Delicatessen restaurants and shops, meat or dairy, kosher or “kosher style,” are quintessential New York.

Many of the foods included in this WebBook, such as hot dogs, egg creams, bagels, and cheesecake, share a common ancestry: they were made, sold and beloved by New York’s Jewish community. Of course, you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy these tasty treats. For those who grew up in the city, a bite of a pastrami sandwich or a warm knish brings back a flood of memories. Delicatessens are a throwback to an earlier era, filled with nostalgic sights, sounds, tastes and smells. It’s a shame that there are so few left.

The great delis of yesteryear, and the ones that remain, all feature the same ambiance: a raucous atmosphere, requiring no fussy etiquette or manners. In a deli you are free to express yourself loudly, eat with your hands, talk with your mouth full, and kibitz (joke around) with your friends. Delicatessens convey abundance, community, and even celebrity. A hallmark of most delis is the wisecracking waitstaff, armed with withering insults to hurl at their grateful customers. Delis are truly one-of-a-kind eateries, and 100% New York.

The deli is the epitome of the Jewish experience in New York. To some extent all New Yorkers are Jewish, or at least Jewish-ish. If you’ve ever said “enough already,” “go figure,” “okay by me,” “I should be so lucky,” or used the words schlep, shtick or schmaltz, you’re speaking Yiddish. According to travel writer David Stern, Jewishness is “a pervading atmosphere, a zest, a style of life.” Even visitors, he says, become Jewish for the time they are in New York. And if you’re already Jewish, “you’ll become very Jewish.”

But enough already with that shtick. Let’s get on with the food!      

So who invented the deli? 

People have been curing meat for centuries. Before refrigeration, meat would spoil unless it was dried and preserved. This process led to Italian salumeries, French charcuteries, and German delikatessens. The most famous delikatessen was Dallmayr, opened in the 1600’s in Berlin. It still exists today. 

When Germans immigrated to America in the mid-1800s, they brought their techniques for preserving meats with them. H. W. Borchardt opened the first deli store in America in 1868, on the Lower East Side, an area then known as Kleindeutchland or “Little Germany” (more about this neighborhood in the Beer Chapter.) Other German deli shops opened and were enormously popular, especially at Christmas, selling sausages, smoked jowls, meat jelly, and liver pudding to enjoy at home. Pork products were mainstays. Some German deli stores remain, the most prominent being Schaller and Weber in the Yorkville section of upper Manhattan.

The Jewish Connection

There had always been a small Jewish community in New York, beginning in the 1600s. Asser Levy was the first Jew granted permission to own a home and business in New Amsterdam, and was one of its 12 official butchers. In 1654 twenty-three Sephardic Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition in Brazil sailed into New York Harbor. They held the first Rosh Hashana service on the continent, thus beginning Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest existing Jewish congregation in the New World. Their first burial ground, featuring gravestones in both Portuguese and Hebrew, can still be seen near Chatham Square in the Lower East Side.

It wasn’t until the 1880s that two million Jews fleeing the pogroms (anti-Semitic riots) in Eastern Europe began arriving. A million settled in the city by 1910; by 1957, one in four New Yorkers was Jewish. In the late 19th century, as the German population moved north, the Jewish community settled in their former Lower East Side neighborhood. Soon German delis were being de-porked and transformed into Kosher delis featuring beef. And the Lower East Side became the most densely-populated place on Earth.

Like the Germans before them, Jews congregated where others spoke their language, worshipped as they did, and ate the same foods. In Judaism, food is considered sacred and symbolic. Jewish people had to live where they could maintain a kosher table. By 1899 there were over 630 Jewish food purveyors in the Lower East Side, including kosher delis, butchers, fish markets, bakeries and groceries, all speaking Yiddish, making the newcomers feel at home. Streets like Orchard, Essex and Hester were congested with food peddlers and pushcarts, offering everything from pickles to knishes to candy.

