Chef-cured, smoked pastrami has come to the San Jose State University campus.
Downtown chef Rodney Baca and his culinary venture, The Shop by Chef Baca, have taken over the restaurant space outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, the main San Jose library serving both the public and the university.
On weekdays this semester, Baca and team will serve breakfast burritos, burgers, bacon mac and cheese, salads and his signature panini and sandwiches from 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. — with later hours until 8:30 on Friday evenings when the corner of Fourth and San Fernando hosts the “Every Friday” event with live music.
Baca made his name with pastrami — the brining and smoking take five days — at San Jose Sharks games. The thickly sliced meat is topped with maple aioli cole slaw and served on a roll with pineapple molasses mustard, house-made pickles and caramelized onions.
Other sandwiches include coffee-rubbed brisket with a New Mexico green chile barbecue sauce, a BLT panini, a meatball sandwich with San Marzano tomato sauce and Italian cold cuts. All sauces and dressings are made inhouse.
The Shop by Chef Baca is a venture that blends the backgrounds of Rodney, a New Mexico native who has been a chef in top-tier restaurants from Los Angeles to Europe, and his wife, Madelyn, a San Jose native who brings the home-cooking sensibility to the equation.
For this location, they have partnered with Frank Nguyen, owner of downtown’s Academic Coffee, to supply the beans.
Details: 150 E. San Fernando St., San Jose; https://theshopbychefbaca.square.site
