For those deli lovers who winter (or live) on the West coast of Florida (aka the Gulf Coast, or, to those in Boca Raton, the Goyish Coast), the pickings can be slim. Sure there’s Too Jays, the large and quite good deli chain across the state, but if you want something haymish, it often requires a drive over Aligator Alley.
Now, residents of Sarasota needn’t go far for their deli fix, thanks to the opening of Pastramis NY Deli in their town. I got the info from intrepid Save the Deli fan and local residents Howard and Alice Rosenthal, who attest to the quality of the meat, as well as the bread. Meat and bread. What else do you need? Mustard, I suppose.
Pastramis Ny Deli
5170 Clark Rd
Sarasota, FL
Phone: (941) 925-3100
Ok, I’ll admit, I’ve been out of the loop for a long time, and for no good reason other than traveling, a lack of time to post, and sheer laziness. What do you expect? It’s the dead of winter here in Toronto.
So let’s just round up what I’ve missed in the past few weeks:
First, the bad news. Deli Tech, that plucky, over the top, little NYC deli in Denver that could, has closed down because they lost their lease. Says their website: “For the time being our in-house dining services will be closed until further notice. But don’t worry, Deli Tech is still available for your Catering and Delivery needs 7 days a week.”
This definitely saddens me. Fred Anzman and Barbara Simon were some of the most welcoming, vivacious, memorable, and hospitable deli owners I met on my odyssey across America. They were big in every way, but they delivered fantastic food, in a part of the country that desperately needs it. I’m glad to hear they’ll be keeping the business alive for catering purposes, and encourage anyone in Denver or visiting to hook up with them for some chicken soup, cabbage rolls, or a hunk cheesecake straight from the Carnegie. Good luck guys.
Now, on a lighter note, some more fuel for the forever pastrami rivalry in New York. The esteemed New York Daily News has published a pastrami poll for the best in the city, with Brooklyn’s Mill Basin Kosher Delicatessen getting the top spot. Mazels. King of New York delis, Katz’s, follows close behind, and bringing up third is half-centurion Loeser’s, of the Bronx, which seems to be hitting its stride five decades going. Honorable mentions go to Ben’s Best, Junior’s, and some place called the Ave T. Deli in Brooklyn. Anyone know about this place? First I’ve ever heard of it.
Open Window Bakery closes after 54 years by Laurie Monsebraaten
The Open Window Bakery, one of Toronto’s oldest family-run bakeries closed Monday, throwing 150 employees out of work.
Tough economic times and changing shopping habits hurt the business, which resisted mechanization and prided itself on producing European-style hand-baked goods, said the company’s Chief Operating Officer Gail Agasi.
Agasi said she hopes new investors may be able to rescue the company her father, Max Feig, founded in 1957 after surviving the holocaust and coming to Canada with just $7.
“This is his legacy,” Agasi said in an interview. “That’s why I’m trying so hard.”
Agasi said she is particularly concerned about the company’s employees, many of whom worked for the bakery for 25 years.
The business, which at one time employed more than 250 and ran 10 corporate and franchise outlets, including its main bakery near the corner of Finch Ave. and Dufferin St., had just five stores when it closed, Agasi said.
The bakery’s specialty breads, buns, cakes and pastries were also sold through large supermarkets such as Longo’s and Highland Farms as well as numerous medium-sized grocery stores and scores of neighbourhood corner stores.
“The world turned upside-down, you could say, in 2008,” Agasi said.
“As consumers started watching their pennies, they weren’t choosing our products,” she said. “It’s because we don’t compromise on quality. A lot of this stuff is still made by hand.”
Agasi said “numerous companies” have shown interest in the business.
“I’m prepared to step down, if that’s what it takes,” she added.
Here’s starting off the year right: Half a century ago, way up in the northwest corner of the Bronx, called Riverdale, a young man of just 17 named Fredy Loeser used some of his bar mitzvah savings to open up a kosher delicatessen. Back then, there were still hundreds of Jewish delis all over the Bronx, and thousands around New York City, and Loeser’s was jumping into a crowded field. What happened to the Bronx since then is the stuff of urban studies legends: Robert Moses put in the Cross Bronx Expressway, the middle class fled to the suburbs, gangs took over, slums grew, fired blazed, and the Bronx burned.
Today, Loeser’s Kosher Delicatessen is one of two Jewish delis left standing in the Bronx (the other is Liebman’s, nearby). So it’s with great pride, and a sense of mazel, that I write today about the milestone Fredy Loeser has achieved. Half a century in any business is admirable. Five decades in the Jewish deli business, in a time when delis are still endangered, is incredible. But fifty years as a kosher delicatessen in the Bronx is an absolute miracle.
