KENNY & ZIGGY’S
HOUSTON
When Ziggy Gruber moved to
Houston in 1999, he realized “a
life without a great deli is really
no life at all.” Today he serves all
the essentials plus dishes like
goulash and stuffed cabbage.
kennyandziggys.comLIEBMAN’S DELI
BRONX, NY
Liebman’s opened in 1953,
when there were more than
100 Jewish delis in the Bronx.
Now it’s the only one. Order the
giant latkes—they come with a
pound of applesauce for dipping!
liebmansdeli.comWEXLER’S DELI
LOS ANGELES
Wexler’s is the only LA deli that
smokes and cures fish in-house.
In addition to old standards like
lox and whitefish, it sells twists
on the classics, including
pastrami lox and barbecue cod.
wexlersdeli.comcrowds. But in the latter half of the
20th century, many of these older
delis shuttered, in part because of a
national backlash against saturated
fat. In his 2009 book, Save the Deli,
author David Sax crisscrossed the
country, noshing on pastrami and
chronicling the loss of American deli
culture in an attempt to revive the
nation’s enthusiasm for deli food.
“Everywhere I looked, delis were
dying,” he wrote.
But his travels also hinted that a
revival was on the way. “There was
an appetite for a new type of Jewish
delicatessen,” he wrote. “One that
blended the traditions of the past with
the ideals of the present.” A decade
later his prediction is coming true.
Old or new, the best delis offer more
than just a great meal. They are a place
to meet with friends, linger over a
bowl of soup and trade jokes with the
gruff but gold-hearted servers. And
they go a step further, transforming
traditional flavors into beloved trends:
Everything bagel seasoning! Pastrami-
spiced lox! “We want the past to inform
the future,” Johnson says. “To honor
tradition but not be bound by it.”ating at delis was as much a part
of my childhood as was doing
homework, just much more
enjoyable. The deli that will forever be
*my* deli was The Bagel in Skokie, IL,
in the middle of the mall where I got
all of my homecoming dresses.
The Bagel felt like a speakeasy—
a pastrami speakeasy.
The dark wood furniture and big
red booths were not where middle-
school girls came to take a break; this
was where locals of my grandparents’
generation had an early dinner and
where my family would go whenever
the craving struck for the kind of
comfort food that came only in shades
of brown and beige. For more than
20 years my order consisted of freshly
sliced bologna on challah and a bowl
of chicken soup with a softball-size
matzo ball. My mom would get a bagel
and lox, and my dad would glow over
a huge bowl of the Mish-Mash Soup,
which was like all of the soups on the
menu combined. The hardest partof the meal was not filling up on the
baskets of bagel chips, onion rolls and
challah slices that greeted us when we
sat down.
It wasn’t until a couple of years ago
that I thought I’d grow up and change
my order from a bologna sandwich to
a sophisticated salmon platter. The
salmon was good, but something just
didn’t feel right. A few months later,
The Bagel closed its doors forever. I’m
still craving my final bologna sandwich.Girl Meets Farm star Molly Yeh kvells over her
family’s favorite spot for bagels, soup and bologna.DECEMBER 2020 ●FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 175
6 6
KATZ’S
NEW YORK CITY
You probably know Katz’s from
that iconic When Harry Met
Sally... scene. The pastrami, sold
by the pound, is a must-try;
it’s slow-smoked for more
than three days.
KREPLACH AND BLINTZ: GETTY IMAGES. KNISH AND PASTRAMI: KATZ’S DELI. KUGEL AND GEFILTE FISH: SHUTTERSTOCK. THE BAGEL RESTAURANT: DAN WOLF. LIEBMAN’S DELI: GOLDBELLY. KENNY & ZIGGY’S: ZIGGY GRUBER. katzsdelicatessen.com
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- •
- • • • • • •
- •
.................... ......... ....................................
~y Favorite Doli
E
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
These legendary spots ship nationwide.
- •
- •