The Vault Delicatessen in downtown Mason across from the Ingham County Courthose
I don’t remember where I first heard about The Vault, but I always have a thing for old bank buildings turned into restaurants. The Vault sits on the corner of Jefferson and Ash in downtown Mason just across from the Ingham County Courthouse. My actual purpose for a trip to Mason was to go to Merindorf Meats (review HERE), but since I was going that way, I thought it was a good excuse to check out The Vault.
The Vault is much more than a place to pick up a sandwich for lunch. Besides the deli case, they offer a wide variety of gourmet ingredients from Olive Oil to salts. They also sell the La Brea bread they use to make their sandwiches. Inside the old vault (the actual bank vault) is their wine room. I’m not a huge wine person so nothing in there meant anything to me, but I did step in to check out. When I turned to walk out, some stickers plastered along the frame caught my eye. They were the lock cleaning stickers dating back to the early 1900’s.
There’s really no counter to order. At the end of the deli case is a sign that says “Place Deli Orders Here” so I went and stood over there not sure if I was in the right place. One of the guys working back there came up and took my order. I was grabbing a sandwich for my girlfriend too. She wanted the #3 Hambone. This sandwich had blackforest ham, muenster cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and red onion with a red pepper mayo served on whole wheat bread. I just dropped her sandwich off at work for her, but she did send me an e-mail that read:
This sandwich is soooooo good! The cheese is great! The bread- very nice and fresh, the salad is good too.
The salad she’s referring to is the side salad served with every sandwich. It’s not that big but it comes with homemade croutons and a homemade vinagrette. After that first e-mail, she sent me a second one about the dressing which was a balsamic vinagrette. She said it was pretty heavy on the garlic. Her co-worker could smell it across the room. That was a nice heads up for me since I hadn’t gotten to the salad yet.
I went with an Italian sandwich. On the menu, it’s #4 and called Tuscan Triple. The fresh baguette came filled with the blackforest ham, salami, and spicy capicola topped with lettuce, olives, provolone, vinegar, olive oil, and Italian seasoning. It was a good combination of flavors. I had a sandwich similar to this at J. Buck’s Restaurant in Bloomington, IL and fell in love. The baguette was a little tough and chewey, but the oil and vinegar helped soften it some. My sandwich was delicious.
Paying is a little confusing. When I placed my order, the guy taking it handed me a piece of paper with my order on it. I assumed I had to take it over to the cashier on the other side of the room, but I wasn’t sure. I figured I’d just wait for my sandwiches and check out some of the other items they had for sale. Like I said, there were a lot of high quality olive oils and hard to find sea salts. After about 10 minutes, my sandwiches were ready, but I was never told that. I was the only person in the store left and I noticed two styrofoam trays at the cashier station. I assumed they were mine and they were. The two sandwiches cost just under $15. I thought it took a little too long to just make some sandwiches, but they were slicing the meat and making the sandwiches fresh. There was a family of four in front of me which may have made it take longer, but you’d think they’d be used to having more than one person in the store at the time with their location in downtown Mason.
The Vault is a good addition to downtown. They offer a healthy choice and a 30 minute lunch break should be plenty of time to get in and get out. The Vault should definately be given consideration if your in town for something.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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