zaftigs, you are most deeefinitely my bashert.

see this stacked, meaty, cheesy, saucy monstrosity of a sandwich?

that, dear readers, is the new yorker sandwich served up in all its pastrami and corned-beefy goodness at zaftig's.  i'm ashamed to say that i'm totally a "my side of the river" kind of girl (meaning i very rarely make a concerted effort to cross the charles river to get to allston, brookline or jamaica plain unless there's something really fantastic in it for me), and therefore have refrained from experiencing this cozy jewish deli on harvard street in brookline until this evening.  after roughly fifteen inches of snow fell on boston, a few of us drove over to larz anderson park in brookline to go SLEDDING, which seemed like a fantastic idea... until i realized an hour into it that my boots were hardly waterproof and that i was in need of hot tea and comfort food to combat the coldness.  enter: zaftig's.  after chucking our socks in the dryer for a bit and digging out the car from a snowbank on comm ave, we needed something hearty and zaftig's was riiiight down the street, so it was a no brainer.  

zaftig's serves up breakfast all day, diviiiiine knishes and latkes, incredible looking desserts and absurdly decadent sandwiches, as is evident by the MONSTER that i wound up with at dinner tonight pictured above.  (other selections ordered at the table: a delicious, classic reuben, one of the freshest garden salads we had ever seen and a thanksgiving-style turkey/mashed potatoes/stuffing open-faced sandwich that kind of made me want to bury my face in it.) the chicken noodle matzoh ball soup is delicious as well, and every single item on the menu was enough to get us salivating before we even ordered.

long story short: though my sandwich above was, in fact, the most intimidating meal i've had in a looong long time, zaftig's could not have been a more perfect choice for a meal at the end of a bitter, blizzarding, blustery day.  it's easily accessible by way of public transportation and literally steps away from the coolidge corner stop on the c line.  though lines out the door may prove to be a nuisance on weekends, but brunch at zaftig's seems well worth the wait on a sunny saturday morning.  if anyone happens to try their challah french toast or the infamous breakfast sandwiches before me, drop me a line and let me know how foodgasmic your experience was!