Helfer's Delicious Deli is Just as Good as its Bakery

Now, I'm a sucker for anyone that offers breakfast all day, and used this to entice me inside.

From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., you can get eggs on raisin bread for $1.79, eggs on a croissant or biscuit for $2.19, and  some ham, bacon or sausage for 40 cents more if you’re in the mood for some protein. Big spenders can go crazy with a $3.59 slice of quiche. It's a simple selection at very affordable prices.

I went in with every intention of making a hearty meal of quiche, raisin bread and eggs, but as much as I adore breakfast, I was seduced by sandwiches.

As I waited my turn, I watched a french baugette transformed into a french dip sandwich and smelled the delicious tang of sauerkraut in the making of a reuben. When I waffled a little on my order, the cashier sized me up and suggested I try the Helfer’s Signature Sandwich.

I’m glad I listened. There was so much right about this sandwich.

Instead of wafer thin deli meat,  the generous portion of locally smoked turkey came in thick, one-eighth inch slices. The homemade cranberry sauce would grace any Thanksgiving table; thick, slightly chunky with a dark tang behind all the sweetness. However, the real star of this sandwich was the beer bread, which came as two thick, crusty slices of chewy bread so wonderfully dense each slice felt like half a meal in itself.

The beer bread had a beautiful yeasty tang, and the thick crust is familiar to anyone who has ever made bread from scratch at home. Helfer’s rendition is what so many home chefs want their breads to be, but so few (myself included) regularly achieve.

Unlike , where the artisan breads are clearly not something normal people would ever make at home, the breads at Helfer's taste like the kind of country breads all home chefs aspire to bake on weekends. You won’t find an asiago foccacia, but you will find rye and pumpernickel.

Lunch sides include Chuckwagon Chilli, Chicken Noodle Soup, Harvest Grain With Portabella soup, potato salad, cole slaw, chunky applesauce or chips. I was too busy drooling over the breads to pay attention, so I ended up with the default chips instead of the soups, which I could smell from my neighbor’s tables.

If you’ve been to Helfer’s, I don't need to tell you about the gooey butter cake, stollens and other desserts, but be warned, when you eat at Helfer's for lunch, the pastries are hard to resist.

They do their best to make it easier for you. The five-table deli area is separate from the  bakery. You can sit even further from the baked goods by heading upstairs. When you order, you pay separately, too. So far, so good. Alas, when you finish your meal you still have to walk out past the "oh- so-seductive" pastry case.

My sandwich, side and iced tea came to $11, which makes it a tiny bit pricier than St. Louis Bread Company but entirely worth the extra dollar. They don't offer Wi-Fi or large party seating for meetings, but if you're looking for a darn good rendition of a sandwich made fast and fresh to order, you'll be hard pressed to find a better place in Florissant.

Every single aspect of my sandwich was well executed, from homemade bread to homemade sauce to locally smoked meat to fast and friendly service. I give Helfer’s Deli an enthusiastic A. I can’t wait to come back for breakfast.