Tried and True Local: Versions of deli classics, plus Virginia condiments
Delis, diners and lunch counters have extensive, evergreen menus. They’re stalwarts slinging regional specialties. Universal service at an affordable price lends color and broad appeal. In Richmond, these familiar favorites are how we like to deli.
Chicken salad is a deli case standby. What makes Montana Gold Bread Co.’s chicken salad a little extra is that it’s breast meat, plus a sprinkle of dill mingled with the holy chicken salad trinity — celery, garlic salt and pepper — decked with lettuce and tomato on housemade whole wheat bread. It’s the chicken salad you grew up with, but better.
And while there are folks who cry foul at adding fruit to chicken salad, I’m not one of them. Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods’ tarragon chicken salad tastes like a Sicilian grandmother fell in love with mayo, then married it to plump golden raisins with a dowry of dried herbs.