All of this is due to the tireless work of Fredy Loeser, one of the last counterman/owners in New York’s Jewish deli business. Fredy is not the type of guy to mince words. He’s a tough SOB, who has fought hard to keep Loeser’s in business. Here’s what I wrote about meeting Fredy for the first time in Save the Deli:
Loeser’s was a relic so well preserved you could suffocate in atmosphere. There were faded family photos, old signs, clippings of political events, and handwritten notes from customers push-pinned to the wall.
“I’m a natural, a switch hitter,” Loeser told me, glaring into my eyes to make sure I heard every word. “I got the best pastrami in New York, the best brisket, the best soup, the best everything.” He had the talk, the look, and the swagger of the consummate Deli Man—a creature disappearing with the deli itself, despite the self-assuredness of their own skills. And when he was done talking with me, he simply said, “Thanks for visiting,” and turned his back. As much as it should have offended me, I was delighted.
Last year, I went back to Loeser’s and found Fredy behind the counter, as always. He was talking with regulars, pushing his deliciously spiced pastrami, and building towering sandwiches for customers that have known him since they were kids. In a world of so called sandwich experts and armchair deli mavens (I’m including myself here), Fredy Loeser is the real deal. He’s a deli man, through and through, and it gives me much pride and joy to wish him, Loeser’s Delicatessen, and all the great deli lovers of Da Bronx, a happy birthday.
Celebrations will be held this Saturday, January 8th, at 12.30 pm. Head on up to the Bronx and check it out.
I’ve heard rumours of this for a while, but now it seems to be confirmed. This is not how I wanted to end my year.
Toronto’s Moe Pancer’s Delicatessen has been sold. Lorne Pancer (grandson of Moe) and his sister have sold the deli, the recipes, and the name to longtime customer Jerry Gould, and his son, Lenny, reports the National Post:
“I feel great,” says Lorne Pancer, co-owner since 1999. “I’m going to take a long vacation.”
Jerry Gould, who missed our appointed meeting time Tuesday, tells me later over the telephone that he has big plans for the place.
“My dad hooked me up and bought me this business,” he says. “I’m absolutely not changing anything with the pastrami or corned beef. I spent a good amount of money for the recipes.” (A story on the wall notes that, for the pastrami, the beef briskets are pickled 5-7 days in a brine that contains pickling spices, garlic and salt, then washed off and cooked two hours in a huge kettle in water, onions and garlic, then baked on a tray with “specific spices.”)
Then Mr. Gould starts listing plans for change.
“I want to feed the next generation,” he says. (The crowd around me includes seniors and young families). “I am going to change a little bit of the décor. I am going to do a weekend breakfast. Do a sports night there. Maybe chicken wings. Put a couple of flat screen TVs and get a bit of a sports thing there.
“Unfortunately there are a lot of old school ways there. The cash area is going to be ripped out and a whole new counter put in for efficiency. The smoked meat could be better. Maybe I can go to Montreal and find a proper smoked meat distributor.”
Lorne Pancer was the first deli man to let me see into the business, and I love him dearly. To him I have nothing but congratulations. Lorne, you’ll be missed bud. Not just by me and my family, but by all Toronto deli lovers.
And to Mr Gould, I say this: You’ve inherited more than a property, you’ve bought a legacy. With that comes responsibility to uphold the traditions. Traditions that go beyond the recipes for corned beef and pastrami. It’s the staff (Wilf, Mario, Lori, etc…), the feel, the sound, the smell, and the atmosphere. It’s the way you treat customers and the way you cultivate those traditions. Toronto’s filled with places to get chicken wings and watch shitty hockey on LCD TVs. What it lacks are tested and loved Jewish delis like Moe Pancer’s. Lost sight of that and we’ll all lose. Keep it in mind, and keep it preserved, and the future will be bright indeed.
I just got sent a story from Austin that the Texan capital’s venerable Jewish deli, Katz’s, is closing down. Says the city’s American-Statesman newspaper:
Marc Katz’s delicatessen, a West Sixth Street institution, is closing, after 31 years in business and two bankruptcies.
Katz, whose company, M&M Katz Inc., has been mired in U.S. Bankruptcy Court since July, said the deli will shut down Jan. 2.
“I have to go,” Katz said. “It has been 31 years. I want to leave while I am happy and suppliers and employees are taken care of. I just think it is time.”
Katz informed workers at the restaurant a few weeks ago that it would soon shut down.
“We rode so high for so many years. I just don’t want to do it anymore,” he said.
That gives the restaurant one more Christmas Day in operation. For many years of its operation, Katz’s was known for being one of the few prominent restaurants in Austin that was open on Christmas Day. The all-night deli’s well-known slogan was “Katz’s Never Kloses.”
