Posted on 05/15/2013 11:45:06 AM PDT by nickcarraway
“I’m from out of town, and I like a good pastrami sandwich,” said Jeffrey A. Devore, a lawyer from West Palm Beach, Fla., who was sitting in Katz’s, the Lower East Side delicatessen that, like the neighborhood itself, has become a study in contrasts.
Mr. Devore had driven into Manhattan in his rental car after a court hearing in Newark and had taken a seat amid what a critic once described as the “terrazzo-and-Formica ambience, with a cafeteria counter along one side and signs instructing you, as of yore, to ‘Send a salami to your boy in the Army.’”
Beneath the long, bright fluorescents that illuminate that comfortably old-fashioned backdrop, Mr. Devore opened his iPad and began reading The Wall Street Journal.
It was enough to make one wonder how to say “plus ça change” in Yiddish.
But even Katz’s, at 205 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, has adapted as the landscape has been remade.
In the very next block is an apartment building with a Web site that says two-bedroom apartments start at $5,500 a month; a gelato store and a nail salon occupy the first-floor storefronts. Katz’s is now open 24 hours a day on weekends, in part to accommodate younger, hipper customers who are out later than late. In the old days, no one risked being on the street on the far side of midnight.
“It was a very tough neighborhood,” said Alan Dell, 65, one of the owners of Katz’s since 1988. “Drugs and that kind of thing. You felt nervous about coming.”
His son, Jake, 25, added: “You ran in from the car and ran out. This was a safe place, always, but not the neighborhood.”
Now, Alan Dell said, the neighborhood has multimillion-dollar condominiums.
“Who’d have thought?” Jake Dell said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com ...
I love a good pastrami sandwich. You can get a decent sandwich here, but I have to admit there’s nothing like a N.Y. deli sandwich.
A NY pastrami sandwich, s well as a NY corned beef sandwich has no equal.
Same with a Nathan’s hot dog.
...the most erotic of the salted, cured meats...
This pastrami prank was played on Lindy’s Restaurant years ago: the prankster stopped off at a local deli & purchased a half pound of pastrami which he hid in his coat pocket. He then went to Lindy’s, ordered a pastrami sandwich, and surreptitiously slipped the palmed pastrami into the order, making it one huge sandwich indeed.
Lindy always made the rounds and when he came to the prankster’s table, the latter gestured expansively & exclaimed, “Lindy, what a wonderful sandwich!!”
The owner blanched and loped into the kitchen screaming and throwing plates. Moments later the prankster was fleeing the premises pursued by angry cooks wielding kitchen knives.
Attributed to the late Earl Wilson.
Do you get flush when eating?
"Lotsa corned beef plus lotsa pastrami."
When I visit my family in Jersey, I always insist on going out for deli food at least once. A big corned beef (or pastrami) on rye with mustard, a couple of huge sour Kosher pickles, maybe a knish, and a Dr. Brown's Cream Soda.
Oh, yeah... it's Jewish "soul food", baby.
The neighborhood is still a dump - if a hip dump. Hope they do a story on its neighbor Russ & Daughters.
Except for the many walls of cool memorabilia, the place is a ripoff
Good pastrami but a regular sized sandwich with no sides is close to $20
I think Harold’s in Edison, NJ is a much better deal. Better pastrami for half the price
Had dinner at Juniors in Brooklyn a week ago and they no longer serve Cel-Ray Soda. Outrage! Funny thing about today’s Juniors - no Jews, all black people. They were all complaining about the lack of celery soda!
Hebrew National! I also enjoy a dirty water hot dog made by Sabretts.
I see by your name that you may be in Colorado.Where do you live?
Do you ever go to the Bagel Deli on Havana and Monaco in Denver?
If you have, you knowthey certainly rival any NY deli.
Unfortunately, I don’t live close enough to the Bagel Deli to go there often, but you are right, it’s pretty darn good!
That's funny, and also a bit sad, I suppose. My grandmother loved that stuff (Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray Tonic). I never really took a liking to it. To me, there was always something inexplicably sublime about the flavor of corned beef and cream soda together, as accompanied by a fresh Jewish rye bread. It just works. ;-)
I’m dieting and you’re making me crazy! Yes, it is sad that they are no longer serving it. But what I love about NYC is that Jewish culture and food are so overwhelming that all groups of Americans are drawn to it. I wonder, though, for the future...even the NY accent is changing...
You have to love a thread that remembers Earl Wilson. Do you think most freepers know what the hell we are talking about?!
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