A good friend tipped me off to a great, local culinary experience. He’d emailed me the name and address. I plugged those into Google to see what I could find and got this: www.americandreamhotdogcarts.com. What?! He wants me to review a hot dog cart up in the industrial park area?

Well, he knows I do like street food, especially good, ethnic street food sold in carts (see Inkwatu 2008/09/06: New York Street Food). So, I emailed him back and we agreed to meet at the address he’d given me for lunch.

I got there a tad early because I wanted to take an exterior picture. After getting a smidgen lost in a warren of short streets that don’t go clear through, I located Jo-El’s: a bright blue warehouse with typical warehouse doors in the midst of an industrial area. There was a hot dog cart out front.

Closer inspection of the signage on the doors assured me there is a deli and market inside. I guess I was overly awed as a child by the Wizard of Oz when she steps from black and white into a land of living color, because stepping inside Jo-El’s is definitely a cultural shift that thrills.

Joel and Ellen Goetz’s Jo-El’s Delicatessen & Marketplace (2619 23rd Ave. N., St Petersburg, FL 33713; 727-321-3847) has a deli along one whole wall with a center section of tables separating a market with about four isles of imported kosher foods and a full kosher butcher shop with fresh cut kosher meat and poultry prepared under the supervision of the Vaad Hakashrut of Pinellas County.

This place is so good, that customers come from as far away as Sarasota to shop, bypassing lesser markets along the way. I’ve always associated kosher food with quality. This is QUALITY quality. The best of the best—no exaggeration.

Now it’s true. Jo-El’s does sell hot dog carts. This Inside Tampa Bay Business article discusses Goetz’s business model and success. It reports that, since January of 2009 he has sold “25 carts a week—15 more than usual.” He attributes this increased interest in food carts to the recession. His carts are displayed within the store along one whole wall (see picture at top of this article). They are available for rental for private functions, as well as for purchase.

There is also a Jo-El’s Delicatessen and Marketplace at 11727 N. Dale Mabry Highway in Carrollwood, on the Tampa side of the bay, owned by daughter, Sharon Goetz (see St. Pete Times: Local market helps set the Seder table).

Yet another venture is Jo-El’s Catering LLC with fish platters that feature hand sliced nova, nova spread, whitefish salad, Norwegian Salmon, bagels and bialys, and meat platters with lean pastrami, corned beef, fresh rye bread, and New York style potato salad; also parve (see food classifications at Milk and meat in Jewish law), dairy, and fruit, veggie, and sweet platters. They cater private parties, business affairs, birthday celebrations, and breakfast buffets!

All of that and more is available at the deli counter for lunch. My friend and I both had freshly made—right on the spot, not frozen and microwaved—falafel sandwiches in a soft pita with a humus spread, topped by crisp, marinated veggies. We both wanted to try the Coney Island potato knishes, but we were too stuffed. I’m trying to decide what sandwich I’ll eat next time: the chopped liver? The chicken schnitzel? The Beef tongue?

Oh my…

Jo-El’s, in St. Pete, is open Monday 9-3, Tuesday through Thursday 9-5, Friday 9-4, Sunday 9-1, closed Saturdays.