Sometimes you need child care, lunch and a moment to answer a few emails. Or maybe you just need a really good sandwich. Enter Shorty’s Deluxe, the 12-seat café tucked inside Mulberry Lane, a Del Ray day care and coworking space that Stella Borou launched in partnership with Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG) in November.
The food menu, designed by NRG executive chef Nathan Anda, includes soups and salads, but it’s really all about the six sandwiches inspired by New Orleans’ famed muffaletta—a large, round Sicilian bread stuffed with cured meats and pickled vegetables. “Michael [Babin, NRG’s founder] is from Louisiana and wanted sandwiches with muffaletta-style bread,” explains Anda. “So I started experimenting.”
He settled on a form of milk bread, fermenting the dough for 18 hours to add some tang. “It has a focaccia-like quality, but what makes it perfect is putting it on a heated tortilla press. That takes some air out of it, crisps it up and gives it a uniform thickness.”
The 12-inch sandwiches, sold in whole, half, quarter or eighth segments ($8.75-$58.50) are named after members of the punk band The Ramones. I personally love the Joey (ham, mortadella, finocchiona salami, soppressata, provolone, olive spread, garlic aioli); the Johnny (roast beef, whipped Gorgonzola, onions, aioli, salsa verde); and the Richie (olive oil poached tuna, Nicoise olives, green beans and roasted peppers).
If salad you must, order the Cobb-like California Sun, or the Gabba Gabba, a version of the Joey that swaps the bread for greens. Or try a little of both. A $14.85 combo includes an eighth of a sandwich plus soup (tomato or chicken and rice) or half a salad.Â
Shorty’s is named after Orlando “Shorty” Aparicio, who has worked for NRG ever since its first property, Evening Star Cafe, opened in Del Ray in 1997.