Staggering into Stag’s Lunchette

I love working in Downtown Oakland. One of the biggest reasons is that there are so many food options. Recently, my nose lead me one and a half blocks away to Stag’s Lunchette. It’s been open since last July, but it was my first time there.

Stag’s is open for breakfast and lunch, but the latter appears to be the more popular meal. They make specialty sandwiches that customers line up for. They use quality ingredients. It was too bad I wasn’t there a week earlier because Stag’s was making dungeness crab rolls.


When I was there, the menu had six different sandwiches including both meat and vegetarian, a chopped salad, and a Thai curry chicken soup. By the time I reached the cashier, I decided on the pastrami Reuben. The pastrami is house smoked with gruyere cheese and a spicy sauerkraut. I found the photo below on their Facebook page. Doesn’t it look awesome?


It felt like a long wait and my name wasn’t called, so I went to inquire at the counter where the sandwich makers were. They told me it would be a couple more minutes. They apologized and offered me a soup. I was happy about that because earlier when I read the menu board I was intrigued.

The bread was nicely toasted, but by the time I got back to the office, it got a bit soft. The cheese and sauerkraut was perfect with the thinly sliced pastrami. I also enjoyed the small side of vinaigrette based cole slaw that came with it.


My complimentary soup was delicious. It had chicken stock, chicken, curry, tomatoes, fried onions, cilantro, basil, and garlic oil. It was aromatic, fresh, and comforting. I was blown away by how amazingly good the soup tasted. I don’t think you could find something this good at a local Thai restaurant.


Each Tuesday, Stag’s changes their menu. I know I’ll be back with a friend so we can split a sandwich and also have soup.