Oracle Park food: SF Giants adding Augie’s Montreal Deli ‘smoke meat’ sandwiches

Hand-carved pastrami and turkey from Berkeley recipe

Add another Bay Area favorite to the array of new Oracle Park food options for San Francisco Giants fans this season.

Starting with Friday’s home opener, Augie’s Montreal Deli will sell its hand-carved sandwiches of Montreal smoked brisket pastrami and smoked turkey.

“We are so happy to bring a taste of Montreal to MLB and the Giants,” founder-owner Lex Gopnik-Lewinski said. “Some of the old-school athletes who got to play in Montreal when the Expos still existed are excited to get a taste of Montreal at Oracle.”

A Canadian native who moved to the Bay Area in 1988, Gopnik-Lewinski used to bring his sealed, smoky haul back here after visits home — until one day when a Canadian customs officer confiscated his Montreal meat. That was when he decided he needed to learn from his friends up north and make his own “smoke meat.”

This cross between pastrami and corned beef — arguably Montreal’s most famous dish — dates back a century to the Hungarian Jews who immigrated to the province of Quebec. The working-class dish has become a staple at legendary restaurants like Schwartz’s, Snowdon, Lester’s, Reuben’s and Smoke Meat Pete (where Gopnik-Lewinski got his training).

After years of perfecting the recipe, the result was a pop-up and finally, a brick-and-mortar in 2018 in Berkeley. Augie’s Montreal Deli was the Bay Area’s first Canadian deli. A few years later, he pivoted and turned the deli into a retail operation and opened his first stands for sports fans via Aramark — at the home of the San Jose Sharks, SAP Center.

At Oracle, look for Augie’s at Zach’s deli location (the Blue Shield Field Club Lounge) to start. “We will add locations and possible menu items as the season progresses,” Gopnik-Lewinski said.

Details: www.mlb.com/giants/ballpark/food/concessions-directory