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East Side Delicatessen’s Fifth Location Starts Stuffing Hoagies November 3

A “grown-up” version of the popular deli takes over former Mad Sons venue

East Side Delicatessen’s newest location
Mattie John Bamman/EPDX

Founded on SE Hawthorne in 2008, East Side Delicatessen will start sliding capicola into hoagies at its fifth location this Friday, in a sizable venue at 1109 SE Madison St. (most recently home to the Mad Sons bar).

“We’re going for more of a grown-up deli, so people won’t have to take their rolled up sandwich and go,” says East Side Delicatessen owner Cory Eddy, originally from Connecticut.

Sandwiches, unless ordered to-go, will come in baskets, and there’s plenty of seating in the roughly 3,000-square-foot venue, including new family-sized booths for up to eight, a patio for 24, and a sunken, 21-and-up-only bar area.

The full bar is new to East Side Delicatessen, and Eddy says he’s keeping it “brutally” simple — “Horse Brass-style” — with mixed drinks for between $5 and $7.

“We’re not doing cocktails. We’re doing drinks,” he specifies.

East Side will also start grilling Reubens and more for the first time, thanks to a full kitchen with a flattop grill. Other updates to the expansive space include an upstairs arcade area with driving games, seven pinball machines, and Ms. Pacman. And hopefully in January, Eddy plans to open earlier on weekends and unleash breakfast sandwiches — another first for the deli.

The new arcade area
Facebook/East Side

East Side Delicatessen has been on a roll of late. It opened a Goose Hollow location in August 2017. For the past two years, readers ranked the deli third best among all Portland sandwich shops in polls by WWeek.

Find East Side Delicatessen’s usual lineup of hot and cold sandwiches, salads, and hot dogs at the new location starting tomorrow, November 3. To start out, it’ll operate daily, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. By January 2018, it plans to stay open until 11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Perhaps even those breakfast sandwiches will be on deck by then, too.

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