Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Jewish Delicatessens

VANISHING

Save the Deli shared this story from the New York Times about a recent panel discussion on "Every aspect of the Jewish delicatessen — from the declining popularity of kishka to the rise of online sales to the gentrification of the Lower East Side"

A few snippets from the Times article:
Food historian Joel Denker, author of The World on a Plate: "You find this sort of yeasty combination of intellectuals, writers, leftists, sitting together over tea and cottage cheese and fruit, talking about the issues of the day at a place like the Garden Cafeteria."


photo from my katz's flickr set

Alan Dell, owner of Katz’s Delicatessen: "''When the Second Avenue Deli closed, we kept getting calls: ‘Are you open? You’re still open?’ The original rumor started when the show ‘Cats’ closed years ago.' Mr. Dell said that rising rents were the greatest challenge in keeping the store open –- not to mention the rising price of meat."


photo credit

Jack Lebewohl, of the Second Avenue Deli, "said his son Jeremy would reopen the deli in Murray Hill — on East 33rd Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues — 'sometime in the fall.' The audience erupted into applause."



Mark Federman, owner of Russ & Daughters: "The type of people who live on the Lower East Side now has gone from the immigrant to the investment banker.... The employees have gone from family acting as employees, to employees acting as family....The Lower East Side has gone from pushcart to posh.”

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