Review: Pick Pick Pockets! Do it!

August 07, 2024 1:18 pm • Last Updated: August 07, 2024 1:18 pm

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

r.koster@theday.com

Eggplant plate at Pick Pockets Deli (Eileen Jenkins)

Cheeseburger wrap at Pick Pockets Deli (Eileen Jenkins)

Husky Wrap at Pick Pockets Deli (Rick Koster)

Inside Pick Pockets Deli in Groton (Rick Koster)

Scientists have recently determined that, if we don’t eat food, our bodies don’t get enough nourishment. We could die!

It’s therefore not surprising that humans like to talk and think about and make up recipes for and cook — and eat — food. In fact, I’ve had some enthusiastic conversations about food in unlikely places my whole life. At high school basketball practices, during scrimmages running up and down the court, when a new kid named Jamie DeWitt and I were guarding each other, we’d discuss what we hoped our mothers were making for dinner. Neither one of us lettered that year but we became best pals.

When my father was on his deathbed in the hospital, in and out of consciousness, he snapped awake at one point, recognized me sitting anxiously next to him, and said, “Son, you won’t believe this, but they just served the most amazing Duck a l’Orange.” Of course, they’d done no such thing, but I was happy to speak with him about what he THOUGHT he’d eaten, and isn’t it pretty to think so?

Recently, in a Groton pet store, buying Duck a l’Orange — wait! We were buying dog supplies — three employees were clustered around the cashier counter. One was ringing up our purchases. The other two were discussing ordering lunch with the sort of dreamy anticipation of Thomas d’Quincy skipping out of work early to hit the opium parlor. My “food conversation” antennae activated because my wife Eileen and I couldn’t help but overhear the Pet Persons’ ebullient food descriptions. We finally had to ask what restaurant they were talking about.

A fine tip

It was Pick Pockets Deli, and they claimed to eat there several times a week. It’s on Route 12 in the spot that once housed Russell’s Ribs and later the Bayou. In fact, unless I failed that final exam back in college for my History of Fast-Food Architecture course, the building was originally a Pizza Hut.

And if the interior of Pick Pockets isn’t designed for an elegant sit-down dining experience — the focus seems pretty take-out oriented — there is available seating. We enjoyed lunch there on a recent Saturday. The place is clean and it was entertaining to observe a guy who came in to pick up a truly large to-go order; turned out it was food for a wedding reception.

The point is, the Pet Shop Boys were right. The food IS pretty spectacular. As the name might suggest, there’s an emphasis on pita pocket wraps that run from traditional Middle Eastern/Mediterranean recipes featuring beef, veggie and chicken to Italian, cheeseburger, eggplant and more. There are also plenty of salads, soups, multi-component “plates” and desserts and sides.

Several folks have been behind the counter on our visits, and the system emphasizes efficiency. Folks are polite and helpful.

Happily working through the menu

Here are things we’ve sampled — and it’s worth noting that not one item has disappointed. It’s all good. In no particular order:

∎ Jumbo Plate ($13.50, choose eggplant, falafel, grilled chicken or gyro) — We tried eggplant. It was served in a tripartite to-go container. One of the smaller sections was filled to the brim with their fresh tabouleh, which had a lovely bite; the other was filled with their savory hummus.

The larger section included a base of fatoosh (chunks of tomato and cucumber, interspersed with onions and peppers and delightfully spiced with the citrusy brightness of sumac), and blanketed with a genuinely generous helping of thinly sliced and breaded crispy eggplant.

∎ Veggie Plate ($12.95) — Another tripartite container, this one featuring tabouleh, tzatziki, hummus, falafel and dolmas. The cucumber in their tzatziki is julienned, which gives the dip great texture, and the mint is just right, not too much, not too little. Their falafel is perfection: crispy exterior and pillowy interior. The tangy grape leaves in the dolmas were bursting with an exotically spiced rice/ground beef mixture.

∎ Lentil and Rice Soup (also listed as Jedra on the menu and $3.15 for 8 ounces, $5.35 for 1/2 pint, $9.15 for a pint) — Earthy, deep and rich. The soup isn't overly spiced, so you get the flavors of the legumes and simmered onions. Bonus: it's vegan and gluten-free. My wife Eileen, whose diet is of the vegetarian persuasion, claims this will be a winter staple.

We explored sides, too, because it says a lot when a place will go to effort to ensure their side dishes are as good as the mains — and that’s the case at Pick Pockets:

∎ Tortellini ($5.35 for 1/2 pint, $9.15 for a pint) — Essentially a pasta salad with cheese tortellini, with carrots, celery, red onion, pepper and parsley in a tart balsamic vinaigrette (their house dressing). This worked at both room temperature as, well, a side AND heated up as an entree. Outstanding.

∎ Potato Salad ($5.35 for 1/2 pint, $9.15 for a pint) — Also fresh and excellent: Big chunks of al dente potatoes in a creamy dill-forward dressing with red onion and celery.

And I also sampled two wraps because the idea of each amused me.

∎ The Husky ($11.20) – Grilled chunks of chicken with a clump of French fries (!), a piquant buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing. Turns out the combo of sauces overwhelmed the structural components of the pita, so the thing sorta disintegrated. That’s why they make forks. The fries component? Brilliant.

∎ Cheeseburger ($12.95, also available on a sub roll) – Three ground beef slabs topped with melted American cheese and the standard lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and ketchup. From the extras list, I added jalapeno sauce which indeed added a heat sparkle to a traditional idea that works really well in a pita.

Eileen and I have been married over 30 years. At our rehearsal dinner in New Orleans, we served the immortal muffaletta sandwiches from the Central Grocery. Unorthodox? Yep — but it worked. And I can now understand why the gentleman picking up wedding reception food from Pick Pockets did so. Because it’s worthy.