131 South Compass Way, Space #C120Miami in December? Sure, why not?
The opportunity to travel for work came up with a New Year’s trip to Miami. I don’t really love Miami. The traffic there is killer and traveling to the area for New Year’s didn’t sound all that fun, but I do look forward to these work trips so I took.
We had a pretty early start on Tuesday morning flying out of Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids. We didn’t take the direct to Miami because it was double the price of a little bit longer trip connecting in Chicago.
We got to Miami a little earlier than expected then made the looooooooong trek through the airport to baggage and the loooooooon trek to the shuttle that would take us to the rental car center.
I picked the wrong rental car company. The line was obnoxious when we got there. It took an hour to get our car and we had a 30+ minute drive to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Neither I or my colleague had eaten much since a couple of snacks at the airport back in GR.
We had to hit the ground running and get some work done once we got checked-in. We were both pretty hungry so I asked him if we should slow down and go grab a sandwich. He was on board with that so I started looking for quick sandwich places near our hotel.
I found TooJay’s Deli, Bakery, and Restuarant in Dania Beach at the Dania Point shopping plaza. The small Florida chain has an end space off South Compass Way and Stirling Road.
The restaurant looks likes a counter service restaurant when you walk in and that’s really what I was hoping for when I found this place. There’s a large counter with baked goods and a couple of cash registers. I went up to the sign that said “place order” and tried to order but they told me if we were dining in to take a seat and a waitress would take care of us.
A little defeated but still hungry, we went around the corner to the dining room and took a seat. A waitress saw us sit down and grabbed a couple of menus and said a different waitress would be with us shortly. She never came so the first woman came back and took our orders.
I saw a Pastrami sandwich on the menu so that’s what I ordered. Man, I love pastrami.
I picked the Hot Pastrami sandwich which is pretty much what it says it is. I ordered it on rye bread and put quite a bit of mustard on it once it got to the table. The meat was rolled up to make the sandwich look bigger and a little more heartier. It was deliciously tender, juicy pastrami. Everything I want in a pastrami sandwich. The sandwich came with slaw on the side and a pickle spear.
I also added on a small side of fries. These fries fit the “nothing special” category. They were out of the bag frozen steak fries. Tasty, filling, and a perfect vehicle to get more of that spicy mustard that was on the table in my mouth.
Co-worker got a wrap and I got a Coke to drink bringing our total bill to a little over $35 before tip.
I wanted TooJay’s to be a quick counter service sandwich place. It’s not counter service but it was still pretty quick (and also really delicious) so we could get back out in the Miami to heat to do what we needed to do for the day.