Midtown Lunch’ing favorite, the Homefront Deli is up for sale after 15 great years at 41st St. between Madison & Park.  The Epoch Times has the story, starting from Owner Wanda Kassimis’ dream of leaving her Midtown desk job, and opening a deli.  The article says that the space is up for sale, and that “after almost two decades in her current location, [Wanda] is ready to make a fresh start in a new location, but real estate is competitive in Manhattan. ‘It’s been hard to find a buyer’, she confesses.”  The article doesn’t give any indication of when it will close, where she is going to move, or what the reason is for the sale, and curiously, no mention is made of her husband (and co-owner) Jimmy, who I got the full story from this morning, while he worked the breakfast line.

Sadly, the Homefront Deli is up for sale because the couple is getting a divorce.  Like Wanda, Jimmy plans on opening up his own place somewhere in Midtown, but says it won’t happen until they find a buyer for the Homefront.  He leaves the possibility open that the new owner will keep the deli open as is, but it seems pretty unlikely. 

Don’t know exactly when it will happen, but it looks like we will be losing the Homefront soon, so get in those last orders before it’s gone…

Yesterday it worked out a little better when I checked out the Homefront Deli on 41st btw. Park+Madison, which was mentioned awhile back as a good place for a hot pastrami sandwich.  Expecting a soup, sandwich and salad bar deli, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a hole in the wall sandwich place, with more similarities to Milant then Metro Cafe.

My recommended pastrami and swiss, after the jump…

The place is pretty tiny, and gets crowded fairly easily so it helps to know exactly what’s going on.  If you want cold sandwiches, get on the left hand line, a difficult thing to find the end of.  If you’re looking for hot sandwiches, try to weasel your way through the crowd to the back right where you order.   

Based on the recommendation, I went with the hot pastrami with swiss, sauerkraut and Russian dressing on rye bread, listed on the board as a Reuben, meaning they take the whole thing and grill it to melt the cheese and get you that nice toastiness on the bread.  The cool thing about the Homefront Deli is they serve up what looks like real hot pastrami and corned beef, not the cold cuts junk you find at most Midtown delis.  The pastrami was not the greatest quality in the world, but for $5.40 it’s tough to complain.

The Reuben is actually one of their most expensive sandwiches (since it’s got all that extra goodness), so if you just want a regular hot pastrami or hot corned beef, it’s only going to cost you $4.95.  A bacon cheeseburger is $3.95.  Who cares about quality when prices are this cheap?  A grilled cheese is anywhere from $2.60 to $3.45 (depending on how much meat you want piled on top of it). And fries are $2, meaning you can get a pretty substantial hot lunch for under $7, in most cases.  If you are celebrating lent, they’ve got seafood options on Fridays.

Not quite good enough to be called a great pastrami sandwich, but hot enough, big enough, and cheap enough to be considered a great Midtown Lunch.  Keep the suggestions coming…

THE +

• Super cheap 
• Not your typical, generic Midtown deli
• Hot sandwiches appear to be made from real meat (as opposed to cold cuts pastrami and corned beef)
• Did I mention it’s pretty cheap?

THE -

• Can get pretty crowded in there
• Only a few stools on the right for people to sit at, so it’s mostly just to go
• The pastrami is a pretty low quality (i.e. you get what you pay for)

Homefront Deli, 41 E. 41st St. (btw. Mad+Park), (212) 682-0838