In Its Prime: Romanian Jewish Steakhouses
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Have a little story in Tablet today about the Romanian Jewish Steakhouse of yore:
In Its Prime
Recalling the heyday of the Romanian-Jewish steakhouse
With smoke from backyard grills perfuming our cities, the appetite once again turns to steak. This summer’s been extra meaty, thanks to Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef, by journalist Mark Schatzker. To find out what makes a great steak Schatzker visited ranches and breeders across the United States, Japan, Argentina, and Europe, breaking down the science and culture of cattle rearing for taste with tremendous wit and detail, even going so far as to raise his own cattle. Having lived in Argentina for a few years (where I once ended the Yom Kippur fast with a barbecue), I know my way around a grill and a cut of beef, but I now see that I’m a rank amateur compared to Schatzker.
In the book, Schatzker documents a love of steak that he inherited from his father, a Polish Holocaust survivor who ate his first steak at a small-town northern Ontario restaurant in 1952 and hasn’t tasted anything as good since. The father’s experience was similar to that of many Jewish immigrants: In North America, they found that beef, a seldom-eaten luxury in Eastern Europe, was relatively cheap and readily available at local supermarkets. As newcomers settled into suburban houses with backyard grills, steak became a symbol of prosperity, a way of sharing in the affluence bestowed by citizenship in a new country.
Outside the house, the embrace and consumption of steak as emblematic of the American Dream manifested itself in the popularity of Romanian Jewish steakhouses, a culinary hybrid that’s all but extinct today. According to food writer Arthur Schwartz, whose grandfather was a waiter at Brooklyn’s Little Oriental steakhouse, Romanian steakhouses, many of them kosher, flourished around Delancey Street at the turn of the century, later moving uptown to the garment district (Lou G. Siegel’s was most famous) and out to the suburbs. In New York, he estimates there were a dozen or more at their peak in the 1950s, with several dozen spread out across the country in cities with large Jewish populations. They were a step up from the workingman’s delicatessen, a destination for a night out on the town but still within the reach of families who saved a bit.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE AT TABLETMAG.COM
Unlike the boiled, stewed, or even baked steaks cooks would prepare in Poland, Russia, or Hungary, the Romanians knew how to grill, and in the United States they created restaurants where the main course, of flame-grilled marbled rib steaks or juicy skirt steaks (also called Romanian Tenderloin) would be complemented by favorite appetizers including chopped liver, knishes, and gribenes, fried chicken skins, that would be shared by the table along with the ubiquitous buckets of coleslaw and kosher pickles. The closest you got to salad was chopped liver tossed with sliced radish. There would be karnatzelach, a garlicky beef sausage made with baking soda, which gives it a springy texture and delectable crust.
The only establishment of this ilk still standing is Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse, on New York’s Lower East Side. Ample shtick is served there along with the food—a keyboardist plays bar mitzvah music, everyone gets a T-shirt—but the setup is genuine: rec-room basement décor, sarcasm-tinged service, bottles of seltzer and jars of liquid schmaltz on the table, some of the finest chopped liver known to man, and flame-broiled cuts of meat loaded with sautéed onions. It is greasy, filling, overpriced. It is a blast.
As Jews climbed the socio-economic ladder, their steakhouses began to emulate those of the WASPs. Out went the cramped, rec-room look, and in came dimly-lit palaces of wood paneling and plush carpeting, often in the suburbs to which Jews moved in increasing numbers. Cocktail bars took a spot by the front, along with coat-check girls. Traditional dishes like p’tcha (jellied calves feet) were replaced by double-baked potatoes and iceberg salads. Kosher concerns faded, and non-kosher cuts like sirloin and filet were added to menus, as well as pork chops and shellfish. At Moishes in Montreal, one of the few high-end Jewish steakhouses still operating, waiters wheel out dessert carts at the end of the meal piled high with profiteroles and hot fudge sundaes.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE AT TABLETMAG.COM
Whether you visited Seymore Kaye’s in Queens, Duke Zeibert’s in Washington, or dozens of similar joints in Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, or Toronto, these were the haunts where real-estate machers and garmentos rolled deep in mink and sable and the parking lot overflowed with Cadillacs. This was Jewish dining at its most extravagant—with restaurants that belied their customers’ eagerness to be fully assimilated. Diners got French service, with tuxedo-jacketed waiters in white gloves, but the Yiddish taste remained, and the breadbasket was filled with challah rolls, pumpernickel, and fresh rye. Women in pearls picked at chopped liver, but there was a jovial atmosphere of back-slapping and kibitzing, and it never felt stuffy.
