Pastrami Reuben
Mayo
Can I Get
COURTESY PHOTO
with that
Origins of the Jewish deli, from New York to Utah BY MICHAEL FELDMAN, OWNER OF FELDMAN’S DELI
T
COURTESY PHOTO
Pulled Pork Sandwich
Lox Platter
46 Devour Utah • September/October 2015
COURTESY PHOTO
Feldman’s
he delicatessen has long been part of Jewish life in America. Katz’s, which opened on New York’s Lower East Side in 1888, was the first big Jewish deli. It soon became the “prime gathering place for the Jewish community, on par with the synagogue,” according to Ted Merwin, author of Pastrami on Rye. Orthodox Jewish immigrants settled in New York City in the 1800s and discovered wonderful Italian and German delicatessens there but could not enjoy the pork offerings. Because the immigrants couldn’t afford expensive cuts of meat, Jews soon established their own kosher “appetizer stores.” Creativity was used to develop tasty kosher meats from cheap cuts like brisket, navel or tongue, employing old European preserving techniques. The kosher salt used to infuse meat with flavor, for example, looked like kernels of corn, which lead to the term “corned” beef. Back in those mostly impoverished days, Jewish immigrants would buy a platter of corned beef, pastrami or tongue and celebrate being American with the promise of better opportunities to come. Immigrants felt important eating huge, but inexpensive, sandwiches and the deli became a place for Jews to gather, converse and relax. Ingenious Irish immigrants borrowed these and similar methods, creating two great cultures with a common love for corned beef! In 1899, there were 10 Jewish delicatessens in the Lower East Side of New York City. However, they exploded the 1920s and ’30s, topping out at 1,550 kosher delicatessens in the five boroughs. Leibman’s in the Bronx, Gottlieb’s and Junior’s in Brooklyn, Ben’s and 2nd Avenue Delis in Manhattan are still kosher. Mid-town delis near Broadway, like Lindy’s, Carnegie, Zabar’s, Ratner’s and Reuben’s, where the non-kosher (cheese with meat) Reuben sandwich was introduced, became hangouts for entertainers like Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and George Jessel. The mobster Arnold Rothstein had his own table at Lindy’s. The deli represented more than just food—it was part of Jewish culture. The deli was the place to be—such a big deal. It’s as much a product of New York as it is of Yiddish European culture. Who would have guessed?