DeRusha Eats: Be'Wiched

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- For six years, Be'Wiched has quietly been creating some of the best sandwiches in the cities, including a now legendary pastrami sandwich.

"It's the perfect food, it can have any myriad of flavor-combination, it's handheld, hot or cold, and a perfect vehicle for cheese," Matt Bickford said.

And there is certainly something about a sandwich from Bickford and Mike Ryan.

"There's a lot of places that have opened and closed in the time that we've been doing it," Ryan said.

Be'Wiched was on the front end of a food renaissance along this part of Minneapolis.

Ryan and Bickford spent their careers in fine dining restaurants. In 2007, they teamed up to open a deli.

"Handcrafted very artisanal product, rather than being on a fancy plate, it's between two pieces of bread," Ryan said.

They make everything from scratch, in an open kitchen. And it's the house-made pastrami that made Be'Wiched famous.

"It was a lot of collaboration, lot of beers and coffee shared, ripping apart years of pastrami history books and coming up with our own version," Bickford said.

They take a grass fed beef brisket from Long Prairie, Minn. and brine it until it's corned beef.

"You take those briskets, coat with peppercorn and coriander, put in the smoker, then you have pastrami," Ryan said.

But it's the details that matter.

"We poach the peppercorns a couple of times, and pull out the oil so it's not so oily," Ryan said.

Be'Wiched also does brunch on the weekend.