Fresser’s Pastrami Truck hits LA’s streets
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Very cool news coming out of LA. A pastrami truck is hitting the streets of that pastrami and motor vehicle loving city! What a perfect shidduch. I’ve been waiting for a pastrami truck for ages. Thought it would happen in NYC, but LA got the scoop on this. Young deli fanatics: if you want a way into the business on the cheap, this is the future.
It’s called Fresser’s, and it looks pretty basic. The headline item is pastrami, the rest is made up of sandwiches and protein bowls with mashed potatoes. Not much info besides this. The menu’s below. The blog is here. You can follow on twitter here (more…)
Passing of a great deli man: Arnold Dworkin
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Sad news today. Arnold Dworkin, the gregarious deli man who headed up Kaufman’s Bakery and Deli in Skokie, Il, passed away yesterday.
Arnold had been ill for the past several years, and the deli was (and remians) in the hands of his daughter Bette and wife Judy.
He will be missed.
The funeral will be on Thursday, at 11:00 a.m. at Am Yisrael Congregation, 4 Happ Road, Northfield, IL.
For the shiva, please call 847-835-2081
Alef Ha Sholem Arnold. You brought joy and corned beef on rye into the lives of many.
As always, the best tribute to the man is through his deli. Please pass by for a visit.
Artie’s is changing hands
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
According to Crain’s New York Business, Artie’s delicatessen, on the Upper West Side, is changing ownership.
Says Crain’s:
Alicart Restaurant Group, which owned Artie’s, as well as six other restaurants, including four Carmine’s, sold the deli to Tuzia Feldman, who signed a 15-year lease at the deli’s current 2290 Broadway location.
It quotes Mr. Feldman as wanting to open three or four more Artie’s in New York. So there could be more deli on its way New Yorkers!
I’d welcome it. Artie’s is a pretty darn tasty place. Especially the baked goods and the brisket Reuben.
www.arties.com
2290 Broadway (at 83rd)
New York, NY 10024
The Montreal Food Chronicles: Jennifer 8 Lee tackles bagels and smoked meat
Friday, December 4th, 2009
A smoked meat sandwich at Boerum Hill deli Mile End. by Jennifer 8. Lee for the NYT
Inspired perhaps by Save the Deli (we’re friends), New York Times writer, and Fortune Cookie Chronicles author Jennifer 8 Lee is in Montreal and showing off its bagels and smoked meat against New York’s.
Are Montreal bagels really better than New York bagels?
City Room had been hearing about these legendary Montreal bagels from our readers. They were sweeter and less bloated. Since they were baked in a wood-burning oven, they had crisper crusts.
So we decided to pay a visit to Montreal’s bagel world to understand the rival to our native bagels. Montreal, which saw an influx of Jewish immigrants both before and after World War II, had become one of the main world centers of distinctive Jewish cuisine. Two Montreal bakeries stand out above all the others: Fairmount Bagel and St-Viateur’s Bagel, both in the Mile End neighborhood. (more…)
Some UK Love: The Independent and Silverbrow on Food
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Gotta love the UK. Not only is the salt beef, fried gefilte fish, hand sliced tongue, and chopped liver the tastiest, but there’s a core of solid deli lovers there. And though the book doesn’t have a UK publisher yet, there’s been a decent amount of press over there.
Today, Claire Prentice of The Independent examines the threat to the health of the deli, behind a corned beef sandwich at Katz’s.
Is this the end for the deli?
New York’s historic Jewish cafés are under threat from gentrification – and the health food movement.
By Claire Prentice
….The Jewish deli is as iconic a part of the New York landscape as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. But though in a handful of establishments you can still find enough knishes, kishkes and kreplach to keep the New York winter chill at bay, these culinary institutions are under threat. In 1931 there were 1,550 Jewish delis in New York City; today just two dozen remain. They are the victim of spiralling rents, the dispersal of Jewish communities, a decline in people keeping kosher and the rise of healthy eating. With a menu heavy on red meat, fat, salt and carbs, Jewish food is nothing if not artery-clogging. Gribenes – chicken skins fried in chicken fat – is a sumptuous mouth sensation, though less kind to the waistline.
“It’s hard work, the deli business. You have to be prepared to get your hands dirty,” says Katz’s co-owner Alan Dell. “A lot of people who ran mom-and-pop delis wanted their children to have a better life so they sent them to college and the family tradition died out.”
Once upon a time, you couldn’t walk a block in the Lower East Side without being hit by the meaty aroma wafting through the doors of one deli or another. “You had this concentration of Jewish workers who needed kosher food and these pickled and preserved foods were cheap, filling sustenance,” says David Sax, a lifelong deli lover and author of Save the Deli. Today there is only Katz’s left in what was once a thriving immigrant community. The delis, Jewish tailors and other immigrant businesses have been swept away by gentrification to make way for an influx of trendy bars and designer boutiques…. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
And now for something completely different. Well, kinda.
