Lehman’s Deli

Lehman’s Deli and Bakery is a deli on Detroit Road in Westlake. Lehman’s Country Store started in the 1940’s and has evolved into Lehman’s Deli. It has been operating as a deli since 1983. Lehman’s serves coffee and tea, baked goods, soups, salads, and hot and cold sandwiches. In fact, Lehman’s makes over 140 different soups (several soups a day and they change every day – you can also buy quarts from the cooler) and nearly 100 different sandwiches. They also say you can invent your own sandwiches as long as they have the ingredients on hand. You can also just get half a sandwich if you want. Lehman’s cooks its own roast beef, corned beef, pastrami, chicken breast and turkey breast and bakes almost all of the desserts. It serves Cleveland Bagels and Rising Star Coffee.

The place is split into two different entities – the deli counter and the bakery/coffee bar and dining area. If you want a coffee or baked good take the entrance on the right. The deli counter and coolers are to the left. My doctor is just down the road, so I order on my phone from the parking lot and drive there to pick it up. I may have to chill in my car for a few minutes, but I have also been known to go into the bakery and grab a coffee.

Lehman’s got on my radar when I started my tuna melt quest. People recommended it, saying the Lehman’s tuna melt is up there among the best tuna melts in Cleveland. It was indeed fantastic. The tuna was warm, and the cheese was nicely melted. I paired it with a cup of Italian wedding soup and a Lehman’s vanilla cream soda, which was a total treat. You don’t see cream soda much anymore. The Italian wedding soup was pretty much perfect – with just the right amount of meatballs, pasta and spinach (escarole is ideal, but spinach is a perfectly fine substitute and more commonly found in most non-Italian restaurants).

I ordered a turkey reuben on my next visit and paired it with a bag of chips and an order of deviled eggs. The eggs were a little tougher than I like, but the filling was great. The turkey reuben had a decent amount of smoked turkey along with sauerkaut and Thousand Island dressing on grilled rye. And the bread was perfectly grilled. I also really enjoyed the Calypso Island Wave Lemonade, which blends pineapple, banana, mango, passion fruit and orange with the tartness of lemonade.

They also offer a nice selection of sub sandwiches. The one pictured here is the Italian sub, but I’m intrigued by the idea of a clam strip sub (“super sized clam strips on a grilled hoagie roll with tartar sauce, lettuce & tomato”). The Poor Boy also sounds tasty with bologna, hard salami, American cheese, shaved ham, onion, pickle, tomato, lettuce, cole slaw & mayo. I grew up calling them hoagies, but I like the addition of cole slaw. The Italian sub could easily be held up against any Italian sub. It features hard salami, Provolone cheese, shaved ham, pepperoni, onion, tomato, pickle & lettuce that is topped with zesty Italian dressing. It had a nice zesty punch to it between the Italian dressing and the salami and pepperoni.

I’m looking forward to my next doctor’s visit in March so I can explore more of the menu. The deli is open 6 days a week (Monday through Friday from 7 am to 8 pm, Saturday from 7 am to 5 pm and closed on Sunday), while the bakery is open 7 days a week (from 6-4 Monday through Friday, 7 am to 5 pm on Saturday and 7 am to 1 pm on Sunday).

Contact info:

Lehman’s Deli
24961 Detroit Road
Westlake, OH 44145
(440) 871-3445