Nestor's Deli, Boca Raton: Home of the .50c Upcharge

Nestor's

Nestor's in Boca Raton is the quintessential Jewish style deli, South Florida style. Grouchy, slightly older waitress wearing sensible shoes and lots of attitude. Middle age, to old to very old with accompanying health-care assistants at the helm of the wheelchair, the occasional son, daughter or grandkid and a local businessman or three.

New York City is very much in evidence, I was given a get-out-of-my-way stare-down by an 80-year-old man 1/3 my size who could barely blow his own nose, much less tussle with a 300-lb 50-year-old. I politely stepped aside, trying my best to resist hugging him after he gave me the lucky I didn't kick-your-ass look.

Nestor's has it all going-on, daily specials, $2.94 breakfast club and, of course, Early Bird, but the thing I liked the most about Nestor's was the blatant, unrelenting, unrepentant way they upcharged you to death. Which, for much of their clientele, may not be long in coming.

No joke, pretty much every thing we asked for was a .50c upcharge. Ellen and I had the half-sandwich and small soup. We both asked for matzo ball, .50c upcharge over barley, noodle or split pea. My mother asked for an egg white omelet which, of course, was .50c extra. I thought for a second about going Old School on their *ss, but, out of deference to my wife and mother, kept my thoughts to myself.

Next up was .50c for tomatoes to go with my mother's eggs, normally sliced tomatoes are an included option, but with the "hurry-cane" tomatoes now cost "$80 per case" and 'they' have to charge extra. Alpine Lace cheese subbed for jack in the eggs, .50. Next up, or should I say upcharge, was kasha and bowties, $1.50, no subbing for the included potato pancake that went with the 1/2 & 1/2.

Actually, it was lucky that Nestor's didn't sub for the potato pancake, which was crisp, greaseless and had a nice onion/potato flavor. The kasha and bowties was very good as well, greaseless, with a hint of sweet onion. Surprisingly, there was no .50c charge for apple sauce to accompany the potato pancakes. Or maybe the waitress simply felt sorry for us at that point.

All in all Nestor's is a pretty good Jewish style deli, just bring lots of change, .50 Cents, to be exact.

Enjoy,
Gary

Nestor's
7050 Palmetto Park Road West
Boca Raton, Fl 33433
561-391-0999

G Wiv wrote:Surprisingly, there was no .50c charge for apple sauce to accompany the potato pancakes. Or maybe the waitress simply felt sorry for us at that point.

yeah, but I bet the sour cream in place of apple sauce is $0.50 upcharge.

G Wiv,
I am immediately reminded of my favorite Italian deli on the West Coast. Italia Deli is in Agoura Hills, CA, residence of some of my family members. I get to Agoura about once a year and usually make a stop for a "Italian" at Italia.

Any item added to a sandwich that is not part of their pre-configured toppings is "extra", and they are extremely forceful in making this known. I have now taken to ordering my sandwich as a "small Italian, sub roll, everything, with giardiniera-and-yes-I-know-it's-extra".

You want a tomato slice? Extra.
Mustard? Extra.
Slice of pickle? Extra.

Once, I bought two subs and a large bottle of water for my sister and I to share on one of their two tables outside. I asked for two paper cups. The cashier gave them to me, but told me that if the owner was here, she'd have to charge me 10c for the 2nd cup. That one baffled me.

My father, who semi-retired to Agoura and spent many days sitting at the smoke shop a few doors down, stopped going there because of their combative attitude toward their customers. But, he never objected to letting me go in and pick up a sub for him.

The subs are delicious, mostly because of their bread which is more akin to a baguette than an Italian sub roll. (The meats are Boar's Head, which is fine with me) Also, they're always so busy that you know everything's fresh.

I enjoy their sandwiches so much that they could tell me I'm stupid and ugly every time I ordered, and I'd still come back.

Best,
EC

Italia Deli & Bakery
5657 Kanan Rd (In the Von's strip mall)
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
818 991-4838

Gary,

I had the pleasure of lunching at Nestor's over the weekend with a group of eight South Florida residents. Nestor's mom, a spry elderly woman working the host station handled our ornery group with just the right amount of tough love.

When I ordered my lunch (pastrami on rye, mushroom barley soup) there were no problems. When I ordered my grandmother a salmon salad on seedless rye and a matzoh ball soup I was informed that "soup comes with the sandwich, but matzho ball is 50c extra", I immediately thought:

"I wonder if this is Gary's 'boca up-charge' deli?"

I was not too surprised to find it was.

Nevertheless, I had a very good pastrami sandwich, but I kept eyeballing the fried kippers with a pile of burnt onions (ala Myron & Phils) at the next table. Cookie's cousin next to me also had a nice looking plate of corned beef hash and eggs that he was guarding with fierce vigor.

On the way out, Cookie picked up her favorite cookie, a small black-and-white, for a mere buck.

Upcharge or no, I'll be happy to return to Nestor's.

Best,
Michael

Nestor, isn't that an odd name for the owner of a Jewish deli? Sounds Assyrian to me.