Anthony Silverbrow is a deli lover in London. He has a passion for pastrami, and he’s not been afraid to share it at his blog Silverbrow on Food. We spoke yesterday over Skype about the deli, its future, and the difference between North America’s deli future and the UK’s. HERE’S THE LINK TO THE PAGE
Hopefully this’ll generate enough interest in the UK to get distribution for the book there.
The Food Dudes check out Miller’s in San Francisco
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Check out one of my favorite delis in the country, Miller’s East Coast Deli in San Francisco, explored here by the Food Dudes SF.
CBC Radio at 1pm Today, The Hour’s list, and Momofuku hearts Wilensky’s
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Hey friends and family in Canada. Tune into CBC Radio today at 1pm for my interview on The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers. If you miss it, you can find the clip online later on.
Also, Montreal’s alt weekly The Hour has recommended Save the Deli as a holiday gift read. So go out there and buy your friends a copy!
says the mini-review:
David Sax was born in Toronto, schooled in Montreal and lives in Brooklyn, and is now, according to his book’s jacket, the “world’s foremost authority on deli.” A few old guys on my street might contest this, but anyhow… Sax, who travelled across America’s great cities and beyond in search of the “perfect pastrami,” is man’s man kind of writer: down to earth, funny, light - not like any of the meat he’s writing about.
(Also, a nice shout out to my friend Hal Niedzviecki, whose Peep Diaries is in the same list, and the Globe and Mail 100 best books of the year list.)
Finally, I read an interview with Momofuku chef and owner David Chang in the National Post, where he raves about his fave spots in Montreal. Wilensky’s makes the list as his idea of perfection.
(more…)
Last stop: Ann Arbor (plus a belated press roundup)
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Ann Arbor, MI
Well friends, it’s been over a month since I hit the road, and I am simply exhausted. Here I am on the final day of the book tour. Thanksgiving dawns tomorrow, then Chanukah, and then I head to Mexico for some surf and sand.
It kicked off on Oct 19th with the launch party in NYC, then on to DC and the White House, plus Sixth and I.
Toronto saw a party at Caplansky’s, San Francisco a reading at Saul’s, LA did lunch at Langer’s
We hit up Manny’s in Chicago and 3G’s in Miami, in Philly, I spoke at the Free Library (see below), in Montreal we brought out the city’s best delis
Then I hit the Jewish book tour of JCCs: Houston, Milwaukee, Denver, Boulder, Richmond, Tampa, Buffalo, and Toledo
Now I’m readying myself for the final stop: Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor. I’ll be briefly talking tonight at 5pm, while Sy Ginsburg hands out samples of his world famous corned beef. I began this whole journey across the delis of America three years ago this January here in Ann Arbor, at Zingerman’s with Sy. It’s fitting that it concludes here.
I want to thank everyone who helped put this together. My publicists Taryn Roeder, Elizabeth Anderson, and Lori Glazer. Ashley Dunn in Canada. Carolyn Hessel and the JBN folks. All the deli owners, JCC volunteers, and people who made it special. Ronnie Dragoon and the Ben’s Crew. Ronna and Beverley. And Jelvis, the Jewish Elvis.
The book is now officially a bestseller on the LA Times List (#6), but I need your help to make it a bigger hit. So if you haven’t purchased a copy, please do so, either at your local bookstore, or online here.
So now, a few stray treats from the road. In case you missed me, or miss me. (more…)
NY Magazine: Northern Exposure
Monday, November 23rd, 2009Here’s a little something I wrote for New York Magazine about an exciting new deli opening in Brooklyn. You’ll hear more about Mile End in the coming weeks. Until then, enjoy:
Northern Exposure
A tiny meat counter in Boerum Hill introduces deliphiles to pastrami’s Canadian cousin.
(photo: Hannah Whitaker/nymag.com)
Montreal’s smattering of Jewish delicatessens—anchored by the legendary house of smoked meat, Schwartz’s—are astoundingly old-school in their approach to Yiddish food. Meats are cured in-house and sliced by hand; wall-mounted menus list only a few key sandwiches, steaks, and sides; and there’s nary a salad or unpickled vegetable in sight. At the heart of the tradition is Montreal-style smoked meat, a cured brisket that’s fattier than corned beef and moister than pastrami. (more…)
Save the Deli: National Bestseller
Saturday, November 21st, 2009Well folks, the tour is almost over. It’s been a month since the book has been out, and I’m finally back in nyc for the weekend. Monday I speak at the Toledo JCC, tuesday at Zingerman’s, and then the road and me part ways for a while. It’s been quite a ride. I’ve been waking at dawn and eating breakfast in airports for far longer than I’d like to remember, but it’s been wonderful meeting all the hundreds of deli lovers who came out to support Save the Deli.
And it’s paid off. The book is now officially a National Bestseller. It cracked last week’s Los Angeles Times Bestseller list at #9 and now it’s at #6.
