Mort’s Deli has transformed into Golden Valley’s new Kitchen and Rail

Anyone who’s tucked into a pastrami on rye at Mort’s Deli in Golden Valley might recognize the bones of the space that’s now Kitchen and Rail.

But other than the footprint (and a cluster of gold spray-painted candelabras from the Mort’s era), the new spot from Victor Salamone and Joe Newhouse is bringing a fresh, dine-in sheen to a suburban shopping center.

“Even though we’re in a strip mall, and we just happen to be friends with a Chipotle, you’re walking into a restaurant,” said Salamone. “It’s a nice sense of arrival.”

Kitchen and Rail opens Monday, Feb. 23, for lunch and dinner. It takes over a portion of a freestanding structure in the Golden Valley Shopping Center and signals the beginning of a revamp of the 70-year-old strip mall on Hwy. 55 that real estate firm Paster Properties took over in 2025.

This is the second location in Kitchen and Rail’s budding metro-wide empire; the first opened in Eagan in 2022. Salamone and Newhouse have designs on a space in Chanhassen for 2027, with hopes of reaching the northeast metro, near White Bear Lake, after that.

Salamone, who grew up in the restaurant business in Milwaukee, knows a thing or two about expansion; he was the vice president of development for Famous Dave’s, bringing that company from three to 205 stores during his tenure.

The jewel-toned space is divided into sections: a jutting, curved bar facing an open kitchen, and high-tops studded with camel, dark blue and hunter green stools; a main room with lower tables and maroon booths under a chandelier of roses; and an art- and wallpaper-adorned dining room that can be reserved for private events.

The Golden Valley location has a few twists, starting with daily lunch service for the area’s business-heavy daytime population.

“Lunch will be new for us,” Newhouse said. “It’s a totally different community surrounding it.”

The daytime menu adds soups, salads and sandwiches for nearby office workers and residents looking for something more polished than chain fare — but still quick. A typical meal at Kitchen and Rail lasts 52 minutes, Salamone said.

Drinks and wine are part of the experience, with proprietary labels served from barrels rather than bottles — a move Salamone says keeps prices down and service faster. A visible cellar wall stocks additional, recognizable labels.

“I’m not a snob,” Salamone said. “I just want to be affordable. I want people to enjoy it.”

It also brings more population density — four times that of the area surrounding their first restaurant.

“The suburbs are just changing,” Salamone said. “We bring a little of that metropolitan feel to the suburbs, and it’s a really good equation. We don’t just fit in your life; we meet you where you are in your life.”

While they’ve got big plans for their brand, Kitchen and Rail is not Salamone or Newhouse’s only job. By day, both work at Matter, a St. Louis Park-based nonprofit focused on community impact — Salamone in business development and Newhouse in brand and strategy.

For them, service is the common thread between both worlds.

“Our mission here at the restaurant is more than the food and drinks,” Newhouse said. “It’s about helping people build connection when they come in here.”

“If you do it for the money, you’re gonna fail,” he said. “You have to do it for the community, the connections you make, the people you meet.”