DECO Deli (Boston, between 4th and 5th)

[cannon_fodder]

Location(s) Being Reviewed:   In the Atlas Life Building (Marriot) on Boston between 4th and 5th
Date/Time of Visit: Lunch.  Arrive minutes after noon.
Quality of Food (1-5): 3 (maybe just not my thing?)
Menu/Food Options (1-5):  3 (a deli with 10-15 sandwich options, somewhat fancified with brown mustard, rye bread, etc.)
Quality of Service (1-5): 2 (no one told us status on our order after 20 minutes, no apology when order messed up)
Atmosphere (1-5): 3  (clean, repainted, mural, some marble tables, art deco photos on the wall)
Overall Rating (1-5): 2
Price ($-$$$$$): $$$  (average downtown $10 lunch)
What makes this restaurant unique: Neat and clean.  Occupies a nice space in the Atlas Life Building.  Nice mural by William the Artist.  Locally owned.

Tell us about your experience:

Went to lunch with a coworker.  The restaurant has only been open 2 days and it was busy.  The guy who took my order was pleasant and conversational while doing his job.  The chalk-board menu was clean and easy to read (very similar to the Atlas Grill menu presentation).  I had a pork sandwich, my coworker egg salad.

At 12:35 I went back up to the counter and advised that we need to go.  I handed over my receipt and asked for a refund.  I was advised that my food would be right out.  In another 3-5 minutes, we got our order and went back to the office to eat (we office on Boston).

My co-worker was given the wrong order.  She is a non-meat eater so definitely did not order a chicken wrap.  She back to the restaurant and they fixed the order, no apology was given until she complained that she had now spent her entire lunch break trying to get an egg salad and she was offered a perfunctory apology and given her correct order.

My sandwich was fine.  Flat bread, shredded pork, brown mustard.  I'm usually not a big "fancy" deli fan, so my expectations were met.  The chips that came with it are home-made potato chips, which are frankly, not as good as just ruffles.  Maybe its not just my thing.

I will go back in a month or so and see if they have the issues figured out, but if they read this they need to know you HAVE TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT or your reputation quickly goes downhill and you have to recover as opposed to make a name for yourself (see e.g., Back Alley).   

[carltonplace]

I know the Robinson brothers...I'll recommend that they lurk here.

[sgrizzle]

I went on Wednesday. I ordered a sandwich that was supposed to be chipotle turkey, swiss, chipotle mustard on jalapeño bread. After about 30 minutes what I got was turkey (maybe it was chipotle, maybe not), swiss, brown mustard on rye. I'm not a big mustard fan and the brown mustard they use was overwhelming. CharlieSheen tried it, he eats mustard, and he said it was bad.

I asked a woman there who seemed to be some sort of manager (she introduced herself, but I forgot her name, sorry) why half the sandwich was substituted and she found out they didn't have those other things. I was pretty bewildered at the random substitutions without even asking. They finally agreed to make me something else so I got a club which comes with "house dressing." Turns out the house dressing is at least 50% that very pungent brown mustard. Upon the manager lady discovering that I essentially got a sandwich with the same problem she offered to make a third, but I had been there close to an hour and didn't want to wait any longer. She did give us free cookies and go to extra effort to make sure I was satisfied, so I give them credit for that.

I know first days have their issues, but I feel like they had quite a few things they should've worked out before opening the door. I did think the menu was interesting and I plan to give them another shot and will do a real review then, but I wanted to go ahead and post this to second cannon fodder's review.

[Conan71]

Hmmm, sounds like six months, if that.  When it FAILS they will blame it on:

A) Tulsa's lame economy
B) Tulsa's lame sense of taste

An hour for lunch is the kiss of death folks.

[Gaspar]

I just don't understand restaurants that don't do a soft open before they open to the public.  It's like diving into a pool before checking how deep the water is.

[guido911]

Hmmm, sounds like six months, if that.  When it FAILS they will blame it on:

A) Tulsa's lame economy
B) Tulsa's lame sense of taste

An hour for lunch is the kiss of death folks.

I'll blame Bush and Halliburton.

[cynical]

They did a soft open on Tuesday. It didn't leave a lot of time to work out the kinks, I guess.

I just don't understand restaurants that don't do a soft open before they open to the public.  It's like diving into a pool before checking how deep the water is.

[Gaspar]

They did a soft open on Tuesday. It didn't leave a lot of time to work out the kinks, I guess.

1 week should be the minimum.

[BKDotCom]

Since this is run by the Atlas Grill folks (proven competence), I'm optimistic they'll get their act together.

[Rookie Okie]

Hmmm, sounds like six months, if that.  When it FAILS they will blame it on:

A) Tulsa's lame economy
B) Tulsa's lame sense of taste

An hour for lunch is the kiss of death folks.

The false blame often attributed to (A) is what I find most troubling.  Too often when an upstart business closes in an area such as downtown, owners/ investors try to mask their foibles by using the old refrain that the economics just weren't right yet for that area.  However, the truth is often that the failure resulted from the owner's poor business management and inadequate service provision as I think C might have been alluding to.  The unfortunate effects of false blame for self-inflicted tanking are that they may dissuade some potential investors from perhaps making wise and necessary investments in those areas.  I guess one could argue that the sharpest investors stay on top of things and know the real deal.

Really, if a customer cannot order an uncooked sandwich and consume it within an hour something is seriously wrong, soft opening or not.
   

[Cats Cats Cats]

Just because you make something and its good doesn't mean that there are enough traffic to keep a business going.  Restaurants downtown are a little bit different vs retail.  I find it odd to open a sandwich shop in the same building as your sandwich shop.  As Sgrizzle mentioned on the mustard it wasn't that great to me.  It tasted like a german mustard you would normally put on a sausage.  I was completely not expecting that on a sandwich.

[BKDotCom]

Just because you make something and its good doesn't mean that there are enough traffic to keep a business going.  Restaurants downtown are a little bit different vs retail.  I find it odd to open a sandwich shop in the same building as your sandwich shop.  As Sgrizzle mentioned on the mustard it wasn't that great to me.  It tasted like a german mustard you would normally put on a sausage.  I was completely not expecting that on a sandwich.

If sandwich shop A has more value (price, time, & tastyness) than sandwitch shop B... people will go to sandwich shop A.
There's a sandwich shop less than a block away that's barely adequate with taste & price (*ah snap!*), but they sure are fast... and doing brisk business.

speaking of downtown sandwich shops... When's Arby's going to "break ground"??

[davideinstein]

Are they open on weekends? I'll try it out.

Looking forward to LaSalle's.

[Ed W]

It's human nature to find someone else to blame for personal failings.

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[sgrizzle]

They did a soft open on Tuesday. It didn't leave a lot of time to work out the kinks, I guess.

Not really a soft open when you announce everywhere that you're open.