Upland German Deli

GERMANY 🇩🇪

COVID-19 UPDATE: The five or so small tables used by locals to eat freshly prepared sandwiches and sausage plates are of course unavailable at the moment, but the deli runs as it has for decades. Call ahead and give them 20 minutes if you have sandwich orders.

If you forgo your options to travel rapidly down east-west running interstates through San Bernardino County, and take a street that is a bit closer to the speeds traveled before their 1950's construction, chances are you might be going down the famous old Route 66 on what is now Foothill Blvd. In this area, the wide thoroughfare runs relentlessly straight in both directions, with just one bump between Upland and Rancho Cucamonga.

 

First in operation after the interstates had been built for a few decades, but now open for 43 consecutive years, the Upland German Deli is a blast from the past. When you interact with the owners you may think they have been the ones behind the counter all this time, but they are actually the delicatessen's fourth owners, and have made it theirs since 2002.

The shop is a bit off of Foothill Blvd., somewhat hidden by a Taco Bell that lives near the street. On a sign that no longer exists unfortunately, the deli's humor was on display at their reserved parking spots which urged folks to "Think Outside The Shell," and ode to the fast food chain's old marketing.

The current owners are actually Austrians who grew up in Poland and France respectively, and because of this the shop keeps a sharp European edge rather than seeming like the product of second, third, or fourth generation immigrant families. The recipes for sauerkraut and red cabbage are likely to satisfy even the most discerning eaters.

Those sides are both sold by the pound for $5.99, while their homemade spaetzle goes for the same price but is sold in a stuffed pint container. The shelves are full of imported goods that can fill up your pantry like mustard and apfelschmaus, as well as candies and desserts and bottles of German beer sold individually.

The plate below was reconstructed at home with the homemade sides mentioned above and one link of both thüringer and nürnberger sausages. Both of these and most others like weisswurst are sold at $9/lb, which nets you about three sausages.

Having not had a proper thüringer sausage since the closing of a great place in the East Village, the offering here was especially a surprise and very satisfying. As seen the nürnberger comes in large format rather than multiples of its more usual small size. They also have proper German potato salad, made with vinegar rather than mayonnaise, which will require an order on the next visit.

There are plenty of boxed chocolates and other sweets available, but someone in the kitchen is a talented pastry chef and the offerings at the counter are always more tempting. Representing their Austrian roots, but also beloved in Germany, the linzer cookie (below) is quite a treat.

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UPLAND San Bernardino County

 983 W. Foothill Blvd.