds, so it won’t come as a surprise to you guys to hear that their new venture, a little inner-city deli full of all your good food needs, was going to shoot to the top of my favourites list.

All bias aside, though, let me tell you why you’re going to love Smith & Deli, too:

First up – the homemade touch everything has. This isn’t a business, it’s a family. It’s your local. It’s where you come to grab a coffee and croissant on a Saturday (get in quick, those suckers sell out early), a sandwich and juice for lunch, or after work when you grab some pasta and fresh sauce, or a to-go dinner in the fridge that you can heat up at home.

You may also go for lollies and chips, but that’s entirely beside the point…

It’s where you come for the traditional pastries normally laden in butter are painstakingly perfected into special buns of flaky vegan goodness.

It’s where you come for fresh veg and herbs.

Or you know… dried herbs. And spices. And pantry staples at affordable prices.

Or international goodies that aren’t in your regular supermarket offerings.

It’s where you come for Jewish homefood delicacies like pastrami sandwiches and matzoh ball soup made vegan, but also for the VEGEMITE AND CHEESE SCROLLS BECAUSE #STRAYA.

While we’re here, I also have indulged (greedily and starvingly, I might add, sitting in my parked car) in a dill pretzel, and if I can think of anything unglowing to say about the whole place, it’s only that these babies could do with a bit more dill flavour. Because I am a pickle freak.

 

Sliced at your request.

Callum’s exceptional hand-lettered signs get me every time. Don’t worry, I’ve already asked him to come and work for me instead, but he’s too busy. Dammit.

PUNS! They’re everywhere. And if my obsession with Green Press juice of rap-pun fame is anything to go by, you know I’m going to get a kick out of little witticisms.

Plus you can also buy Green Press juice at Smith & Deli, which I duly did. I swear by their little face-melting lemon and ginger Flu Shots.

And finally: the famous Rubenstein Reuben sandwich.

Now, contrary to popular belief, I don’t love everything on the menu at Smith and Daughters (although the menu changes so often I can’t complain), although they do make mushrooms in a Pedro Ximénez sauce I would step over my own mother to get to, and their cocktails are first-class. I have never had a better Old Fashioned in my entire life, and y’all – I’ve had a lot of Old Fashioneds.

Anyway, my point is that I don’t love everything, but I do at Smith & Deli. Everything I’ve tried has been top-notch – even the chocolate brownie and I rarely eat them. The salted caramel pretzel brownie and the popcorn custard donut made everyone in my family happy (although I was reticent to share) and I think my actual favourite is the challah sticky buns although I’m not usually a fan of sticky buns. It was the sweet, buttery, spicy pecan swirl in the soft bun that got me. Fan for life.

If you want to be a friend (check out the sign above the door as you leave, and if you don’t sing for the rest of the day, you have no soul), you can find them at 111 Moor St, Fitzroy, Tuesday to Saturday, 7am to 8pm, where as Shannon says ” finally vegans, vegetarians, people who can’t eat dairy – or whatever – can come and buy beautiful things.”

You may even see me over in the corner deciding between the Tim Curried Egg Salad sandwich or the Club Sandwiches Not Seals, and ordering coffee in a Soyacidal Tendencies cup because I LOVE FUNNY.