Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli

by Ted Merwin

For much of the twentieth century, the New York Jewish deli was an iconic institution in both Jewish and American life. As a social space it rivaled—and in some ways surpassed—the synagogue as the primary gathering place for the Jewish community. In popular culture it has been the setting for classics like When Harry Met Sally. And today, after a long period languishing in the trenches of the hopelessly old-fashioned, it is experiencing a nostalgic resurgence.

Pastrami on Rye is the first full-length history of the New York Jewish deli. The deli, argues Ted Merwin, reached its full flowering not in the immigrant period, as some might assume, but in the interwar era, when the children of Jewish immigrants celebrated the first flush of their success in America by downing sandwiches and cheesecake in theater district delis. But it was the kosher deli that followed Jews as they settled in the outer boroughs of the city, and that became the most tangible symbol of their continuing desire to maintain a connection to their heritage. Ultimately, upwardly mobile American Jews discarded the deli as they transitioned from outsider to insider status in the middle of the century. Now contemporary Jews are returning the deli to cult status as they seek to reclaim their cultural identities.

Richly researched and compellingly told, Pastrami on Rye gives us the surprising story of a quintessential New York institution.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, History, Jewish, New York, Cookbooks, Food and Wine

245 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2015

Reviews

[Pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly readable academic look at the rise and fall of Jewish delicatessens (or delis) in the United States by writer Ted Merwin. The subject matter alone is quite interesting, but the inclusion of past advertisements, pictures, and pop culture examples give the reader a broader sense of the overall impact that Jewish delis had on American, specifically New York, culture. Merwin's 10 year research odyssey is evident when the various sources, resources, and anecdotes are added up. Those unfamiliar with delis will enjoy learning trivia, like the origin of the Boar's Head Company name. The Jazz Age and Interwar Era chapter was a particular favorite of mine, especially as Merwin explores film depictions/mentioning of delicatessen food. Recommended for readers interested in learning more about cultural foodways and/or the history and impact of Jewish delis.

*I received a copy on NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I was exploring my parents' past in the Lower East Side. What a great book of information that I never thought about. I certainly will now, every time I pass a deli... If I ate meat, I'd find the highest pastrami sandwich in New York and devour it. I first saw this book in the book store at the Tenement Museum...well worth the read...yum!!!!!
Thanks to netgalley.com for the borrow..

[Lauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fascinating history of the Jewish deli, not only in America but also in the lives of the Jewish immigrants who shaped America. The descriptions will make your mouth water, and the sheer wealth of detail, photographs and memorabilia which Ted Merwin has included help to bring the heyday of the Jewish deli to life. It will make you nostalgic for a time when life may have been a little simpler - and for when a sandwich cost less than a gallon of gas!

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped that this would be a fun read, but it turned out to be more scholarly than fun. The writing is a bit dry at times (and who wants dry pastrami!) and although the main text is only 190 pages the author gets into the weeds with minutiae. Although I did finish it, I have to admit to doing a lot of skimming.
I’m on to something a lot more fun (I hope!)

[Nancy G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put this book down. I grew up on deli food and every NY deli I could remember was mentioned. Makes me nostalgic for the old communities and a pastrami sandwich.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Eastern European Jews migrated to the doorway of the United States - New York City - they brought with them their culture, their religion and their food. And as the decades pass, even as the delicatessen has lost some of it's connections to its Jewish roots, it is finding new footing in the ethnic cuisine and artisan food-crafting. But it will always be associated with New York City and the Jewish communities within.

Merwin has performed extensive research on not only the food but the community that was anchored by the neighborhood deli where people could get a large sandwich while interacting with friends and neighbors. As delis moved into the theater district, there was the development of various sandwiches commemorating the actors of the day. But Jews slowly moved to integrate into American society and that meant eating 'what Americans ate' so even as the deli/corner store began to fade in New York, it extended across the country.

Today, the deli is making a bit of a comeback as it fuses with other cuisines. Of course, finding a "good" deli requires a bit of exploration and experiencing with the taste buds but when one is found . . . the reader is going to be hankering for a stuffed pastrami sandwich with a crispy pickle on the side and maybe a knish for dessert.

2022-042

[William Nist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work is an obviously loving history of the Jewish Delicatessen in America. I myself remember going into the to 2nd Avenue Deli, the Stage Deli, and the Carnegie Deli when I lived in NYC. But they had already morphed from quintessential Jewish gathering places, to non-Kosher tourist destinations! This book is the history of that transition, and a forecast into any possible re-emergence (spoiler: unlikely).

The story is told with a lot of wit and wisdom, with many anecdotes from 20th century patrons and commentators.

You can still get insulted at eateries in the City, but nothing like the snide remarks hurled by the male apron-ed waiters in these pastrami smelling delis from a now bygone age. At least you dined to the mile high sandwiches in the company of the portraits of all the famous entertainers who pics are on the walls!