At the turn of the century, delicatessens were not yet dine-in restaurants. They sold prepared foods to enjoy at home. It took Jewish delis a long time to become popular, for several reasons. First, Jewish housewives took great pride in cooking for their family, and resented any notion of pre-made “take-out” foods. Second, many deli foods such as frankfurters and corned beef were foreign to Russians, Poles, Hungarians and Romanians. Third, orthodox households who followed kasruth (Jewish dietary laws) were wary of self-proclaimed “kosher” delis, some of which remained open on the sabbath and Jewish holidays...a big no-no. It wasn’t until after the First World War, when second generation Jews enjoyed relaxed religious laws and housewives found work outside the home, that the convenience of delis became widely appreciated. Many soon expanded into full-fledged restaurants with dining areas and waiter service, attracting Jews and non-Jews alike.

Lower East Side food purveyors specialized in the unique Eastern European foods consumed by Jews, including Russ & Daughters Appetizers, Yonah Shimmel’s Knishes and Katz’s Delicatessen (all still around.) The neighborhood began to expand northward into the East Village, which became a thriving center of Jewish theaters and restaurants, a “Yiddish Rialto” as it was called. By 1900, the many staged Yiddish melodramas and operettas were selling 2 million tickets annually. This area, centered on 2nd Avenue, featured storied dining spots like Ratner’s, B&H Dairy and later The 2nd Avenue Deli, which memorialized the era with a star-embedded “Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame” (still there too!) After World War I, impresarios of the Yiddish theater found their way up to Broadway and Times Square, becoming the top entertainers, producers and composers of their time. They enjoyed after-theater schmoozing at famous delicatessens like Reuben’s, Lindy’s, the Carnegie and the Stage, where their photos decorated the walls and the sandwiches were named after them. Uptown appetizing shops like Barney Greengrass and the spectacular Zabar’s served these growing residential neighborhoods. 

These and other famous eateries, and the intrepid families who ran them, are showcased in “Meet The Deli Kings (and Queens):” (there’s another link at the end of this chapter)

Let’s get to the food already!

Okay, okay. But first I must share some important terminology with my fellow goyim (non-Jews). I’m no maven (expert), but this much I know:

Kosher refers to any foods allowable by Jewish law (kasruth). These include certain animals and their eggs and milk, except pork and shellfish. Meat and dairy are never combined, and meat must be slaughtered in a specific manner. Glatt kosher is often thought of as “extra kosher”, but “glatt” actually means smooth; pertaining to meat from animals with smooth, disease-free lungs. You may see certain foods marked pareve; this means it’s neutral, and can be served with either meat or dairy. Most delicatessens these days call themselves “kosher style”: they serve kosher-like food that’s not strictly kosher, like a reuben sandwich which contains meat and cheese. Observant Jews would consider such a sandwich traif, meaning non-kosher. 

So kosher delicatessens serve meat (no dairy), kosher dairy restaurants serve dairy (no meat), and “appetizing stores” serve mainly fish, bagels and sweets. But in “kosher-style” eateries you can find all of the above.

So here are the menus. As your waiter might say, “You want I should read them to you?”

Try our Ongeshtupped (overstuffed) Sandwiches (apologies for the sexual reference.) Pastrami is originally from Turkey and Romania. Sussman Volk from Lithuania introduced pastrami to America in his butcher shop on Delancey Street in 1903. It’s made from beef cut from the deckle (shoulder) or navel (below the ribs), brined, rubbed with spices, smoked over hardwood, then steamed. Your cutter (slicer) will ask if you want juicy (fatty), lean, or very lean (dry). Trust me, you want juicy. Served on rye with mustard, unless you want to be mistaken for a tourist. Corned Beef is originally from, of all places, Ireland. It’s beef brisket, brined and boiled. Served on rye with either mustard or Russian dressing. Sorry, no cabbage here. Brisket hails from Eastern Europe. The beef is cut from the breast, rubbed with spices, and seared and braised for many hours. Served on rye with mustard or Russian dressing, but no barbecue sauce (this ain’t Texas.) A Reuben is usually corned beef (or pastrami if you want) with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on Rye. It was created by Reuben Kulakovsky in Omaha in the 1920’s, not Arnold Reuben of Reuben’s Deli, whose self-titled “Reuben” of the 1950s consisted of ham, turkey and cole slaw.

