So it’s refreshing to come across a restaurant that’s enriching the culinary diversity out west, locally speaking, and especially one that’s not designed with a single-minded objective of maximizing revenue or profitability. I’ll readily overlook shortcomings of the food itself for a more authentic, "real" look and feel. (That’s where the "Food" and "Etc." distinction of our scorecard comes in handy!)

The Twin Cities used to have a well-known Jewish deli with two (or was it more?) outlets, the Lincoln Del. The food was overpriced and not great, but they had little competition in its market niche; if you were in the mood for blintzes or matzo ball soup there were few other places to go. I didn’t even realize when they closed shop, but one day they were gone, leaving a hole in our gastronomic landscape. (There are Jewish delis around town but none that have become part of the "landscape" in the sense that the Lincoln Dels were.)

The Lunch went to the latest contender, the Crossroads Deli, in Hopkins this week. Crossroads is located at the intersection of Hopkins Crossroad and Cedar Lake Road, not exactly a major intersection although subdivisions have been cropping up in the area like weeds.

The take-out deli part of Crossroads is small and limited in its offerings. The restaurant takes up most of the interior space and consists of multiple rooms. It was doing reasonably well on the day we went, with a good mixture of businesspeople, womenfriends doing lunch, and some single diners. The décor is meant to make you forget it’s winter outside, with Mediterranean blue and sun yellow tones and lots of pottery and baskets with dried and live plants. None of this is pretentious or fancy; the atmosphere is casual and appropriate for a deli, not a Minnetonka trattoria.

The menu is extensive, with several salads (the specialty-of-the-house in this department is "Scott’s Famous Strawberry Chicken Salad"), soups, and entrées. The last include pastas, a lamb shank braised in cabbage borscht, and "broasted chicken" (the chicken is fried under pressure). Daily specials are listed, and on this day it was pot roast. Sides of vegetables, potatoes, and beans can be ordered separately.

A variety of sandwiches is also available and you can craft your own as well. The hot sandwiches include corned beef, pastrami, a rueben, and a kosher frankfurter. They come with a garlic dill pickle and a choice of cole slaw, potato salad, brew city fries (?), and home-made baked beans. Only two of the hot sandwiches are available in half sizes, the corned beef and the pastrami.

Wine and beer selections are ordinary. Other than a Summit and a James Page, the beer list is in the Miller/Bud/Michelob vein, and similarly the dozen or so by-the-glass wines are mostly of the Gallo and Mondavi Coastal ilk.

I started with a "half" matzo ball soup. This is advertised as "best in the Twin Cities," as if that meant anything! Anyhow, it was very good, with a flavorful broth containing pieces of celery, carrot, onion, and chicken. The half size portion means that you get one parsley-sprinkled matzo ball—which is more than I could finish as a starter. I’m no matzo ball connoisseur, having probably had it no more than three or four times in my life, but I enjoyed the soup.

I also tried the corned beef sandwich, opting for the half order again. The corned beef is another specialty of the house; indeed it’s shipped in from the East and is "the reason we’re here," the menu asserts. Unfortunately, while the corned beef itself is indeed excellent, it’s served on a soft and unsubstantial rye bread and the mustard on the table (although you can ask for an alternative) is a Jack Daniels honey mustard that doesn’t go with it. For my side I ordered the cole slaw, which was disappointing—sweet and with little sharpness.

Crossroads also serves breakfast anytime and the choices include corned beef hash, potato latkes, cheese blintzes, and lox.

The deli (it’s more a restaurant than a deli, but more about that later), I suspect, takes its name from the Hopkins Crossroads area rather than anything more thoughtful, and is located in a nondescript single level building with its own parking. The restaurant takes up most of the inside of the building; the deli portion is a little corner that offers a few take-away items and doesn’t appear to do much business. The dining part reminded me of the Lincoln Del, a New York style deli and restaurant, now defunct, which served a reasonable bowl of Matzo soup but the much touted sandwiches left me cold. Crossroads tries for a cheery Mediterranean bonhomie: there are blue/white prints depicting various circus scenes on the walls; the roof is decorated with colorful buntings. The patrons, on this day, were plentiful and seemed to consist of work lunches as well as ethnic moms eating with their children (of all ages!).

The menu, with a few exceptions, is the sort that you’d find at a Midwestern family-style diner. The exceptions are the specialty salads and sandwiches that include a strawberry salad, the hot pastrami and corn beef sandwich. It also lists a self-proclaimed "best of the Twin Cities" Matzo ball soup (what would we compare it to?). The menu has daily specials that are worth a look and on this day it was a pot roast. Wine and beer can be had, although there aren’t many choices here. I ordered a lemonade, which was extremely pink and extremely sweet! The only thing elevating this menu, from say a Denny’s, was the ethnic sandwiches and so we opted for them. I ordered a cup of the chicken corn soup followed by half a pastrami sandwich. The soup was hot with nice bits of chicken and corn floating in it; I would have liked to add some Tobasco sauce or red chilies but neither were available. The sandwiches offer a choice of cole slaw, potato salad or French fries. I ordered the fries and finally figured out why the restaurant was permeated with a slight smell of grease: the fries came coated with a deep layer of fat! And were entirely inedible. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I am no expert on the subject of pastrami sandwiches – having eaten them a few times only, but I know what I like and this sandwich was not it. The pastrami was infused with fat and chewy to boot and the bread was soft, almost disintegrating to the touch. The honey mustard served with the sandwich was inappropriately sweet,  although we could have asked for another. In the end I wished I’d ordered the breakfast (eggs, corned beef hash, potato latkes, cheese blintzes, and lox) which is served throughout the day. Our bill came to $27.00.

The restaurant has the atmosphere of a Denny’s or the cafeteria at a Byerly’s and is not saved by the quality of its menu. Lincoln Del had one redeeming feature: it was open late and one could stop in for a late night snack after an evening out. For my money the best Jewish deli in the Twin Cities remains Brother’s Deli, which has a wide variety of sandwiches and is an outstanding place for a no fuss lunch.

B