It's located about as far from Grand Haven's bustling tourist district as you can go and still be in Grand Haven, but
Electric Cadillac says the line of customers out the door at lunchtime prove its industrial neighborhood is the place to be.
The diminutive deli -- just 500 square feet -- opened in September at 314 S. Beechtree St. without fanfare, just an invitation to friends on Facebook to stop by. But owner Nick Mika says within a week the place was serving walk-in customers and gearing up its sandwich deliveries and catering services.
The menu offers 15 to 18 sandwiches, at least two homemade soups daily, and salads. Mika says the key to everything is that the sauces, dressings, coleslaw, hummus, and guacamole are all made in-house. Sandwiches are made on hoagie buns, sourdough, wheat, 12-grain, or pumpernickel bread, or spinach wraps -- all from Spring Lake's
The Village Baker.
"People can go to Jimmy John's, Culver's, Panera, all pretty much generic food, and once people found out about us, they started coming in," Mika says. The deli sits in an area of manufacturing, close to a busy residential neighborhood -- the nucleus of most of the deli's customer base.
The eatery's most popular sandwich is The Sweet Sweet Baby Ray's, a hoagie bun chock full of bacon, shaved chicken breast, apple preserves, lettuce and Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. The second place winner is Not Your Grandma's Reuben, packed with homemade slaw, guacamole, turkey, provolone, and bacon on sourdough bread.
Electric Cadillac warms the cheese on every sandwich with a culinary torch to melt it before popping the sandwich in the panini press.
Besides carnivore options, the deli also offers a selection of vegetarian and vegan items. "If you're a vegan out here, you can't eat hardly anyplace but in your own house," Mika says of the lack of culinary options in the area. Luckily for Grand Haven residents, Electric Cadillac aims to fill that gap.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Mon. - Sat.
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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