From The Nosher blog:
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Of the three listed for New York, Ben’s Best in Rego Park Queens is going out of business on June 30th. 
Not even a big moment can make up for rising NYC rents, I guess.
The bonus here is that you can argue about the choices to pass the time while you’re driving.
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And as a followup to the Ben’s Best closure, turns out I am wrong. It’s not higher rent, it’s the new bike lane that have eliminated too much local parking, he says:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/ny-metro-bens-best-deli-closing-20180608-story.html
Parking, another classic NYC problem.
Well huh, Pastrami Queen the dark horse in manhattan! Many years ago i lived in the neighborhood, all i can say is my ex loved their pastrami (but it’s not like there are nearby competitors), and i do recall they had good knish which were probably outsourced but tasty.
I can’t believe they chose Canter’s for California, its classic, sure, but the food is firmly in the mediocre range.
Nate and Al’s is the best deli in Los Angeles. Anyone catering a breakfast meeting at the studios or the big law firms, or the agencies, alll cater from here. It is excellent food.
I love their pastrami too. But their matzoh ball soup is bad - watery, not chickeny enough.
I have fond memories of Canter’s from when I was a punk in LA the late 70’s and Canter’s (along with Soul’d Out) was one of the few places that would actually serve us. Great times there at 3 and 4 in the morning.
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What about Langer’s (which I still haven’t been to)? I do like Canter’s though, but part of that is the atmosphere…
Nothing to debate about Nate ‘n’ Al’s – we used to detour there for takeout on the way from downtown to LAX. Neither Carnegie nor Stage found traction in Beverly Hills/LA, although catering from the latter was a welcome hospitality gesture at a long-ago Century City appointment.
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We’re repeat Langer’s patrons; that said, you could add Brent’s, Famous, and Greenblatt’s (and a host of others) to the LA drivetime debate . . .
agree that Canter’s is hardly the best Deli in LA (and I find it insulting not to mention the others). Who actually compiled this list? I’ve been to them all, and in my opinion, Brent’s Deli has the best deli food in LA (well, that is, if you consider the Valley part of LA ) 
Of course it’s L.A. One of the best parts. 
Sounds like you could do a great deli road trip just around LA…
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You could do one around New York (and other places, like Chicago) as well, of course. One of the oddities of this list is that all three of the New York delis on it are kosher. When I first looked at the list I thought kosher delis were what was being listed, thus explaining why places like Katz’s and Russ and Daughters wouldn’t be on it. But then I see that many of the delis from other places (Canter’s for example) aren’t kosher. Not sure why this would be.
A lot of the country has problems keeping a deli open period. Keeping a kosher deli open would be impossible.
As for the latter challenge: yeah, Langer’s without its #19 is hard to imagine As for the former problem: and if you can’t order whitefish salad or a tongue sandwich, is it really a proper deli?
Oh, I get that. It’s true all over the country I’m pretty sure. In fact as I wrote in my first post one of the 3 NYC delis (Ben’s Best) is going out of business at the end of June. It still doesn’t explain why the New York State entries were limited to kosher operations.
