Chicago's Best Sandwich: Fumare Meats & Deli

It's always so exciting when a pretty girl orders slow-cooked meat. You don't need to get a plane ticket to France. Oui, monsieur. Or Canada, for that matter. Oui, madame. Yes, sir. For great pastrami. The pastrami. That's so good. Oh, it's good. You just need to get your butts down to the French Market in Ogilvy Station, where Fumari Meats are smoking up traditional Montreal-style pastrami right here in Chicago. You know the routine. Dick, let's talk about your wonderful homage to Montreal-style smoked meats here. Montreal-style. Montreal? Montreal-style. I have no idea why they call it Montreal-style. I just like the fact I can come here and eat it. That's all you need to know. It just tastes damn good. My buddy and I go out to play golf. Up in Montreal, we get hooked up with another twosome of locals, and they keep talking about smoked meat, smoked meat, smoked meat. The pastrami is phenomenal. The pastrami on wheat. I've never had pastrami like this. And they said, go to Schwartz's. You'll figure it out. So we went to Schwartz's, had a smoked meat sandwich, and once you've had it, it never leaves your food head. Big fan of the pastrami here. It's a thicker cut. It's tender. It literally melts in your mouth like candy. Juicy, flavorful. So good. It's a great smoked meat. You do come with a reputation. There are a number of people around the city who say your smoked meat is probably the best in the city, including our fan T on Facebook, who just said, capitalize best pastrami. Before we get back in there and smoke, why is Chicago's best? Unique product, great flavor profile. It is really good. It's probably the best. This is not Chicago's really good. Okay. Fumare's really good pastrami starts with a 14-day cured cut of beef brisket. And after a quick trim of the fat. We are going to spice. And you're going to take the garlic and you're going to sprinkle it on as if it were the first snow of the season. And remarkably, with all the dogs in my neighborhood, it actually looks like the first snow after the dogs have been out in the morning. Now we're going to apply a four-ounce cup of the spice rub. Montreal spice rub is 14 spices. This is 15. So it's like anything Chicago, it's one better than everything else. Of course. Right. Our brisket heads for a 45-minute trip in the smoker and four hours in the oven. How long is the total process? How long are we talking? Cured and the entire process in about 16 days. 16 days to get the city's best pastrami right here. But lucky for me and the rest of the French market, Dick's got some finished pastrami ready to carve. Oh my God. Take a taste. Meat candy. Candy for a, yeah, for a meat baby. It's going to be a good day. While Dick carves us a perfect heaping smoked meat semi, I'm finally meeting up with his wife, Joan, to fill up my belly. So Dick has passed me off to his wife, Joan. You're also a pastrami connoisseur. Well, yes. He's thrown me into the pastrami business. You guys can throw me in. I'll be a willing participant in this revolution of Montreal-style smoked meats. Are you ready? I'm ready to clink it. The bark, the fat, and that meat is the trifecta of everything I want in a really good smoked sandwich or smoked meat. That is incredible. I make these all day long. I'm really, I mean, there's a little taste testing, quality control, but to sit down and actually eat one of these sandwiches, this is like a honeymoon. You understated it. I can't go back to work. I'm buying the business. That's it. Sold.