They may now be little more than culinary museums, but it is still worth you while to hit one up after a show!

[Arnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable overview of the story of delis in America, from their beginnings to their peak, and to their steep decline.

[Mindy Burroughs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any food history book that references Curb Your Enthusiasm is a winner imho

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Merwin has written a well organized book on the role of the Jewish Delicatessen in American Jewish life. The prose is clear and easy to follow. No academic jargon here. Mr. Merwin suggests that the decline of the deli is linked to the gradual disappearance of the ethnic Jew and the embrace of the contemporary non-religious Jew of the food norms of the non-Jewish world. Good-bye deli, except as a living memorial of a past that really lasted less than half a century. So, what is next? Ah, that is the subject of another book, probably not by Mr. Merwin, though.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had expectations for this book that were not met. A little more humor would have added greatly to it; I found it to be almost as dry as an extra lean corned beef sandwich.

While it focused most heavily on New York and its suburbs – and of course, the largest Jewish community in the country lives in the New York area, and many people around the country have roots on the Lower East Side, Brooklyn, and The Bronx – he mentioned Jewish delis in cities around the US, including Los Angeles, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, and others, but he completely left out Philadelphia's rich history of delis (and appetizing stores and dairy restaurants), and its well-known former manufacturers and purveyors of kosher cold cuts, knishes, and other specialties. As a Jewish Philadelphian born and raised, even though I later spent over 25 years in New York, and a decade in Boston, in my opinion he fell down on his research. And considering that he was a professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Dickinson College, which is in Carlisle, PA, barely a two-hour drive away, that's even more surprising. I am mystified by this omission.

I was also taken aback that in writing about "When Harry Met Sally", directed by Rob Reiner, he referred to Estelle Reiner, Reiner's mother, as an "elderly customer". At the time of the film's release in 1989, she was 75, hardly what we might call elderly. She also delivered the best line of the movie, in the orgasm-faking scene in Katz's delicatessen, "I'll have what she's having" with gusto and sarcastic aplomb. That ageist description was heartburn-inducing for me.

Per his website, Dr. Merwin gives talks around the country about deli culture. I would be curious to attend one in the future.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that took me back to my childhood and listening to my father telling stories of his childhood in New York City, and then him taken me to different deli’s in the Los Angeles area. In the sixties and seventies there were a lot more now I still take my family to Cantor’s Deli in L.A. But even the area around it has changed a lot over the years. This is what this book is about the change of his culture and the lost art in a way of homemade pickling and curing. When people had time or made time to make food the way it was passed down from generation from generation. Like other ethnic foods that have gone slowly as well like the Italian deli, for one it still comes down to what we have been willing to replace. For me since grandparents have passed and parents now I find myself teaching my children the Italian recipes that were passed down to I and the home made pickles that my grandmother would make in her kitchen. Maybe we can save the few Deli’s that are still around. This is a wonderful book and brought back many memories. So now I close this review because I am going to make an Italian sandwich with mortadella, capicola, salami, prosciutto, the good provolone cheese, a little oil and vinegar with some pickled veges on the side and that was the way I was raised. A good book. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of great interest, but no better than average. I think the parts that are the most valuable are the first chapter and the Conclusion.

Quotes & Memorable Parts¹

A point that is stressed often

“The story of the delicatessen exemplifies the overarching shifts that have taken place in American Jewish life,” Merwin writes, noting that while Jewish “secular identity has lost much of its content, . . . the consumption of Jewish food is, for many Jews, one of the sole ways in which they relate to their heritage.”

After the first waves of immigration, at a time when Jews were thought to be uncouth, Merwin argues, they popularized a type of restaurant where they didn’t have to try not to be. “The deli was a place where they could eat with their hands, talk with their mouths full, fill their bellies and enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company in a raucous and convivial setting.”

Merwin often references Third Places in the text

The deli is a lieu de memoire in many senses. It functions as a kind of museum, a place where the past—or some concept of the past—can be exhibited and consumed.

Some of the nostalgia for the Jewish deli is for a time in which Jews from across the political and ideological spectrum regularly broke bread together.

Perhaps the third space no longer works in a technologize world, in which Bisman views the nascent forms of Jewish community as inherently “fluid” with “no borders” and “existing outside the walls of any particular space.”

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An academic study of the Jewish deli's history in New York. It's an uneven book. I found some of it very interesting while other parts veered into academic theories that I had problems buying - Jews like Chinese food because non-kosher food is so changed in form by being chopped up that it's no longer recognizable being one such. There are also several sidebar discussions - Jews like Chinese food, Jews like Italian food - where Merwin kind of loses the plot. And the last chapter, which discusses the death of the deli, uses several pages simply listing current examples of Jewish fusion cuisine made for tough sledding in terms of getting through.

