An overstuffed half-pound of brisket-cured corned beef piled on rye with deli mustard; the Cleveland deli sandwich the Slyman family has built since 1964.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Joe Slyman opened Slyman's on St Clair Avenue in 1964. The corned beef sandwich, layered hand-cut and piled tall, became a benchmark for Cleveland deli through more than sixty years of local press and presidential visits.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. If brining your own brisket: 7 days in a salt-sugar-curing-salt-and-pickling-spice brine, then a 3-hour simmer.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Slyman's Restaurant on St Clair Avenue, the Slyman family corned beef counter since 1964, anchors the city's defining hidden-in-plain-sight diner alongside a busy weekday breakfast and lunch trade.
Why locals love it: A 1964 sit-down deli on a non-touristy stretch of St Clair Avenue, hidden in plain sight by suburban diners not in the know
Tip: Order the corned beef on rye and ask for extra mustard; cash and card both work but the line moves faster at the counter
Larder Delicatessen and Bakery in the Hingetown firehouse on West 29th Street, the Jeremy Umansky and Allie La Valle koji project, runs the most quietly experimental deli room in Ohio.
Why locals love it: A James Beard-recognized koji and fermentation deli inside a converted firehouse that reads as a small lunch counter
Tip: Order the koji-cured corned beef sandwich on house rye; the deli closes early on weekdays, plan for lunch
More cities are in research. Want slyman's-style corned beef sandwich covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.