Hungry Magazine: Lowenstein’s Revenge
Thursday, October 30th, 2008I want to pass along a great article that one of you sent me recently. “Lowenstein’s Revenge”, appears in the online Hungry Magazine. I think it speaks to many of our attachments, hopes, fears, and feelings towards the delis in our lives. Our relationship with them occurs over many years, and as they become woven into the fabric of our routine, so too does that relationship become more complicated. Either way, it’s a wonderful nostalgic tale of New York delis over many years. Enjoy. (more…)
Bittman’s Kasha
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Kasha Varnishkes, courtesy of nytimes.com
I know Mark Bittman has been around the cooking world for years, but I just discovered him last year, when his videos on the New York Times website provided quick dish cooking lessons in under five minutes, all with a solid dose of humor and attitude. I’ve made a few of these things and they are awesome…nothing molecular or fancy or complicated…just good food. (more…)
“Comfort (Food) on 2nd Avenue” in the Forward
Thursday, September 4th, 2008The great Monteal Jewish guru Leslie Lutsky has again pointed out a fascinating article from the annals of the Jewish press. This one comes from the latest edition of the Jewish Forward, in a beautiful ode to the new 2nd Ave Deli, written by Marjorie Ingall aka the East Village Mamale.
You can link to the article here, but I really want to highlight the concluding paragraph:
A couple of years ago, New York magazine lamented the death of Jewish food in New York City. Most of the appetizing stores, kosher delis, egg-cream vendors, and Roumanian schmaltz-parlors are gone. The magazine noted the ascendance of “Bar-B-Jews” — tribe members who run palaces of pulled pork: Men like Danny Meyer (Blue Smoke), Adam Perry Lang (Daisy Mae), Andrew Fischel (R.U.B.) and Mark Glosserman (Hill Country). But now, the 2nd Avenue Deli is bringing Jewy back. The restaurant is currently being run by 20-something nephews of the original proprietor. Josie’s zayde is gone; he never got to meet Maxie. The Lebewohl family, which owns the 2nd Avenue Deli, has suffered its own losses. But the Deli abides, and it is better than ever. When I bit into my corned beef sandwich, tears sprang to my eyes, mightily amusing my lunch partners.
Amen to that.
Stage Deli to Close in Vegas
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Some sad news for Vegas fans to report. Those of you who love sin city, and want to celebrate your big wins (or staggering losses) at Caesar’s Palace with a towering pastrami sandwich from the Stage Deli are going to have to look elsewhere. After fifteen years in business, the outlet of the famous 7th Ave NY delicatessen is closing its location in the Forum shops of Caesar’s. The lease is up, business ain’t flying, and the gamblers want something else. (more…)
A Year in the Life of Deli: STD turns 1
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
“This is a site for all deli lovers, whether those who are born Jewish or those who discovered their Semitic leanings the first time their tongue was blessed with the feeling of tangy mustard meeting a pile of glistening corned beef on soft rye. Here is a place where flunken fanatics can kibbitz with lox lunatics, where devoted fans of New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen can compare, contrast, and argue with followers of LA’s Langer’s, or Montreal’s Schwartz’s. It will be a community of like minded fressers, craving those flavors so sacred and salty, that the mere mention of the word knish tugs at the heartstrings.” (more…)
Wolfie’s
Friday, January 18th, 2008
There’s one deli here in Toronto that I constantly drove by, but never ventured into. Wolfie’s is in the North end of the city, at the core of the aging Jewish community, just down the street from the ravine where I learned to ski (which now has a holocaust memorial atop the ski hill). Every time I passed it, I looked at the satelite dishes arrayed outside, at the neon in the window, and the mischievous Wolf licking his chops, and knew that I really needed to get there.
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Slate.com: “Where Is the Schmaltz of Yesteryear?”
Monday, January 7th, 2008I know I said I wasn’t going to post anything until after the book was in, but my friend Brad Rubin at Chicago’s 11 City Diner emailed me the most wonderful article by journalist Ron Rosenbaum, which appeared on Slate.com just before the year’s end. Yes it concerns the 2nd Ave Deli, but read about the wider implications, especially near the end. This piece goes beyond the realm of simple nostalgia, into the very heart of why we love and need to save the deli.
