Ok, all sorts of random things to get through, and none of them even remotely related.
First off, a fan of the site, Mr. Jim Peters, has taken it upon himself to drop some delis into google maps and make deli specific maps of Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Toronto, and San Francisco/Bay area, based on the information found in my book. The site is called greatdelis.com, and it’s the start of something great, I hope. Help Jim out if you can and add in more cities. You can contact him via the site. Here’s an example from LA:
Next, we have some sad news via Robert Wilonsky at the Dallas Observer:
Roasters’ N Toasters, Toasted
By Robert Wilonsky in Dish
Maybe I’ll get around to writing this for City of Ate: Why can’t Dallas do a proper Hebrew deli? Sure — it’s a dying art and an endangered species. So says David Sax in his book Save the Deli; as NPR put it a few months back, he’s on a mission to save the Jewish deli, close to a permanent shalom in the foresaken flyover. Which I mention this morning only because Roasters’ N Toasters, the Preston Road outpost of the Miami mainstay, has served its last pastrami sandwich and bowl of matzo ball soup.
Too bad. I had friends in Dallas who really liked Roaster’s and Toasters. Not to worry though, because the Florida stores are in fine form.
In somewhat better news, the legendary Beverly Hills delicatessen Nate N’ Al, is helping out in Haiti, by donating 20 percent of dining proceeds from Feb 8-10th to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund.
We already knew that Mark and David Mendelson were mentches, but this puts them over the top. If you haven’t visited their new Thousand Oaks store, here’s your reason!
Finally, a nice treat for all of you who weren’t able to attend my talk at the I Love New York Deli in Seattle last wednesday. Journalist Sanjay Bhatt was there to film it for a possible movie he’s making about food, and he’s been kind enough to share parts of the lecture on YouTube. I’ll post one clip below. The others you can find here.
Lots to talk about today in a week’s end roundup of press and other happenings.
First, if you’re in the Bay Area next tuesday, check out the killer debate Saul’s is putting on in Berkeley. Titled “Can a retro cuisine be part of the avant-garde?”, the debate on the deli menu will tackle issues like sustainability, portion size, and tradition in an event that’s so very very Berkeley, even Michael Pollan is part of the panel.
Must be Seattle, which is the last stop on this mini-tour, and should be a fun one.
Last night in Portland was epic. We had about 75 people in Kenny and Zuke’s, and I was there, passing out pastrami and bagels and knishes to everyone. It was the youngest audience I’ve ever had, and the one with the smallest percentage of Jews (about 25%), but it was a real party, and I think everyone had a good time.
Tonight I talk at the I Love New York Deli, here in the University District. It’s free, sponsored by JConnect, and takes place at 6.45pm. Come on out.
I Love New York Deli
5200 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA. 98105
Telephone: 206-523-0606
Home smoked pastrami and freshly baked bagels? Oh you know it.
Yes folks, I’m back in Portland, Oregon, home of Kenny and Zuke’s, and the finest eating town in the land. Tomorrow night I’ll be hosting a very special event at Kenny and Zuke’s, and I’d love for all of you who are nearby to come on out. $15 buys you entry, which includes pastrami, knishes, chopped liver, bagels, and the rest of the works that Kenny and Zuke are laying out for you. I’ll give a talk, sign some books, and happily shmooze.
Nick A. Zukin–the Zuke in Kenny & Zuke’s–writes in to tell the transom about tomorrow’s pastrami-riffic event. David Sax, Canadian, writer, blogger, and author of Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen, will be spending an hour or two at the downtown deli, right next door to the Ace Hotel, tomorrow evening, starting at six. As Zukin reminds, “David spotlighted Kenny & Zuke’s in Gourmet Magazine as one of two shops that represent the future of delicatessen. He also named Kenny & Zuke’s as one of the top 10 delicatessens in North America.” (That was, just FYI, in Maxim, under the headline Stupid Fun.) Resident New Yorkers have been curious about Kenny & Zuke’s seemingly endless appeal in the face of the slightly fussy deli case and all-around not-yelling-at-you-ness of the staff, but word is that the bagels–from a recipe developed by part-owner and Oregonian writer Michael C. Zusman–are good, and the pastrami verging on Katz’s-worthy.
