Corner burger

You don’t eat the décor. Remember that when you visit the CORNER STORE DELI AND ESPRESSO, inside the Price Rite grocery store on the corner of Garland Avenue and Post Street.
Price Rite is owned and operated by the Lee family and until recently contained a teriyaki restaurant. Penny and Matt Pfeiffer have lived in the Garland neighborhood for more than seven years and shopped regularly at the store.

“Mr. Lee is a really good friend of ours,” says Penny. “He knew that I was a server and Matt was a really good cook, so he asked us to take over [the restaurant space].”

Suddenly they had their own business, but also a mess that included odd paint on the walls, beer signs, burglar-proof bars covering the windows and a giant wok — which they don’t use — taking up space in the kitchen.

“It had a reputation of being a dirty little dive... it looked scary,” says Penny, who spent the first several weeks “just scrubbing everything.” All that hard work is reflected in an immaculately clean dining space and kitchen and an espresso station that is slowly being transformed.
The food is good quality and affordable; two can eat well for less than $15.

My regular burger ($4) starts with a non-seeded, grilled bun (baked locally by Alpine Bakery) and a flame-broiled, one-third pound patty that’s 100 percent Angus beef. Default toppings are crispy chopped lettuce, a thick tomato slice, dill pickle chips, sliced onion and mayo. I added bacon ($0.75 for two smoky, crispy-thin slices), American cheese ($0.50) and a side of hand-cut Jo-Jo potatoes — weighing about a pound — made from peeled Russets that Matt breads and fries to order ($1).

The massive “Big Daddy” ($21) version of this burger is modeled after the Effie Burger, famed specialty of Effie’s Tavern in Lewiston, Idaho. (The Pfeiffers hail from Lewiston and Clarkston.) Made with a two-pound patty and served on a humongous bun, the Big Daddy feeds four to six people.

A small flattop grill allows for a selection of nine hot sandwiches, including the Reuben ($6) — corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss and Thousand Island dressing on marble rye — and a yummy-sounding turkey melt ($5), with deli turkey, provolone, bacon and tomato. You can also “build your own” cold sandwich ($6, whole; $4, half). All sandwiches are served with your choice of chips.

Salads range from the almond-chicken salad — romaine, grilled chicken, onion, sesame seeds and shaved almonds with sweet Asian vinaigrette dressing ($6) — to a dinner salad with roll ($3).

Along with refashioning the space inside and out, the Pfeiffers also have a breakfast menu in the works — but first, that wok has to go.

- M.C. PAUL

Corner Store Deli and Espresso, 773 W. Garland Ave., is open Mon-Sat 11 am-7 pm. Call 327-1025.