FLEMING ISLAND – If you crave a New York-style pastrami sandwich, you could spend about $1,500 for an airline ticket, airport parking, transportation from the airport to Katz's Delicatessen and two nights for a hotel and other meals, or you can head over to US 17 NY Deli.

There are a lot of delis that claim to be rooted in New York tradition, but few deliver. US 17 NY Deli owner Melissa Alcantara said her shop has everything, short of New York’s famed water, to match a deep-rooted culinary fabric of the nation’s largest city.

Alcantara has owned Dave’s New York Deli in Newberry for the past 17 years. She moved to Clay County last year and decided to open a second deli. When space opened in the Westover Station Plaza on Fleming Island, she moved quickly.

“I wanted to move to a smaller town, and I visited Green Cove Springs, and I fell in love with Spring Park,” Alcantara said. “I researched the area and I found a house I liked. It met everything I wanted.”

Since its opening in February, it’s clear sandwiches and subs aren’t anything like what’s served at other sub shops.

“I do know that our pastramis and Reuben are very juicy and they're half a pound stacked high,” she said. “So, I've been selling the same exact deli meat as the other location for over 17 years, so it must be good.”

Leaner corned beef and smokey and fatty pastramis arrive whole. They are cooked, cut and sliced in house, ensuring they retain their juices and natural flavors, she said.

Bagels are kettle-boiled and shipped from the Bronx, New York, which means they are made with New York water. What makes New York bagels and brines for corned beef and pastrami different is the water, which has lower concentrations of calcium and magnesium than anywhere else. That softer water strengthens gluten proteins and makes them tough, not soft and chewy.

Alcantara concedes no deli outside the Big Apple is an exact replica of a New York deli, but US 17 NY Deli is as close as it gets.

“We will never be able to have that type of deli in Florida,” she said. “It just doesn't happen. We don't have the New York water. We don't have what they have. We have found a very good premium quality pastrami that we bring in, and then we slice it in house, and then cook it and put it in a sandwich. That's as close as you can get to the nostalgic of a New York pastrami or Reuben from New York.”

Other items on the US 17 NY Deli menu include an authentic Philly cheesesteak, which features a choice a white American, provolone, pepper jack or Cheezwhiz, liverwurst, grinders, pizza, Cubans, Greek gyros, Nathan’s hot dogs, paninis, tuna, chicken and egg salads, Italian subs, breakfast subs and bagels and lox and flavored cream cheeses spreads for bagels.

For the most part, ardent New Yorkers have embraced their deli-away-from-home sandwich shop. The meats, cheeses, bagels and desserts take them home without busting their credit cards.

Guests also appreciate each that meal comes with a little New York attitude, mixed with a little Southern hospitality.