The Romanian-style steakhouse slowly died out, replaced on the low end of Jewish steak consumption by Israeli shish kebab restaurants and at the high end by fancy glatt kosher steakhouses, such as Prime Grill in Manhattan. Both iterations lack Yiddish kitchen flair. One is a multicultural mishmash, with less herring and more miso-glazed black cod, and the other is resolutely Middle Eastern. Fine dining for the younger generations of Jews now means sushi or Italian, and steak no longer means freedom as much as it means fat.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE AT TABLETMAG.COM
Deli hits the Food Wars on Travel Channel
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Tune in tonight to the Travel Channel, because it’s a New York pastrami battle on the new hit show Food Wars. The show takes a local food icon, and then weighs in on which local stalwart makes it best. For New York pastrami, it’s the hand slicing haven of Katz’s, vs. the haymish flavors of the 2nd Ave Deli. Oh man.
The beautiful, insightful, and ridiculously buff host Camille Ford interviews fans of both delis, their owners, and resident deli expert David Sax (that’s me!), about the art of pastrami and who does it best. Then there’s a blind taste test, and the winner is…
You’ll just have to tune in tonight at 10 pm EST to find out.
A Whole Lotta Stuff
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
photo courtesy of the Tribeca Trib
Well hello there, long time no see.
Yeah, I’ve been a bit absent lately, traveling in the past two weeks to Toronto (wedding planning), Whistler (skiing), and Florida (deli talking). Got back to New York yesterday, and headed straight for the James Beard House, where the Schmaltz to Remember dinner was a tremendous success. Many thanks to all who participated and helped organize last night. You’re all mentsches!
Now, because so much deli related news and stuff has piled up, I’m just going to run through it all today. Hold onto your mustard.
First off, the Brooklyn by way of Montreal upstart Mile End has earned the title of Best Deli of 2010 from New York Magazine:
Mile End, the barely open, instantly overrun Canadian-Brooklyn oddball, has already, in its infancy, reinvented the venerable form. This is a deli for locavores, a deli for the next generation of deli lovers, with a respect for tradition contemporized by a rare premium on great, fresh ingredients, cooked from scratch, smoked and pickled in-house, served with an unfamiliar (in the deli world, anyway) smile.
A few weeks back, I set out on a little mission with my friend, and journalist, Saki Knafo. He was writing about me for the Tribeca Trib, the neighborhood’s premiere paper, and we set off to find Jewish foods south of Canal St. Not an easy task, let me tell you. But after some decent appetizing at Zucker’s Bagels and Smoked Fish, we hit paydirt with the stellar matzo ball soup and knish at Izzy and Nat’s, in Battery Park City, which opened over a year ago. And then we capped it at an old favorite of mine, Amazing 66:
Finally, it was time for a visit to that most sacred of Jewish culinary destinations: Chinatown.
“All Jews love Chinese food,” Sax declared with rabbinical authority over a plate of pastrami-fried rice at Amazing 66 on Mott Street. According to Sax, the restaurant was founded by an accountant who spent a life-changing lunch hour with a Jewish colleague at the Second Avenue Deli. Sax pinched a pink speck of meat between his chopsticks and held it aloft, as though to punctuate a point. “Chinese food and deli,” he said. “The ultimate Jewish meal.”
By the way, if you want to hear me speak downtown, I’ll be appearing in conversation with Food Maven Arthur Schwartz, next wednesday March 24th, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. BUY TICKETS HERE
Now for some sad news. Not one, but two delis have recently closed.
First, Bloom’s Delicatessen, in Westchester, NY, has a “For Rent” sign in the empty window of their plaza, though oddly enough, their website is still running, and still awesome. Hopefully they’ll be able to reopen soon.
Second, Florida’s Deli Den has been forced to close after a dispute with the landlord. This was one of the last holdouts to serve the early bird special, and I spoke with Vered, the owner, a few years back. But keep holding your breath, because she intends to reopen somewhere nearby. READ ABOUT IT HERE IN THE SUN SENTINAL
But don’t fret too much deli lovers, because the unstoppable Ziggy Gruber apparently has a letter of intent to expand his Kenny and Ziggy’s empire into Dallas. Says the Dallas Observer:
“We have a letter of intent with the landlord, a nonbinding letter of intent,” he tells Unfair Park this afternoon. “They sent it, we went it back with the terms. We’re technically in negotiations now. We haven’t sat at the table. This is preliminary stuff. We’ve expressed interest in the spot, but the ball’s in the landlord’s corner, and it’s up to him. That’s all I can tell you. We’re waiting for the landlord to tell us.”
And finally, here’s a little number that was sent to me by a whole bunch of you. Recorded at a synagogue not ten blocks from where I grew up. Sorry, the sound is fairly awful:
It’s good, but this is clearly the king:
Dennis Miller and I chat deli
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
When I was a young lad, I worshiped at the alter of Saturday Night Live. Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, and most definitely Dennis Miller. Possibly the best political comic out there, regardless of whether you agree with his politics or not (he’s become quite the conservative).
