You might remember Big Mike's Red Store as the winner of last year's PEC Tournament. It shouldn't come as any surprise that they are featured in this year's top 25 NJ Sandwiches. Incredibly it was for a different breakfast sandwich and not for their pork roll, egg, and cheese. (I mean, every sandwich from this deli is great, and they will be my next deli featured following Brennan's). Instead of NJ's signature breakfast meat, The Poppa features pork roll's second cousin, charred bologna, and the real kicker, latke, which is a crispy potato pancake that will make you never want hash browns again. (I'm also still not ready to use brown in food after last week's hot brown situation.) Owner Mike Metzner named this Polish-inspired sandwich after his grandfather, who used to serve charred bologna sandwiches to visiting grandchildren. The Red Store has been a Navesink staple for years, first built in 1865 as a general store, and has been owned and operated by Mike since 2018. Before owning the Red Store, Mike was executive chef of several of New Jersey's top restaurants, providing a culinary quality not found in most deli's. And the best part is that it is just a quick 15-minute drive from my apartment so there was no driving 3 hours round trip to find out a place is closed horror story this week. Anyway, if you're in the Middletown area go to Big Mike's, I can not recommend something more.
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