Maybe you’re in the mood for some Tongue. No, not that kind. We’re talking cow’s tongue, brined and simmered with spices. You can choose from center cut or tip, served on rye. It won’t talk back. We also offer Turkey (you know, turkey, like on Thanksgiving), Roast Beef (do I have to tell you what this is?), or Salami (originated in, oy vey, Italy, made from beef, heavily spiced, dried, and served sliced on a sandwich.) Can’t decide? Go to town with a Combo of two or even three meats piled up on rye. Your cardiologist will never know, unless he’s sitting at the table next to yours. Of course, there’s always the Frankfurter, first invented in Frankfurt (where else?) and introduced to America by Charles Feltman in Coney Island (see Hot Dogs chapter.) Grilled on a flat top in our front window and served with sauerkraut and mustard on a bun.

Our other deli delights include Matzoh Ball Soup, a.k.a. Jewish penicillin, a nice, clear chicken broth, lovingly simmered with some nice vegetables, with a nice ball or two made from matzoh meal, schmaltz (chicken fat) and seltzer. You can get some nice lukshen (noodles) too. Now let me feel your forehead to see if you have a temperature. We also have Chopped Liver, actually a medieval dish made from ground chicken livers sautéed with onions. Try our Kishka (Stuffed Derma), from eastern Europe, originally a beef intestine stuffed with matzoh meal, schmaltz and spices (don’t worry, nowadays a synthetic casing is used.) Or sample our Kasha Varnishkas, a Yiddish adaptation of Ukrainian dumplings made from Kasha (buckwheat groats), onions and tons of bowtie noodles. And you haven’t lived until you’ve had a Knish, brought to American by Eastern Europeans at the turn of the century. You can either get the square, pillowy kind filled with mashed potatoes (often sold at hot dog carts), or the traditional round roll of flaky dough filled with potato or kasha (buckwheat groats). Nowadays they can be stuffed with cheese, fruit, spinach, cabbage...just about anything.

You want Pickles? They’re kosher dills, and they’re already on the table right in front of you; open your eyes. To drink you’re going to get a Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray (celery flavored soda) and that’s that.

Breakfast and brunch are a big deal here, served all day, so order some Eggs any style, omelets of all kinds, an egg sandwich, and on and on. Sorry, no bacon or sausage. You know why. Or how about some Challah French Toast, made with thick slices of our homemade bread, with lots of butter. Boy, do we have butter. We also have Matzoh Brei: crumbled matzoh scrambled with eggs, so good it’ll make you call your mother. Blintzes are also a good bet: crepes stuffed with cheese and/or fruit, rolled up and pan-fried, served with sour cream. (Select to enlarge:)

You can’t go wrong with Latkes, the traditional potato pancakes fried to a crisp golden brown, served with applesauce or sour cream, just like bubbe used to make. If your bubbe’s Polish, you’ll want Pierogis, like raviolis stuffed with cheese, sauerkraut, mushrooms, or just about anything else. Boiled and pan-fried in butter no less and served with onions. And who doesn’t like a zoftig (plump) Stuffed Cabbage filled with rice and served with a sweet tomato sauce? And do we have Soups! From traditional cabbage, mushroom barley and pea to delicious borscht (beet soup) served cold or hot. Comes with challah bread. Why wouldn’t it? Of course, since we don’t serve meat, we’ve invented many Vegetarian dishes, such as vegetarian cutlet, vegetarian lasagna,  vegetarian burgers, and vegetarian chili. Keep your “Beyond” and “Impossible,” we’ve been meatless since before your grandfolks were born.

For desert, try Noodle Kugel (noodle and custard pudding), Kuchen (apple cake), Kichel (eggy cookie), or maybe a “nice piece Babka” (chocolate or cinnamon swirl bread).

Welcome! The first thing you’ll see when you walk in is long glass displays filled with tempting fish. Want a taste? Don’t be shy, just ask. 

Often mistakenly called lox (which is not smoked), our varieties of Smoked Salmon include Nova Salmon (from Nova Scotia, the quintessential smoked salmon), Scottish Salmon (which is fattier), Norwegian, New Zealand, and Irish. The real lox is Cured Salmon. It’s never smoked. Belly Lox is cured in salt, Gravlox is cured with salt, sugar and dill. You can also get Pickled Lox.

