The Buzz Builds!
Monday, June 1st, 2009So things are moving along as the buzz for Save the Deli builds.
First, this weekend was the Book Expo America, the industry’s giant sales tradeshow, where book buyers meet publishers, and place their orders. My US publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, had their lunches during the conference catered by the 2nd Ave Deli. They did so well, they needed to restock their table, because editors, writers, and sellers were going crazy over the pastrami.
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Hold the Schmaltz! (Rascal House the Final Hours) The Film
Friday, May 8th, 2009It’s been just over a year since the great Miami deli The Rascal House was closed down by greed, haste, and foolishness.
Now comes a film about that final day. Thanks to comedian, performer, and magician Adam Steinfeld (Jewish?), I present “Hold the Schmaltz”.
Marketing Ideas
Thursday, April 16th, 2009Happy end of Pesach to you all (or at least those who can’t wait until tonight). I had pancakes for breakfast, asserting my Reforness fully.
In Toronto this week, having meetings with the publisher about marketing ideas for the book (the US meeting happened a few weeks back). I want to tap into your collective imaginations and see what ideas you all have to help promote the book. What are your thoughts for viral campaigns, guerilla marketing, stunts, events, or other fun things that we can do in October to get Save the Deli into as many hands as possible.
I’m looking for whatever you’ve got. Please email me any suggestions or post them below.
Gourmet weights Smoked Meat vs. Pastrami
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Katz’s Pastrami (photo credit: christopherfarber.com)
Or
Schwartz’s Smoked Meat
Gird yourselves deli lovers, because a great debate is about to rage up.
Gourmet Magazine (which will shortly publish a story of mine on deli), has a post by famed New York food critic Robert Sistema on weighing Schwartz’s smoked meat vs. Katz’s pastrami, both of which are eaten within hours of each other. This is a taste test of champions. Read on:
My wife, Gretchen, and I recently found ourselves faced with a unique opportunity: to eat the famed smoked meat of Montreal, then travel back to New York and taste our home city’s notorious counterpart, pastrami, all within a few hours of each other. This rare, real-time comparison turned into a pastrami vs. smoked meat smackdown, as we tried to answer the fundamental question: “Which is better?”
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The Secret History of the Bagel
Monday, March 30th, 2009
I don’t talk about bagels much, though I love them dearly, because I try to keep the deli world distinct from the bagel/appetizing world…as it should be. But I have to post about this.
Last week I read a great article by my friend Ari Weinzweig, the guru-founder of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. Two years ago Ari took me to Zingerman’s bakehouse, where they were making chewy, crisp, hand twisted bagels similar to those I’ve enjoyed in Montreal. The man knows and loves bagels, and his article “The Secret History of the Bagel“, in the Atlantic’s food pages, is a worthwhile read.
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Cel Ray
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
Few beverages are as essential, and controversial, to the deli world than Cel-Ray, the celery tonic developed by the Dr. Brown’s company (Doc Brown himself!) well back over a century ago. While the specter of celery soda seems vile to many, there’s a lot of deli fans who can’t abide a sandwich without it.
In an excellent Nextbook article that just came to my attention now (but was written in January), Molly Young tackles the most interesting of beverages.
An Acquired Taste
A toast to Cel-Ray, the one and only celery soda
BY MOLLY YOUNG For most people, there are two choices for pastrami sandwich accompaniment: cream soda or Cel-Ray. Cream soda, the prevalent option, is a retiring beverage. Too feeble for a lead, it plays decent second fiddle to a salty meat sandwich. Then there’s Cel-Ray, the connoisseur’s choice.
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The Mavens
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009I’ve been meaning to post this article for almost two years, but thanks to John Harris for reminding me that I hadn’t. It’s a great story about localism in the deli scene, and an inspiring portrait of a group of nostalgic noshers who gather at Saul’s, in Berkeley.
Noshtalgia” for Pastrami
While Jewish delis are fading nationwide, local delis with the foodie credo—“It’s the ingredients, stupid!”—are thriving.
By L. John Harris
I’m a pastrami man. When I go to a Jewish deli, that 100-year-old emporium of Eastern European comfort food, I order a pastrami on rye. Not only do I eat this classic and very fatty sandwich (without guilt), I study it. This qualifies me as a “maven,” the Yiddish word for expert, or in my case, “obsessive-compulsive deli guy.”
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Most Delis Named in One Minute
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009I’m generally not one to brag, but let’s face it, there’s few people who know as much about delis as I do. Whether this is something to brag about is entirely debatable, but I was recently asked to put this to the test.
Last week my friend Dan Rollman invited me to a meeting of the World Record Appreciation Society, a live event put on by the Universal Record Database, which is the coolest world record organization out there. It allows anyone to set a record, so long as it’s breakable, quantifiable, and legal. Check out their site www.urdb.org
The challenge was thus: how many delis could I name, without a list, in a minute. Check out the video below to see how I did. (more…)
Best’s Kosher-Jason Marck’s Personal History on WBEZ
Monday, February 9th, 2009As I mentioned a few times before, last week marked the sad end to a quartet of Chicago deli meat dynasties, as Sara Lee shut down its kosher meat manufacturing plant.
Among those hardest hit emotionally were the families who had sold their businesses to Sara Lee in the past, only to see their legacy disappear. One such individual was Jason Marck, a radio reporter with WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate. His story, which is well worth listening to, traces his family’s history through Best’s Kosher, for the show Eight Forty-Eight.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AN MP3 OF THE STORY
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Mixed Bag Day
Friday, February 6th, 2009Friday is definitely mixed bag day, especially with the deluge of mail that’s come in. Since savethedeli.com was linked in the New York Times twice in Milton Parker’s obituary, I’ve seen more visitors to this site than any time since it started two years back. Which reminds me, I missed the two year anniversary last week, so let’s celebrate it now.
A lot of small things today: (more…)