The parent company to the deli first filed for bankruptcy in 2004, citing heavy debt payments to lender Amresco Commercial Finance and Katz’s son, Barry, who runs a separate restaurant in Houston. That case was closed in 2006, after Katz sold three properties to raise cash.
The second bankruptcy case was filed in July, listing debts including $161,637 to the Internal Revenue Service and $52,635 to the Texas comptroller’s office for unpaid state sales taxes.
According to court records, Katz’s revenue was $582,548.44 from July 21 through Oct. 31, but it had a cumulative loss during that period of $60,030.
This is really too bad. Marc Katz helped establish downtown Austin’s late night scene, and though he was a brash and often controversial character, he was part of Austin’s Keep it Weird soul. Katz’s boasted that it never closed. I guess it will forever. Katz’s…you’ll be missed.
I was listening to an epic radio documentary about the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack by jazz great Vince Guraldi, and I realized we’re in the thick of the Christmas season. Because Hannukah fell so early this year, the smell of latke grease is long gone now, as the egg nog flows through our radios and televisions. I happen to dig this time of year: the lights, the free candy canes at the bank, the never ending stream of Christmas songs written by Jews.
So here’s a Christmas greeting to all Christian deli lovers out there. If you’re heading home with the family, enjoy the tree and the carols and the sweet gifts. And to all the Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and other non-Christians out there, we’ll see you at the deli or, more likely, at Lee Garden. Or in the case of Mile End, both.
See you all in 2011. A happy new year to everyone.
In keeping with the deli song theme, here’s a little number from David Kamenir, called There are no Delis in Ensenada. It’s a zippy type of thing, and I honestly feel that if we keep listening to these, we’ll basically be on a cruise. Which is a good thing if you’re staring out at the snow right now.
What’s your inspiration for eating deli? In many cases it’s a deep hunger, or a nostalgic need that can only be sated by Jewish delicatessen.
I realize that Save the Deli (the site, the book, the 3D movie) has fueled many of those cravings over the past several years, and why not, that’s the essence of our mission here. Occasionally one of you will write to me about your visits to delis. Sometimes, you even chronicle those journeys (I’m thinking of you Teddy).
Today I got an email from Richard Blackman, who, along with childhood friends Gary, Malcolm, and Larry, left the pastures of suburban DC recently and drove up to the wilds of New York city to eat as much deli as possible in 48 hours.
CBS recently aired a broadcast about three of New York City’s finest delis. I dare you to watch without your mouth watering! But my friends and I did CBS one better – actually five better. We did a taste test of 8 delis in 36 hours.
It’s Saturday 9 AM and three of my elementary school friends, Larry, Malcolm and Gary, and I (all in our 50s now) jam into Gary’s 1994 Corolla on the way to New York City in search of the best deli sandwiches, side orders, and pickles. Five minutes into the trip we began an animated conversation – how will we rate the delis? How many total points would we use? How many points per sandwich, what about pickles, what about salads? We also discussed other criteria beside food. Do we add points for atmosphere, or cleanliness? And what about staff – do we add or subtract points for surliness? After an hour of lively discussion, we agreed that we would place the same order at each deli: three sandwiches (hot corned beef, brisket and pastrami), coleslaw, potato salad, and pickles. We also agreed that the taste of the food would be the only item evaluated, and that we would use 100 points total per person per deli — a maximum of 24 points for each sandwich, 14 for pickles, and 14 for side orders. With 4 raters, each deli could score a maximum 400 points.
Even before we set out, I had already won the first argument: we knew that we could not eat everything we ordered, and we would need to take two coolers rather than one for leftovers.
We’d been planning this trip for a year, inspired by David Saks’ book, Save the Deli, which gets a mention in the CBS video above. We chose the eight delis based on internet reviews, a poll of “deli-savvy” friends, and my own personal experiences.
Our first stop was Hobby’s Delicatessen and Restaurant in Newark, NJ. Salivating with pent-up anticipation after 200 miles on the road, Hobby’s did not disappoint. Hobby’s is truly an original. After walking past the obligatory deli case, with all the tasty food morsels, the co-owner, Marc Brummer, seated us in the spacious dining room. Marc is a deli-owner who loves his work and has “deli” running through his veins. He and his brother started in the business when they were teenagers, and have now taken over the business from their dad, who, although he’s in his 80’s, still offers helpful advice. Marc schmoozed with us throughout the meal and it was a blast. We asked if he was a “Hobby.” It turns out the deli used to be called Hocky’s, but a previous owner had to change the name and could only afford to change two letters in the sign—hence Hobby’s. Marc is a Brandeis graduate, and Larry is too — a high-five moment. This is a fun place to go, and you must spend time talking with the owner.