All that said, the book had its moments. I find the whole deli discussion interesting since my dad is Jewish from Montreal, and I always had to have a smoked meat sandwich when I went back to visit my grandparents. So I do feel a cultural, if not religious connection to the deli. Ultimately, Merwin has written a book that may be stuffed with a little filler to get to an acceptable page count, but there is some meat to be found if you look for it.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I told someone about this book as I was reading it, their response was, "Wow, that's a really niche subject." And it is. Other than people who are seriously interested in American Jewish gastronomic history, this book offers little information. But it does fill in the gap of American Jewish life that has been missing since my parents were kids. My father remembers the day when he--in upstate New York--would get to travel to his grandmother's house on Long Island and go to some of these delis between the 1950s and 1970s.

So while there is absolutely a measure of nostalgia at play in reading this book, it answers at least some of the questions about why deli platters are perennial choices for simchas and Shabboses, and why there aren't many actual Jewish delis left.

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had great hopes for this book. Where I live and have lived for over 20 years there are no Jewish delis, and I miss them. I haven't had a tongue sandwich or a knish in all that time. As Merwin says, part of my identify is tied up with that. But I found the book difficult to read. Maybe it was me. I didn't want to pick it up and when I did, I was eager to put it down. Things didn't seem to hang together. Some parts were interesting -- even very interesting. But most of it I found boring. It seemed that Merwin often contradicted himself, and that didn't help. The book is 189 pages long before it goes into Notes. I read til page 179 and just couldn't go on.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely finish books that I do not like. This somehow was an exception. I kept on reading hoping it would get better. But sadly this is so New York centric that even when the author drops an occasional line about other cities its mostly in terms of what he sees as New York suburbs and expatriates.

Sadly I am from Chicago and grew up with many Jewish delis and have lived in places on the west coast and this just doesnt reflect the story of such places. The author does not even mention bialys.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The deli is an expression not of Jewish immigrants, but of their descendants. A place of ritual, community and continuity in the diaspora. Wonderfully written and made me hungry. While I don't trust the pastrami at the local grocery and brisket is unheard of (as are chicken fat and tongue), I went out and got hot dogs, a far cry I know from a NYC frankfurter, but the best I can do. Thanks Merwin for this scholarly and entertaining work.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book on the history of Jewish Deli’s. It was well researched with exhaustive footnotes and a great bibliography. I would have liked to see some color photos of some of the ads and photos. This is a great book to add to the body of literature on Jewish Social History. As an archivist/ librarian, I very much appreciated mentioning archival sources and repositories. This helped to promote the use of archives. Well done!!!

[Greg Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish you could rate with half stars, as I rate it 3.5.

I would have liked to see the evolution of the culinary aspects along with the cultural evolution.

In the chapter that discusses references on TV and movies, there are scenes from Seinfeld and the Simpsons that could have been referenced.

Overall I think the book made its point, that among assimilated, more secular Jews, the connection to Judaism is through the cultural-culinary aspect of the deli.

[Lenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly researched and written history of the Jewish delicatessen. For a fellow “gastronomic Jew,” this felt like a necessary hidden cultural history (and you’ll find an answer to the Jewish love affair with Chinese food within these pages as well). Impossible to read without craving a hot pastrami sandwich, mustard, coke slaw and pickles, and a cream soda. A fascinating look into the shifting Jewish culture, priorities, and desire to “make it” as Americans throughout the decades.

[Jonathan Fidis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. It took a more interesting approach to telling history than typical history books. The Jewish Delicatessen is the lens through which he wrote about immigrant Jews first coming to the US and their assimilation into American society. Ted Merwin showed New York as it changed from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries. I never realized just how important food could be.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t finish this book. I just couldn’t get over how it read like an academic paper instead of a book.

The story he’s trying to tell is compelling and immensely interesting but it’s hard to get into and you try to navigate the clunky prose riddled with academic references. It’s clear the author has done copious research but it gets in the way of the story telling.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun topic and fun book. The disconnect I found was that the topic was so much fun that it almost conflicted with the more academic approach that the book was written in. Very nostalgic and a great social history of the deli. Fabulous nuggets of information along the way. Though a short book, some of it got a little dry towards the end.

[Eric Flamm · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read about how Jews related to the delicatessen and its fare for the past hundred years. Detailed, full of anecdotes, and not overly scholarly, Merwin leaves few facets of the deli experience unexplored or unappreciated.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this history of Jewish delis. There is SO MUCH history of the Jewish people, of NYC, and of eating wrapped up in the story of Jewish delis and in this deli-cious book. The author is passionate about the subject matter, is a good writer, and says what he has to say in fewer than 200 pgs! Can't ask for more than that.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very concise and interesting history of the Jewish deli and it's place in NY (and slowly other places) for Jews and increasingly non-Jews. Some areas dragged a bit and I found myself skimming unintentionally at points but still a very well researched book that will educate you on the topic.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was decent, but I don't think the material was really enough for a book-length treatment of this subject, at least not how it was presented.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some very interesting tidbits but overall not as interesting as I had hoped.

[KathleenB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really dense and academic but also really interesting.