NY Bakery and Delicatessen in Kansas City is Closed
This never gets easy, especially when I know the deli and the owner is such a mensch.
You may recall that when I was traveling across the US two years ago, at the very start of this blog, I visited the New York Bakery and Delicatessen in Kansas City, MO.
I’ll quote from that writeup:
New York Bakery and Delicatessen happens to be the oldest such establishment in Kansas City, having opened in 1905. This makes it one of the oldest in the Midwest, and puts it up there amongst the oldest delicatessens worldwide (younger than Katz’s…tied with Shapiro’s). Yet, due to its location in the dead centre of America, with a very small Jewish population, it has remained unknown and relatively forgotten.
Jim Holzmark has been running the place for years, after the previous owner got nabbed for art theft. The mainstay of the business is the bakery, which supplies Jewish breads, cakes, and pastry to the region. They make a cakey bagel (more like round challah), outsanding cinamon raisin bread, splendid ryes, gorgeous challah, but the kicker isn’t baked goods or pickled and steamed deli meats…it’s the smoked brisket.
Kansas City is a Bar-B-Q town, where the soul food of the Black community is synonymous with mesquite, slow cooking, and well spiced rubs on fatty cuts of meat.
Deli is all about slow cooking fatty cuts of meat rubbed with spicy rubs…and so the connection was made by a man named Sonny Taborn, an African-American baker and fan of the grill “Yep, I done some Bar-B-Q in my day”. The briskets are smoked in a small metal box, and the vapor rises through a greasy pipe into the ceiling (it used to just go into the air, infusing everything in the bakery with the heavenly smell of this concoction).
Sigh. You know where this is going.
Sadly, the New York Bakery and Delicatessen is closed. I heard about it from several Save the Deli readers, and finally from Jim Holzmark and his wife Barbara. Here’s the story:
Two years back, when I was in the deli, Holzmark told me that he was thinking of selling the place. He’d just turned 70, none of his kids wanted to take over, and the hours were backbreaking. He wanted to retire, and he put the deli up for sale. A year later, when none of the offers came through, he simply told me “Cash talk and bullshit walks” and endeavored to soldier on, and with right-hand-man Sonny Taborn at his side, he was making adjustments so that it’d be easier.
Sadly, last March, Sonny had a stroke and has been incapacitated since. Jim tried to work even harder, despite the difficulty, but then got into a fight with the health department. They cited him for various violations and demanded he make $80,000-$100,000 in improvements to bring the sixty plus year old building up to code. Rather than fight, and spend all his money doing so, Holzmark bowed out, depriving KC of its last Jewish deli.
“Sonny’s stroke took the wind out of my sails,” said Holzmark, in a conversation today, “The health department rode me pretty hard, and with that and with Sonny I had to cut out a lot of my wholesale business. So I made the decision to just shutter it. Its a real shame, because Pumpernick’s, the only other Jewish restaurant/deli in town, just closed six weeks ago. That’s it for Jewish food in Kansas City.”
Damn. I’m speechless at this loss. Keep fighting Save the Deli fans. We’re not out of the woods yet.
Maria Sanchez’ article in the Kansas City Star
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 am
When any deli closes it’s a true cultural and culinary deprivation. This closing in particular is sad. Not only for the loss of food and feeling, but for the fact that in Kansas City it might not even be felt. Is there tribe in KC that will suffer this loss?! I honestly don’t know. I would’ve gone there when in KC this fall for the American Royal. Seems like he gave it his best. At any age the food service business is backbreaking. At Mr. Holzmark’s age I’d imagine it’d be near impossible without support. Seems as though he did all he can. I guess delis need support not only in clientele, but in running the business as well. It can’t be done alone.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:53 am
This makes me want to cry. I’ve literally been going here all my life. My grandmother shopped here, my father shopped here, I took my son here and I just introduced my girlfriend to it about a month ago. I have to be in KC Tuesday for my mother’s surgery and I was planning a trip to the deli on my way home. Man, this sucks.
December 13th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Every Christmas Eve, for about 80 years, my husband’s
family, and now our family, have celebrated with corned
beef, pepper beef, knot rolls, bagels and salt sticks. Most
of our extended relatives thought this to be a strange way
to celebrate. To us, it seemed not only logical, but a
delicious way to usher in the Christmas season.
When my girls were old enough, we went with their grandmother to buy the deli supplies every afternoon on
Christmas Eve. Later, my girls and I made the journey
without Betty, but she was with us in spirit. Since 2003,
my grandson and son-in-law joined us. We added a new
slant and shared one order of bagels and lox. Yes, it was
enough for four of us.
To think of a life without Salt Sticks is sad, indeed.
February 18th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Hi! Great thought, but might this genuinely work?