Parkside Deli

Food Offerings: Breakfast served all day, assorted wraps, paninis, salads and design-your-own sandwiches, as well as hot dogs, hamburgers (veggie and regular) and assorted sides such as jalapeno poppers and fries. Parkside is mostly a breakfast and lunch destination and a popular one at that because of its variety.

Hours: Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday: 8 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Sunday: 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.

Delivery: Yes, but only if one has a student meal plan or if the order is $15 or more. Be prepared to wait for it, though, if you order during inclement weather or on the weekends.

Location: 6 Broad Street

Phone Number: 315-824-3015

Price Range: Moderately Cheap ($5-10)

Website: www.parkside-deli.com/

Quality of Food: Parkside has, with little doubt, the largest menu in Hamilton. Breakfast is served all day, you can build your own sandwich or, for the less creative, Parkside offers a very interesting sandwich and salad menu including the Yupee Salad (dried cranberries, brie, roasted red peppers, garbanzo beans, and grilled chicken) the Salsalito Salad (black beans, cheddar cheese, avocado, tomatoes, grilled chicken, fried tortilla strips, and sprouts), and the European Wrap (grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, red peppers, onions, and feta cheese). Generally speaking, breakfast at Parkside is quite good and the salads are interesting and mostly tasty. Beware of the paninis, though, as too many times I have waited for this pressed sandwich for over half an hour because it was “on the grill,” only to receive a cold and un-pressed sandwich.

Décor: Parkside contains two separate rooms – the main room where orders and placed and then another dining room devoted entirely to seating. The main room can seat about 35 people and has two televisions, usually turned on to CNN and ESPN. There are a few booths in the restaurant with metal or wooden tables that patrons are free to move around to accommodate larger parties. Because Parkside can get extremely busy and there is no formal table service, the restaurant can get pretty filthy during rush hour. The summertime is especially gross when the bussing station has not been cleared for a while and an infestation of flies swarm the place in a manner closely resembling the fourth plague. If you can, get your food to go or, if you happen to be visiting during the fourteen days of the year when the whether is tolerable, take your food to enjoy on the town green across the street.

Service: I have never encountered worse service anywhere, at any establishment. Parkside is the only restaurant of its kind in Hamilton, and they know their clientele is trapped. If Parkside didn’t get a new customer pool every four years, there is no doubt that they would be out of business with the current level of service (or lack thereof). The people who work there are rude, dismissive, and uncompassionate to their customers who are forced to wait up to forty-five minutes for a cold sandwich to be made. Particularly traumatizing are Homecoming and Family Weekend, when parents visit this establishment and expect civilized service. I have witnessed many parents enter into a screaming match with Parkside employees when they inquire about the status of their order and receive a snarky response. As I am being mistreated I sometimes think they are doing it out of a weird sense of irony, as Parkside’s menu clearly states their first policy as being that “The restaurant is run for the enjoyment and pleasure of our guests, not the convenience of staff or management.” They should be sued for fraud.