The matzo ball soup was heavenly, and the corned beef delicious, as were the pickles, sour tomatoes, and sour kraut placed on the table in a lazy susan.

Out here in Wisconsin, we too mourn the loss of the “traditional” delis. Plotkin’s, Gouden’s,the Corned Beef Corner, and Rice’s (with its “legal emporium” for weight-watchers) in Milwaukee, for example, long gone.We have to settle for Benjamin’s Restaurant & Deli, which is “kosher style”, as is Jake’s on 17th and North.

Madison’s Ella’s Deli was near the UW campus and started as a kosher hang-out for Jewish students and faculty, as well as anyone else lucky enough to get in on it.

They closed their original State St. location, and now they are a great kosher style family restaurant on East Washington Ave, with an ice cream parlor, restored merry-go-round in front, and tons of tsatskes everywhere–old amusement arcade fixtures and mechanical flying cartoon characters suspended from the rafters. It’s a popular place for kids’ birthday parties. When our daughter was little, we took her there, and unlike most restaurants where she was restless, she was awe-struck looking at the stuff.

But I’ve gone on too long. Best wishes to the reincarnated 2nd Avenue Deli, and I’m grateful that I had a chance to experience the original, even if it was only once.

Now, according to this entry from 2nd Ave Deli, it is alive and (forgive me!) kicking!

and that closeup of gribenes? The ultimate kiss of death but what a way to go!