So I was thrilled yesterday when I got an email from his producer, asking if I’d like to be a guest on the Dennis Miller Radio show. Here’s our talk from earlier today. I avoided the temptation to compare Putin and the SALT Treaty to a pastrami sandwich at Jerry’s.
A NY talk tonight, “Delicatessen” in Philly, and an NBC appearance
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
First off for you New Yorkers, tonight I’ll be talking at the Museum at Eldridge St, about the book, the quest, the whole mustard-laden shebang. It starts at 7pm sharp, and it’s FREE! More info here.
*I beg you Jews not to ask any long or complicated questions tonight. I plan to bolt out of there to catch the last period of the Canada v. Russia hockey game.
Secondly, some deli news from Philadelphia, a city where a lot of movement’s been going on in the deli business as of late. It seems that a new place, titled Delicatessen, is going to open in the former Kibitz Room space, which closed last November. Says Philly.com:
Matzo balls are due to start rolling again late next week at 703 Chestnut St., which was Kibitz in the City until it closed in November.
Newcomer is simply called Delicatessen, and the guy behind the counter is Elkins Park native Michael Spector, 32, who describes the concept as Modern Jewish Deli (think bagel and lox meet wasabe cream cheese and tobiko roe, mini-matzo ball soup, and the “Benny Rubinson,” a sandwich that weaves eggs Benedict into a Reuben).
(How about the name of the “Jubano,” a sandwich that has pastrami, spicy brown mustard, half sour dill pickles and American cheese pressed on challah.)
Some vegan dishes (rare for a deli) and all the classics are on chef Michael Yount’s menu, too. They’ll serve “microbrewed” sodas from Multi-Flow, whose syrups are made of cane sugar.
The 40-seater — whose seating includes reclaimed church pews (oy!) — will open at the end of next week, with hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; dinner comes online in the spring.
Very interesting. Hopefully it’s better than that douche-magnet Delicatessen in Soho.
Finally, the old bit of self-promotion. Here’s me, in 30 Rock. The building, not the show.
Deli News Roundup
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010Some days, the Google Alerts just go off the chart here at Save the Deli.
Here’s what we got.
First off, I’ve got a little thing in Saveur this month, talking about delis in their LA food package. “Deli Capital of the World” talks about some of the best family owned Jewish delis in that great city.
Los Angeles and its adjacent municipalities contain more continuously family-owned Jewish delis than any other city in the country. In the hands of third- and fourth-generation proprietors, family recipes for matzo ball soup, knishes, and latkes have evolved into high art. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST AT SAVEUR.COM
Ruth Tobias at Stuff Magazine Boston is forecasting food trends to watch in 2010, and she thinks a Jewish deli revival is one of them:
Try it: burger on challah at Lord Hobo; corned beef brisket at Franklin Café; house-smoked pastrami-salmon at Henrietta’s Table
Mark my words: between the “scene” that hip New York upstart, Delicatessen, has become, according to Chris Langley, with its “plays on old faves,” and the success of David Sax’s bestselling cultural history Save the Deli, the renaissance of the Jewish deli is nigh. If, a year hence, you aren’t seeing funky twists on kishka, kreplach, and matzoh brei, I’ll eat my hat. (Make that my dear old zayde’s yarmulke.)
And finally, how safe is a hot dog? When I was in the 2nd Ave Deli yesterday, one of the managers there mentioned a campaign to change the shape of those famous sausages, because children were choking on them. A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics has called for warning labels on hot dog packaging, and a thought to redesign hot dogs themselves. See, of all the foods that children choke on, hot dogs top the list.
Without editorializing too much here, and while acknowledging that we need to protect children, shouldn’t this be a bit of a caveat emptor issue? If you feed any large piece of food to a child it can obstruct their breathing. Cut up your food. Chew it like a bird and spit it out if you can’t manage that. Unless manufacturers are going to make baby hot dogs the size of tic tacs, I don’t see how we can reengineer hot dogs in a way that’ll be “safer” and still tasty.
Maybe we should just ban this instead:
Saul’s debates deli’s future, an ode to my deli porn, and the bacon files
Friday, February 5th, 2010
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.
There’s a great New York Times story about it (I’m briefly quoted), and it’s worth checking out to have your say. Says the Times:
(more…)
Hello Seattle
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Rainy? Check.
Starbucks? Check.
Lots of weird Boeing planes flying around? Check.
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
Welcome Back Portland
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Rainy? Check.
Bearded dudes? Check.
Amazing food carts? Check.
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.
Want to know more? Check out the advance press:
Says Portland Eater:
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.
What: David Sax Pastrami-Ganza
Where: Kenny & Zuke’s, 1038 SW Stark St
When: February 2nd, 6pm
Cost: $15
RSVP: info@kennyandzukes.com, or 503.222.3354
Back in San Fran
Thursday, January 28th, 2010Always 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.
David Sax: ‘Save the Deli’ a call to arms
Louis Peitzman
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