Then there’s Smoked Fish, including Sable (cold-smoked black cod), Sturgeon (the king of smoked fish, hot-smoked), Whitefish (usually whole, from the Great Lakes, high in fat), Chubs (baby whitefish), and also Trout and Mackerel. If your taste runs to Herring, our Picked Herring is marinated in vinegar and spices. Schmaltz Herring is soft-cured in salt and sugar. Then there’s Matjes (Dutch for “maiden”) which is schmaltz herring cured in brine. Fish Salads are also on display: whitefish and salmon salad, smoked salmon tartare, herring salad, beet, apple and herring salad, and many more. And if your pockets are feeling deep, you might indulge in some caviar.

Maybe you’re here for a nice schmear? You’ve come to the right place! Bagels (see the Bagel chapter) have been a staple of Polish cuisine since the 16th century. And do we have bagels! Plain, poppy, pumpernickel, onion, egg, cinnamon raisin, garlic, and, of course, “everything.” We got bialys too (flat bagels with an oniony center). A classic bagel sandwich is Bagel and Lox; putting these two together is a true New York invention. You can get a Bagel and Whatever with sturgeon, sable, whitefish, salmon or any other fish on a bagel. No meat, though; remember this is a “dairy” shop. Bagel and a Schmear means a bagel with cream cheese, like you don’t know. We got scallion, vegetable, horseradish, and lots of other flavored cream cheeses.

Don’t forget to take dessert! We’ve got all types of Sweets like dried fruits. chocolate-covered everything, more kinds of nuts than you could ever imagine, and luscious halvah (tahini-based candy in many flavors). Maybe some Rugelach (cream cheese dough filled with fruit or nuts) or a nice Black and White? (See the Cookie chapter.)

Where did all the delis go?

By 1931 there were 1,550 kosher delis in New York City, along with 6,500 kosher butchers, 1,000 kosher slaughterhouses, 575 kosher meat restaurants, and 150 dairy restaurants. Almost all would disappear by the end of the century. After World War II many of the immigrants’ children and grandchildren escaped the teeming city streets for the suburbs. They often eschewed Jewish customs in order to “fit in” with their neighboring Americans. Delis opened in the Catskills, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Montreal, and almost every other town, serving “kosher-style” and non-kosher foods, attracting Jews and Non-Jews. Jewish food lost its religious meaning; bagels, hot dogs and cheesecake were now seen as “American” foods. Kosher food companies had to re-imagine their advertising campaigns to attract an expanding market. A prime example of this is Levi’s, the kosher baker on Thames Street in Brooklyn, who hired the Doyle, Dane Bernbach agency to revamp their image. Genius adman Howard Zieff concocted the “You Don’t Have to be Jewish to Love Levi’s” campaign, which was a smashing success.

Deli even made it into space. When Gemini 3 launched in 1965, astronaut John Young smuggled a pastrami sandwich on board. In mid-flight, fellow astronaut Gus Grissom took a bite, only to be surrounded by floating crumbs and the irreversible odor of smoked meat. After splash-down, the two got in big trouble for this snack.

Alas, 99% of all delicatessens nationwide had closed by the year 2015. It seems that Jewish food had become so much a part of the overall culture that there was no need to focus attention on it, or segregate it into special eateries. Subway and Quiznos sell pastrami and corned beef sandwiches. Most supermarkets have a “deli” section which bears little resemblance to a real delicatessen. And every little corner grocery and bodega proudly calls itself a “deli”...but Cheez Doodles and Slim Jims are not deli foods.

However, in the past ten to fifteen years, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original immigrants have returned to New York, and are reinventing kosher-style food for a whole new generation. Suddenly, smoked meats and schmaltz have made a big comeback. Noah Bernamoff’s Mile End in Brooklyn serves Montreal-style Jewish food, including poutines with pastrami and schnitzel fingers. Izzy’s Brooklyn Smokehouse in Crown Heights serves kosher barbecue turned out by “Jewish Pitmaster” Izzy Eidelman. There’s even a restaurant in heavily orthodox Williamsburg, Brooklyn called Traif, which celebrates pork, shellfish and bacon. 

As Ted Merwin puts it, in the conclusion of his wonderful book Pastrami On Rye, “As long as both Jews and non-Jews want to eat ‘traditional’ Jewish food, delis will always exist in our culture.” So let’s nosh till we plotz!

Here’s More About Delis: