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“PEOPLE IN CLEVELAND ARE
ADAMANT ABOUT WHICH JEWISH
DELI IS THEIR FAVORITE. IN THAT
CONTEXT WE DIDN’T EXPECT TO BE
AS BUSY AND AS WELL RECEIVED AS
WE HAVE BEEN RIGHT OFF THE BAT.”
—JEREMY UMANSKYLARDER
NA JEREMY UMANSKY CLEVELANDME
COMPANYTHE PASTRAMI SANDWICH certainly looks the part. The
meat is bright fuchsia with that iconic peppery bark, the
rye bread smells malty, and the mustard smacks of vin-
egar. But like everything at Jeremy Umansky’s Larder: A
Delicatessen & Bakery in Cleveland, there’s more to this
sandwich than meets the eye.
Umansky honed his interest in modern and ancient
preservation techniques, as well as his mastery of koji—the
microbe used to make miso, soy, and sake—while running
the pantry at chef Jonathon Sawyer’s Northern Italian
restaurant Trentina. But here on his own turf, he’s push-
ing those ideas to their most ambitious and personal ends,
applying them to the Jewish deli flavors he grew up with.
“My grandmother was a kosher caterer for 20-plus years,
so my comfort, my inspiration has always been her honey
cake, her matzo ball soup,” says Umansky. “The great thing
is that these methods I like to play with now really sync
up with ideas already present in ‘old-world’ food.”
Pastrami typically spends three weeks or so in a salty
brine, but Umansky uses koji to speed up the process to
three days. That spice rub contains the classic black pepper
and coriander, but also reishi mushroom powder to dial
up the earthiness. The rye bread is seasoned with toasted
yeast and hydrated with sour amazake, which allows it to
have a high rye content without sacrificing its airy texture.
And finally, that mustard—it gets its tang from a custom
vinegar made using scraps from Larder’s nearly zero-waste
kitchen. Yeah, it’s a lot to think about. But the good news
is you don’t have to—Larder’s lush, smoky pastrami speaks
right to your heart. But do pop the hood if you wish; there’s
a lot to learn just underneath. JORDANA ROTHMANTHE DELI
PROPHET
CLICK IT Go to larderdb.com to plan your visit.above: Umansky slicing pastrami. below (clockwise from bottom
left): Rye crackers, pickled smelts, mustard, black cherry Kool-Aid
pickled onions, smoked whitefish salad, steelhead caviar, steelhead
lox, whole smoked whitefish, and koji beet charcuterie—all produced
in house. right: Umansky holding a jar of vinegar made from eastern
redbud flowers.PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICKY RHODES