Zakia Deli

The urban industrial landscape of Northeast is already ripe with great ethnic eating, and now Zakia Deli can be added to the list. Located just below The Quarry (the area’s merchants are suffering post I-35W Bridge collapse), its location calls to mind a time when factory workers needed a place to relax after a hard day’s work—if those workers wanted kibbe (ground beef with cinnamon, onion, and pine nuts) sandwiches with their meat loaf. Zakia certainly aims to please and claims to serve Lebanese and American cuisine with equal passion. With everyday entrées such as meat loaf with mashed potatoes on Tuesdays and kafta with ranch potatoes or deli sides ($7.46) on Thursdays, who could doubt them? Owners Zakia Maalouf and son David also serve a nice selection of sandwiches ($4.95), ranging from kibbe in pita to Philly cheese steak on a homemade hoagie. And I spied some lovely looking buns that I was told were for specialty sandwiches such as grilled chicken with garlic. The deli items real- ly caught my eye—traditional hummus, baba gannouj, and tabbouleh are as delicious as they are affordable at $2.69 to $3.49 per half pound. Falafel balls are a whopping 69 cents—at that price you can afford to splurge on two.

—Steven Brown

2412 NE Kennedy St., Mpls., 612-379-0288, zakiadeli.com