Mile End Is Now Open, Just Five Blocks From Katz’s

Photos: Lauren Carol Smith

Today, Noah Bernamoff and his wife Rae Cohen, the owners of Montreal-style deli Mile End, opened their first Manhattan venture – a sandwich-only storefront on Bond Street near Bowery. Don’t be surprised if it ends up luring fressers away from the lines at Katz’s.

The menu reprises many of the deli sandwiches (including the classic: smoked meat) that quickly gave the small restaurant instant golden-child status when it opened in Boerum Hill in 2010. There will also be hand-held twists on plated classics: instead of in a bowl, chicken liver will come loaded onto rolls with pickled eggs, duck jus and parsley salad.

As they settle into the neighborhood, Mr. Bernamoff plans on expanding out from the core repertoire and upping the schmaltz quotient. Look for a duck bologna to debut out of the new Red Hook commissary. There are also plans for a Romanian steak sandwich and what Mr. Bernamoff calls a “more creative way” to serve corned beef than the ordinary Reuben. (Below: the menu as it now stands.)

The space’s design riffs on the spare, industrial elements of the original location, with funky black light fixtures and an angled communal counter (there’s no table service here) adding a dose of Bond Street chic. A beer-and-wine license has yet to be approved, and homemade syrups for ginger, black cherry and celery sodas are about two weeks out while the recipes undergo some final tweaks.

But why just the sandwiches?

“Well, I wouldn’t rule out doing a full restaurant in Manhattan,” said Mr. Bernamoff, though the couple is “not pursuing that at all.” Not yet, anyway.

Hours are from 8 a.m. till midnight. Breakfast will go till 4 p.m, overlapping a main menu that will be offered starting at 11:30 a.m. Delivery is in the works but won’t be available for the first month or so.

Mile End, 53 Bond Street, near Bowery; (212) 529-2990