OK, I couldn't take the suspense anymore, so when I needed my roast beef on rye, pickle, knish and cream soda fix today, I went to the G&G in Natick instead of Joan and Ed's. First, they're two completely different animals. The G&G is your basic streetcorner deli, the kind you'd find pretty much anywhere in the state, only with a Jewish accent (stuffed kishke in the freezer, a couple of Hebrew National salamis air drying on a wall); Joan and Ed's is your basic schmaltzy pseudo-New York Jewish deli with really bad Jewish-type humor on the walls (reminds one a bit of Rein's). The G&G's roast beef, etc. was about $8.50, about a dollar less than the comparable offering at Joan and Ed's. But the knish was one of those yellowish things you'd expect to get at Nathan's; Joan and Ed's is much more of a gourmet knish (if such a thing is possible). G&G doesn't have Dr. Brown's; but they do have Polar Cream Soda (which is more authentically local, I guess, since it's made in Worcester). The sandwich was OK, not great. Oh, no relation to the old Dorchester G&G - but the owners were friends with the original G&G folks.
Boston, MA