Always great to be in San Francisco. Every time I’ve come here in the past few years for deli business, I find the sun shining and the city as awesome as ever. I’m here to speak at the city’s Jewish Community Center tonight. Come on out! Details Here.
Opened up my morning Chronicle today and found an article about me in it. Not bad.
You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate the Jewish delicatessen, but it helps. Being raised on deli food, however, creates a different relationship with the cuisine.
Just ask journalist David Sax.
“I grew up loving delis and eating at them with my family,” Sax says. “It wasn’t something that was overt; it was just something we always did.”
In his book “Save the Deli,” Sax examines the decline of deli culture, looking at the causes, effects and possible solutions. Despite being a lifelong lover of kugel and knishes, he wasn’t aware that delis were in danger until he and a friend began working on a paper in college.
“When I was researching that paper and speaking to a couple deli owners that I knew, they were telling me that the business was going out and people were having trouble surviving,” he says. “I never realized it was imperiled until I was looking into it.”
Though it once boasted hundreds of Jewish delicatessens, it’s been a long time since Brooklyn has celebrated a new deli opening in the borough. Most now exist in the southern reaches of the BRK, down in Mill Basin, Flatbush, or Coney Island. But last night, Jewish deli returned to downtown brownstone Brooklyn, when Mile End finally opened its doors.
It’s been a long time coming, ever since Brooklyn Law School student, and Montreal Jew, Noah Bernamoff began curing smoked meat in his Park Slope apartment, smoking on his roof, and serving it to friends last year. There were months of experiments, lease negotiations, construction headaches, and inspection delays. But finally, yesterday, Mile End was in business. Read the rest of this entry »
Salvador Lopez, photographed during his lunchtime shift at Langer’s. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times / January 7, 2010)
This has to be one of the coolest deli stories I’ve seen in a long time:
Double-dipping waiters sandwiched between two delis
Langer’s and Canter’s share workers, who contend with different clientele and menus. Which pastrami is better? Don’t ask.
By Robert Faturechi Los Angeles Times
Salvador Lopez, a waiter at Langer’s, has the routine down pat. After a hectic lunch shift serving sandwiches on rye at the pastrami mecca next to MacArthur Park, he negotiates a series of surface streets — up Normandie, across Beverly — to make his way into the Fairfax district.
He beelines into the locker room of another renowned Jewish deli, shedding the signature Langer’s bow tie for a tight-fitting black T-shirt that reads: I ♥ Canter’s.
Lopez is not a delicatessen double agent, funneling trade secrets on Russian dressing and blintzes. The 29-year-old is one of several waiters who openly works at two of the delis that compete for the title of Los Angeles’ best.
The delis’ unique shared employee pool speaks to the changing demographics of their neighborhoods. Langer’s, surrounded by drug dealers and vendors selling fake IDs, is open for lunch only. Canter’s, in a once-sleepy neighborhood now home to cafes and clubs, draws a younger crowd well into the wee hours.
Sharing workers makes sense, the deli owners say, because top talent is rare. A good waiter who understands the makings of a mean Reuben is hard to find.
Just when you thought you missed out on your chance to hear me speak, meet me, and have your book signed during the tour…despair not.
I’m heading back out on the road in a few weeks, hitting up some spots East and a few out West.
Jan 24th: Congregation Neve Shalom. Metuchen, NJ 10:00 AM
Jan 26th: Gershman Y, Philadelphia, PA. 7:00 PM (with spread by Famous 4th Street Deli)
Jan 28th: San Francisco JCC. San Francisco, CA 8:00 PM
Feb 2nd: Kenny and Zuke’s. Portland, OR 6:00 PM
Feb 3rd: I Love New York Deli. Seattle, WA
Sad news from Toronto a few weeks back that I’ve just heard now. Sid Starkman, the past President of the Chicago 58 provisions company, has passed away after a battle with Cancer.
He died on December 29th.
If you’re a deli lover in Toronto, it’s impossible to even state the place that Chicago 58’s meats have in your life. I grew up eating their salamis, their corned beef, their pickled tongue. It is a family run, family owned deli company, and that’s sadly rare in this day and age. Sid will be missed.