Where Is the Schmaltz of Yesteryear? By Ron Rosenbaum
www.slate.com
When I first heard about the rebirth of the Second Avenue Deli, I had a feeling the place was stalking me. For years when I lived downtown, this pastrami palace—one of New York City’s last iconic, non-tourist-attraction temples of schmaltz (not the metaphoric kind but the liquid chicken fat that infuses so many of its dishes)—was a siren song.
For this nonobservant Jew it was perhaps the most tangible aspect of my Jewish identity, a Proustian connection to the vision of shtetl life one finds in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s work. Not just the food but the whole aura of the place, the locale in the heart of the former Yiddish theater district where you could find gold stars with the names of the one-time luminaries of that once thriving, now virtually vanished world, embedded—in imitation of the Hollywood Walk of Fame—in the gritty sidewalk of lower Second Avenue in front of the deli.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE ON SLATE.COM
The Final Countdown until the 15th
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008Happy New Year Save the Deli fans. It’s almost the site’s 1 yr anniversary, which we’ll all celebrate on Jan 30th. But until the middle of the month you won’t hear much from me. The draft of my book is due in less than two weeks, so it’s crunch time.
Wish me luck and I’ll see you on the other side.
The King of Kibbitz strikes again: another Freddie Roman deli joke
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Apologies for not posting, but it was a long weekend here in Canada, and I’m in the crunch to finish the book by year’s end. So today I have just a little tidbit for you from our friend Freddie Roman, Dean of the Friar’s Club, and a Borscht Belt legend.
A Texan walks into Barney Greengrass and tells the waiter, “I was on an airplane and the person next to me told me that I had to come here and order bagels and lox. So I’ll have some of them.”
Five minutes later the waiter comes back with a bagel, some cream cheese, and a platter of Nova. The Texan takes one look and says, “Ok. So tell me, which is the lox and which is the bagel?”
Ba Da Ching!
I’ll be here all week.
Los Angeles Magazine: Patric Kuh on LA’s best delis
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
My good friend Sara Wilson over at Los Angeles Magazine just yesterday sent me a gorgeous article on that city’s great delicatessens, written by Patric Kuh. As I’ve written before HERE and HERE, LA is an astounding locale for deli eating, in many respects second to none. Known legends, like Langer’s, Canter’s, or Nate n’ Al are the types of places deli aficionados dream of. But as Kuh’s article points out, there are others that are just as good, but less known, like Brent’s, Art’s, or Factor’s.
The article, wonderfully titled “What’s Not to Like”, is a simple layout of praise and full page portraits of massive sandwiches, pickles, and egg creams. It does omit a few key delicatessens, such as Junior’s, but also presents a few I haven’t even heard of, like Marv’s and Billy’s. Still, no list can ever be complete, and upon opening this file, deli fans on either coast can start salivating.
Photographs by JAMES WOJCIK.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PATRIC KUH’S ARTICLE ON LA DELIS FROM LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE
“L.A.’s delis are more than purveyors of towering pastrami sandwiches, house-brined pickles, and foaming egg creams.
They are social temples where all are welcome to nosh”
“Cutting lox from the center of the fi llet—that’s nothing. For one person, the pickles should all be sour. For another, the brisket must
be lean. For a third, it’s imperative that the bagel chips arrive before the soup. “When you bring the sandwich, only bring half of it,” says a lady at Junior’s in Westwood. When you bring the sandwich, only bring half of it is not a Zen riddle. It’s a request that anyone in a deli can understand. The other half is brought wrapped in tinfoil so that it doesn’t lose its warmth.”
Here’s Kuh’s listing of the top 10, for those of you obsessed with ranking:
1. Brent’s
2. Langer’s
3. Nate n’ Al
4. Art’s
5. Pico Kosher
6. Marv’s
7. Canter’s
8. Factor’s
9. Billy’s
10. Label’s Table
What I’d give for a plane ticket to LA and an endless hunger for two weeks!
