Little Deli & Pizzeria – Austin, Texas

In the 1973 Woody Allen movie”Sleeper,” the neurotic comedian, writer, actor, and film director declaimed, “I believe there’s an intelligence to the universe, with the exception of certain parts of New Jersey.”  Comedian George Carlin pounced on New Jersey’s license plate, deriding the “Garden State” sobriquet, expressing that it should be “The Tollbooth State.”   In response to his son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic’s “I hate Jersey” comment, Archie Bunker declared “Everybody hates Jersey! But somebody’s gotta live there.”

New Jersey is the Rodney Dangerfield among the fifty states.  It gets no respect, especially when compared with its nextdoor neighbor New York.  Perceptions among some outsiders is that the population of New Jersey is replete with Italian-American Mafia types like Tony Soprano.  Others perceive as accurate the unwatchable MTV “reality” television series Jersey Shore which perpetuates Italian-American stereotypes of New Jerseyans.  Its gratuitous use of the ethnic slurs “guido” and “guidette” are an affront to every good and decent resident of the state.

Admittedly I haven’t spent much time in New Jersey.  My first visit was just long enough to qualify on the M16 rifle before the Air Force sent me to RAF Upper Heyford, England.  Would you consider it boasting if I rave about improving my previous score by 100%.  Yes, I hit the target four times.  My second visit was to the original White House Sub Shop in Atlantic City.  Wait!  Who goes to Atlantic City just to try a world-famous sub?  The answer, of course, is someone who loves sub sandwiches.  No ordinary sub sandwiches are these.  The White House Sub Shop packs the most ethereal bread with the choicest meats, cheeses and fresh veggies.  It’s one of the most famous sub shops in the world.

Shamefully, I never did try New Jersey-style pizza. Food & Wine Magazine recently named the Garden State the number one state for pizza.  Yes, over New York-style or Chicago-style.  In the dark ages when I lived in Massachusetts, it was heretical to believe any pizza could touch New York-style.  Even Bostonites knew New York style was the best.  The Yankees over the Red Sox was another matter altogether.  So, when visiting Austin, my dilemma was whether to return to Via 313 for the best Detroit-style pizza outside the Motor City or visit Little Deli & Pizzeria which profers New Jersey style pizza described as “Jersey-style as they come—thin, foldable, and just a bit crispy. ”

What’s that the proverbial “they” say about the best laid plans?  The second I laid my eyes on the menu I knew I probably wouldn’t be having New Jersey-style pizza–even though it was available by the slice and visible right on the counter where you place your order.  Two sandwiches caught my eye.  First was the New Orleans muffaletta (layers of Genoa salami, mortadella, ham, provolone and homemade tapenade served on ciabatta bread, offered hot or cold).  During our eight years living 90-miles from the Crescent City, we must have had fifty or so muffalettas.   A muffaletta is a New Orleans staple, a sandwich so beloved in Louisiana that it rivals The Saints and Mardi Gras in terms of popularity.

In New Orleans, purveyors of the muffaletta  such as Central Grocery & Market have more visitors than local churches have congregants.  How the heck can a Liliputian lair whose name includes the adjective “Little” possibly hope to accommodate the throngs?  As it turns out, I may have been the only person during the duration of my visit ot have ordered a muffaletta.  Most of the erudite Austinites were ordering pizza or other sandwiches.  I don’t know if it was the 30 years that have elapsed since my last New Orleans muffaletta or the fact that Little Deli knows what it’s doing, but the muffaletta could pass muster (or is that mustard).  Though not as mammoth (the size of a semi’s tire) as a muffaletta from Central Grocery, Little Deli’s rendition was made of the right stuff…and plenty of it.  The olive oil, one of the sandwich’s chief components, was spot on and the bread was hearty and airy.  What a wonderful treat!

In my research of Little Deli, I learned that its reuben sandwich is widely considered one of, if not the best in Austin.  It’s even called “Austin’s Best Reuben” on the menu.  This reuben is constructed with your “choice of original corned beef, or for a nice change try turkey, or top round pastrami, topped with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing on griddled rye bread.”  Because I had already ordered a muffaletta, the counter dude recommended I order just half a reuben.  Gullible dumba$$ that I am, I acquiesed.   The reuben was the archetype (the ideal form according to Plato) of what a reuben should be.  Every ingredient was in perfect proportion to every other ingredient, a complementary match of deliciousness upon deliciousness.  The lightly griddled rye was soft and buttery, the corned beef sliced into thin shards and the thousand island and the sauerkraut was just the right level of sour.  This has got to be not only Austin’s best reuben, but the best in Texas.

As if hot and cold deli sandwiches, Italian subs and pizza aren’t enough, Little Deli also serves a number of salads, calzones, gyros stromboli and soups made fresh daily.   Desserts–including the famous black and white cookie–look amazing.  How a deli that lives up to the name “Little” can do so much is beyond me.  It’s got to be New Jersey magic.

Little Deli & Pizzeria
7101 Woodrow Avenue, Unit A
Austin, Texas
(512) 467-7402
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LATEST VISIT:  25 February 2025
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$
BEST BET:  Muffaletta, Reuben, Big Red
REVIEW #1457