As a kid growing up on the Jersey Shore, James Adams spent a lot of time hanging out with his grandparents.
“We basically lived with them,” he says. It was his grandparents—the Kinsleys—whose house he’d run to after school, before spending the afternoon on roller skates, snacking on matzo with butter. “They were always cooking obscure, you know, corned beef and potatoes and cabbage… You’re not the coolest kid on the block if you’re hanging out with your grandparents, eating matzo and boiled cabbage,” he laughs.
But today, Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli—the nostalgic East Coast-style sandwich shop Adams named for his grandparents—is one of the coolest kids on the block. After popping up at Bar Brava and Bull’s Horn over the last year and a half, the very IYKYK Kinsley’s has landed a spot at The Market at Malcolm Yards, where it opened April 28.
Adams moved to Minneapolis five years ago and remembers looking around at the local sandwich scene and thinking, “What’s going on here?” The deli meats were sliced way too thick; the breads were just wrong. You wouldn’t do it that way back east. So he started playing around with his own pastrami recipe, the one that would become the centerpiece of Kinsley’s menu, and began pitching the concept to food halls around town.
No one was interested. They all worried about what kind of business a sandwich shop could bring in, especially during dinner. “Which, you’ve seen the sandwich—it’s like a steak,” Adams says of the cuts of meat that adorn his towering sandwiches. The owners of several food halls were unimpressed.
It wasn’t until he emailed Bar Brava, the Near North natural wine bar that’s hosted pop-ups from area favorites like Khue’s Kitchen (and which served as the incubator space for another great local sandwich shop, Marty’s Deli), that he got an enthusiastic response. It turns out owner Dan Rice lived in New York for a while, and like Adams, he was missing those East Coast deli sandwiches.
“OK, my first pop-up’s going to be at a natural wine bar with pastrami. This should go great,” Adams remembers thinking. And it actually did: At the first event, held in 2023, he sold out within about an hour and a half. Kinsley’s was invited back quickly. Adams, by day the kitchen manager at Bull’s Horn, was able to use the south Minneapolis dive as his commissary kitchen, where he brined and stored and smoked the meats.
Kinsley’s menu is tight: just three sandwiches, available with pastrami, smoked turkey, corned beef, or smoked tofu, along with two salads, matzo ball soup, a few sides, and a cannoli for dessert. But sinking your teeth into the soft, salty, savory pastrami, you won’t feel anything is missing. Just slightly smoky, the pleasantly fatty, thinly sliced cuts are piled high on Kinsley’s Reuben, then topped with snappy sauerkraut and gooey Swiss. The buttery bread comes from Breadsmith, who Adams says are making a “pretty legit” New York deli rye, and it’s a crucial component of this unforgettable sandwich.
What makes Kinsley’s pastrami so special? Adams lays out the more than weeklong process in an Instagram post: The brisket is brined for seven days, turning every day so that it brines evenly. On the seventh day, somewhat biblically, the meat is soaked in cold water to remove the excess brine and then rests, air drying overnight. The following day, it gets a little bit of mustard and Kinsley’s house pastrami rub, before returning to the cooler to set.
Finally, on day nine, the meat is smoked with hickory and applewood, then steamed. Only then is it ready to eat. And similar care is applied to Kinsley’s corned beef, as well as the outstanding turkey, which, on the Rachel, is paired with muenster cheese and fresh coleslaw. In the least annoying way possible: You can taste the love and care and time that goes into these sandwiches.
Now, all that deliciousness doesn’t come cheap. Each of the sandwiches we ordered from Kinsley’s was $21.60. But you really should think of it like a steak sandwich, or a lobster roll—this is not your average sandwich, but a special treat for satisfying a meaty craving. I’m not saying you should get one for lunch every day, but if you love pastrami, you absolutely should get one. Racket’s three meat-eating staffers agree: Kinsley’s makes the best Reuben we’ve had in the Twin Cities.
Look, I can’t tell you if a $20+ pastrami sandwich will be worth it for you. You’ll have to look inside yourself to answer that question. Maybe grab your smoked-meat-loving friend and split one; the sandwiches are certainly big enough for that.
And know that Adams cares about each and every hunk of meat as it goes from brining solution to smoker to slicer to your plate—he’s been working 13-hour days during this opening stretch at Malcolm Yards, the first time yet he’s had staffers helping prepare sandwiches.
“They’re all my little babies,” he says. “I’ve got four in there right now.”
Kinsley's Smokehouse Deli
Address: The Market at Malcolm Yards, 501 30th Ave. SE, Minneapolis
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
