Deli on the Labyrinth, 09/07/2003 16:33

This weekend The DearHusband and I, as well as the BoyChild, went to "Deli on the Labyrinth" for lunch. I'm unclear of the origin of the name. It sits at about 35th and Classen and the building was once a two story garage with offices or living space on the second floor. They have a beautiful iron fence in the front with lush green plants and an old jeep sitting on a 20 foot pole.

Tere really isn't anything Labyrinth like about it.

I looked the word up thinking I had misinterpreted it. The definition reads: An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze or Labyrinth in Greek Mythology, the maze in which the Minotaur was confined. I had to look that one up too. Minotaur is a monster who was half man and half bull, to whom young Athenian men and women were sacrificed in the Cretan labyrinth until Theseus killed him. Now that's a pleasant thought, isn't it?

The BoyChild seemed to like it because it echoed and he enjoys nothing more than to scream at the top of his lungs and then hear it come back at him. This little bistro is, or appears to be, tied in with that interesting little cafe, The Grateful Bean.

The Grateful Bean, in a prior life, was an old fashioned, no kidding, honest to goodness ice cream parlor. It had been run by the same family for 80 or so years, only served ice cream and like treats and closed within my adult memory. Of course it wasn't called The Grateful Bean then. It sits on the corner with large plate glass windows of what must have once been a busy avenue but now is kind of run down and slumy five way corner. It has beautiful stained glass windows over the doors featuring a bucolic scene that I can see kind of fuzzy in my head but since it was an ice cream parlor probably involves cows. It has lovely hexagon white tile on the floor and those rectangular subway tiles on the walls. And it even has tiles on the outside of the building announcing it's former life.

The Grateful Bean and Deli on the Labyrinth are kampy little places with a noble ambition. They are staffed by street people and the chronically unemployed to give them a job, job skills and experience. For whatever reason, they only serve "healthy" sorts of stuff. Obviously I don't eat there much.

I don't mind eating healthy. I buy seven grain bread. I eat more chicken than I do red meat. I try to eat a fish product at least once a week. I offer my children a variety of green veggie sorts of dishes; and they both eat and like a variety of foods, including their veggies. I will admit they would both eat spaghetti with bottled sauce (you don't even need to heat it up) for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I were inclined to feed it to them, but hey tomato is a vegetable, right?

The thing I don't understand about these kampy healthy sorts of places is: Why don't they serve regular potato chips?

At The Deli on the Labyrinth we had some sort of potato chip substitute with garlic and red pepper on them. They had a variety of flavors all equally repugnant and nothing you would normally want on chips. They came in a brown bag, I think people going for that veggie market has said "brown attracts people who are looking for natural products." It of course had something about being natural on the bag, which I think translates to "little or no taste." I mean what isn't natural about a potato?

I love regular potato chips. Lays or Ruffles are my favorites depending on what I'm having with them. I like the salt. I like the grease. They go perfect with sandwiches. I crave them and love eating them with that sharp bitter taste of a kosher dill pickle they always serve at sandwich places but which I never eat anywhere else.

I wish I could predict the demise of these places for their failure to provide suitable potato products but since The Greatful Bean has been around a long time, I guess it's not coming anytime soon.