The website for the twenty-six-story Tower Plaza condo on E. William at Maynard lists among its nearby amenities “hundreds of unique shopping and delicious dining experiences.” The closest of them is also the newest: New Way Deli & Convenient Store opened over the summer on the ground floor of Ann Arbor’s tallest building, right next to the venerable Campus Student Bike Shop.
Location makes the brightly lit little store convenient to residents, of course (they could probably come down for coffee in their jammies), and there’s also an ATM in the back, over-the-counter cold remedies and pain relievers amid fast food offerings on the shelves, and cold and hot sandwiches made to order.
According to morning clerk Hamood Fatahi, the deli is one of many owned by Waled Ali of New York City, which may partly explain the big-city feel. There’s premade tuna salad and cheesecake in the cold case and plenty of Red Bull and tobacco products on hand.
New Way Deli’s eight-inch sub piled with corned beef and melted Swiss cheese has turned Chris, a kitchen staffer from a nearby restaurant, into a regular customer. “It’s filling,” he reports, and he really likes the $4.99 grand-opening special price, which includes a can of pop and bag of chips. That price will continue into November, Fatahi says, along with a breakfast special of a free Krispy Kreme doughnut with every cup of coffee. Careful when you pick out your doughnut from the eight-rack case, however. When we stopped by one morning in late September, the ones labeled “chocolate iced” were actually “blueberry glazed.”
New Way Deli, 340 Maynard, 882-2262. Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sun. 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
