Grateful Deli — Restaurant in Aspen

You have got to be kidding me! I have no idea how this place has such high ratings after our experience here. The people were friendly enough but when I pay over $28.00 for 2 sandwiches (and tip!), I expect to get at least $22.00 worth of sandwich AND the sandwiches I ordered. Today, I got neither.

First strike- I ordered the pseudo-Italian sandwich (ham, capicola. provolone, salami, peppers (and maybe pepperoni?) n wheat. This sandwich was listed on the middle board and given a name, which would imply it is made often enough to be given a name. It's not something new or a "make-it-yourself" type sandwich. Instead of this flavorful Italian-ish sandwich, I got a bland, run of the mill turkey sandwich on bland white bread. At least I THINK it was a turkey sandwich as there was no more than 1 ounce of meat in it! One half of the sandwich literally had less than a teaspoon of meat in it. I am not using the word "literally" for dramatic emphasis- it truly did not have a teaspoon of meat in it! The other half of my turkey(?) sandwich held, at most, about 1.5 tablespoons of shredded turkey meat. It was basically a collection of toppings with a hint of turkey on white bread.

Okay, so my sandwich experience sucked. At least my wife had a good experience, yes? No.

Second strike- my wife ordered the Casey Jones panini which was also severely lacking in meat. Her panini was supposed to have bacon but we accepted ham as a substitute since they were out of bacon. No biggie. It happens. So, she had one thin slice of ham to go with the two thin slices of turkey and the “gross” cheddar cheese in her sandwich.

We paid $28 (with tip) for maybe $2.00 worth of mediocre food.

To be fair, we didn’t stop to eat until we were already in Glenwood Springs and so we did not give the business an opportunity to make this right. That’s on me. However, look at my review history. You can see I seldom give less than 4 or5 stars in my reviews. I’m generally easy going and understand things happen. Today is the first time I can recall handing out a single star review in the more than six years I’ve been writing these. Today is also the first time I honestly felt a single star...

The food must be terrific (I never actually got to try it), because our clients had specifically requested The Grateful Deli for our business lunch meeting. So that is important to take into consideration.

However, this restaurant is terrible to work with. I called in to schedule this client lunch a day in advance. The woman that took my order seemed incredibly confused the entire time. She asked me to repeat the details of the order at least 4 or 5 times and then randomly commented at least twice about how stupid her coworkers were. Once the order was taken, I asked if she could email the receipt to me after they processed the order so I could give it to our accounting department. She said, "that's a very hard thing you're asking me to do", but said she would ask her manager to do it later.

The next day I learned the lunch wasn't there yet. When I called to find out what was going on, they said, "We don't deliver on Wednesdays". After some negotiating, they agreed to send the lunch anyways. Afterwards when I followed up with them about sending me the receipt, they sounded like that was the first time anyone had ever asked them to do such a thing, and then said they couldn't do it.

I decided to give them another shot a few days later and have them do the lunch for a second client meeting we had in the area. Same experience. They were late with the lunch and never gave me a receipt.

If you're just stopping by their restaurant to eat, I'm sure it would be a perfectly normal experience. But I would highly advise against working with them for any...

So this time we ordered the Garcia and Bertha and made it over to the park to eat these killer sandwiches. They are as big as a softball and delicious beyond belief. The service as usual was fast even considering how big the line was. I'm talking like 3 minutes of waiting, no time at all right. Having lived nextdoor to the Dead back in The City I can tell you the inside of the Deli is just like the inside of their kitchen. They have all the necessary gear to make you feel like you're hanging with Jerry and the Boys.

In Aspen looking for lunch? Grateful Deli is where you gotta go. Their sandwich offerings are many and delicious. Once you place your order you can hang outside or grab one of their 3 tables on the sidewalk. Before you know it they'll call you name and you're good to go. Up the street there is a beautiful city park to eat your delicious sandwich. If you're a Dead Head you can also avail yourself to the wonderful Dead Merch they have on hand, not to mention some cool pictures of various band members. So make a plan grab a sandwich at the Grateful Deli you'll be...