“The Mel” features corned beef, fresh turkey breast, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing. | Rey Lopez/Eater DC The sibling-run venture wakes up early with bagel sandwiches, Reubens, omelets, and more Downtown D.C. just welcomed a new spot for towering sandwiches piled high with house-cured meats. Founded by two brothers from Cleveland, Mikey & Mel’s Famous Deli (1828 L Street NW) brings the nation’s capital a taste of the old-school Jewish delicatessens of their youth. Co-founders Harley and Aaron Magden name the deli in honor of their father, Mikey, and grandfather, Mel. After selling off their lucrative local company Window Nation, the brothers dove into the deli business as a passion project to keep the spirit of the family patriarchs alive. “We saw a huge void of NY-style delis here. We said, ‘fuck it, let’s just open our own place,’” Harley Magden tells Eater, admitting “we had no idea how to run a deli.” The new D.C. location builds upon the success of the 4-year-old original in Howard County, Maryland. The growing menu is massive, complete with breakfast hash plates, smoked fish platters, stacked pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup, a serve-yourself pickle bar, egg sandwiches built on fresh bagels boiled and baked on-site daily, fluffy omelets, Benedicts, latkes, and a “from the griddle” section full of pancakes, waffles, and challah French toast. Corned beef, brisket, roast beef, turkey, and pastrami are cured in-house. Rey Lopez/Eater DC Lox on an everything bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and onion. A deli counter up front sells sliced meats by the pound, along with smoked fish, cheese, salads, and sweets like rugelach, homemade cakes, and pastries. The restaurant operates seven days a week for all-day breakfast and lunch. A long list of overstuffed sandwiches, available in quarter- or three-quarter-pound sizes, star creamy whitefish salad, chopped liver, and kosher salami — “a lot of the items you would find if you went to a real NY deli,” he says. And it wouldn’t be a real deli without staple cream soda Dr. Brown’s in the mix. Rey Lopez/Eater DC Mikey & Mel’s completely transformed a former Corner Bakery. Rey Lopez/Eater DC Patrons can swing by a pickle bar to augment orders with 10 types of spears and coins, including dill, half-sours, and sweet variations. Along with Reubens and hot open-faced orders served with mashed potatoes, there’s also 18 types of specialty sandwiches named after Jewish celebrities like Larry David, Spielberg, and Seinfeld. The “Beast-ie Boy” ($49.50) is not for the faint of heart, featuring a whopping two pounds of meat (corned beef, pastrami, roast beef, off-the-bone turkey), Swiss, Muenster, coleslaw, and four pieces of rye. The goal is also give younger D.C. workers and residents a taste of what they’ve been missing. “The newer generations haven’t had this food before — it wasn’t part of growing up,” he says, pointing to iconic 1930s-era institutions like LA’s Canters and NYC’s Carnegie. He calls the Fulton, Maryland location more of a “destination,” with regulars coming all the way in from Northern Virginia. “We [knew we] needed to get on the map in a big city, not just a suburb,” he says. A friend who owns lots of property in D.C. directed them to a recently closed Corner Bakery. The brothers put over $2 million into the rebuild this year. “We wanted it to look and feel like a NY-style deli like we have in Maryland,” he says. Rey Lopez/Eater DC The 100-seat space is open daily out of the gate. The menu is only about a third live, with hamburgers, salads, soups, and more coming soon. Daily hours are 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. “There’s not a lot open in the Golden Triangle at 6 a.m.,” he says. On the day the deli quietly opened last week, some 300 bagel sandwiches went out the door. Rey Lopez/Eater DC A brightly lit marquee hovers above a huge cold counter.