Think Baby Names wrote:The boy's name Nestor \n(e)-stor, nes-tor\ is pronounced NES-tor. It is of Greek origin, and its meaning is "traveler". Also possibly "homecoming". Both meanings are related to the aged but vigorous king of Pilos, a character in Homer's "Iliad", who longed for the Trojan War to be finished so he could return to his home in Greece. He was a wise ruler who was always called on for advice.

Nestor has 4 variant forms: Nester, Nesterio, Nestore and Nestorio.

I was thinking of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism

Did I mention that the pastrami sandwich came with a excellent new pickle?

eatchicago wrote:Did I mention that the pastrami sandwich came with a excellent new pickle?

Guess the charge if you want an additional pickle?

eatchicago wrote:When I ordered my grandmother a salmon salad on seedless rye and a matzoh ball soup I was informed that "soup comes with the sandwich, but matzho ball is 50c extra", I immediately thought:

"I wonder if this is Gary's 'boca up-charge' deli?"

I was not too surprised to find it was.

Lunch today at Nestor's. Lox on lox platter was generous, but we needed a bit more tomato.

I notice that there was a $2 upcharge for mozzerella. What 's up with that? Are they getting fancier?

Hilarious.

Gary - if you're looking for sushi while you're down there, check out Diamatsu which is right outside the back gate of the Boca Raton Resort. Very good, very traditional sushi. They've got all sort of good stuff...ankimo, natto (if you're into that sort of thing), kick-ass uni, and mackerel that the chef cures himself.

Diamatsu Sushi
200 SE Mizner Blvd
(561) 361-7557

Gary -

On the bright side, isn't it somewhat admirable that they're still upcharging *only* .50 since your first post in 2004 ?

stevez wrote:I notice that there was a $2 upcharge for mozzerella. What 's up with that? Are they getting fancier?

Steve,

The $2 mozzarella charge was for my mother's egg white omelet, surprised they did not charge .50c for using only egg whites. If they did I was ready with Old School's line, I'll have the yolks packed up to go.

Enjoy,
Gary

jesteinf wrote:Gary - if you're looking for sushi while you're down there, check out Diamatsu which is right outside the back gate of the Boca Raton Resort. Very good, very traditional sushi. They've got all sort of good stuff...ankimo, natto (if you're into that sort of thing), kick-ass uni, and mackerel that the chef cures himself.

Josh,

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out, I a fan of ankimo, natto, uni and mackeral. If I hadn't just had lunch at Fran's Chicken Haven I be heading there now.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:Steve,

The $2 mozzarella charge was for my mother's egg white omelet, surprised they did not charge .50c for using only egg whites. If they did I was ready with Old School's line, I'll have the yolks packed up to go.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary, would they not also have a $0.50 (at least) "to go" charge?

jesteinf wrote:Hilarious.

Gary - if you're looking for sushi while you're down there, check out Diamatsu which is right outside the back gate of the Boca Raton Resort. Very good, very traditional sushi. They've got all sort of good stuff...ankimo, natto (if you're into that sort of thing), kick-ass uni, and mackerel that the chef cures himself.

Diamatsu Sushi
200 SE Mizner Blvd
(561) 361-7557

Just wondering if you are familiar with any other spots right there. I'll be staying at that Boca Resort in a few weeks. No car, only for a few days. Anything else around? I think my dinners will be planned, but bfast /lunch will not. Not worried, as it's only four days, but just wondering if there's anything else interesting in walking distance.

Gary if you have time check out a place called Catfish Deweys! It has been around for 30 years or so and is away from the beach in Fort Lauderdale! They always have all you can eat specials and buy there Catfish from a farmer in Mississippi. They had all you could eat stone crabs the day we were there. This place is a gem! Our waitress was a great older lady who had her picture on the wall of her working there 20 years ago! Check out the website and see what the specials are if you are available to check them out!! This is like walking in to a time warp.

Thanks,

Danny

Just in case anyone is looking for sushi in Boca, I will easily second Diamatsu in the Royal Palm Shopping Center or strip mall or whatever you wanna call it. Santoshi (owner's name, I think) presented some really fine, simple, fresh offerings. Standout was the saba which was just plain ultra-fresh, and pristine. Melt in your mouth tender which is a rarity in the midwest IMO. Really fresh saba is as tender as most hamachi. D/c had the chicken teriyaki which I guess I would have to say we'd both avoid if we went back. Wasn't a deal breaker in the slightest as we both agreed that we would go back the next day just for more sushi if time allowed. All of the fish was extremely good.

I would, however, like to get my whole dining experience at Jack's Stone Crab erased from my memory. It's a few doors down from Diamatsu, and although the rest of the meal was just 'ok' the desserts were abysmal (key lime pie, and chocolate cake) which both tasted like something you could get at any grocery store "day old" section, and the kale they served with each entree had more grit than actual kale. I was with a table of ten, and one person asked me how my mahi was, I said very loudly (as I always do when it comes to food) "The fish is ok, but the kale is too full of sand to eat." The other 9 ppl at the table started laughing out loud as they all said almost in unison: "I thought it was just me!" The scotch was flowing, I was not picking up the tab, so we didn't make a big deal out of it.
Anyway, Diamatsu = good, quiet, simple sushi. Oh yeah, almost forgot because the sushi was so good: they served the best miso soup I have ever had. Not salty at all, but full of flavor. Very clean tasting too.