Do You Love Pastrami?

We were asked to be such a friend in the pre-9/11 days when liquid was not banned from carry-on. We gladly filled a request for gefilte fish (“make sure they put the carrot slice in!”) from Second Avenue Deli (when it was on 2d), and delivered it straight from the airport. Satisfaction all around.

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that’s awesome! always good for a laugh!

sex drugs and rock and roll are overrated-- it’s food, sex and tv! (trifecta)

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Glad you could be such a friend. We have a local grocery/caterer owned by an Italian family that does great Jewish holiday catering, including gefilte fish ( I’ve been a guest at a Seder they catered - delicious.) Even has the carrot slices. And they do Shiva trays. After all, we are the melting pot!

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The carrots:

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So I finally tried it, and I concur with your assessment. To be fair, there wasn’t much “wrong” with the individual ingredients used, but the QPR isn’t great, and the overall finished product was subpar and disappointing. Worse, the service was awful – after being seated, I was abandoned with the menu for close to 10 minutes, eye contact was actively avoided, and even saying “Hi!” with a smile to a passing waitress was only responded to with a reciprocal “Hi”; that waitress eventually came back a few minutes later to inform me that someone else would be with me shortly, but I came very close to just getting-up and leaving. Once I finally ordered, service was generally inattentive and fleeting. I did observe other waitstaff providing more attentive service to their sections, but not by much.

I found their corned beef Reuben small, sad and bland. At first I wondered if they either forgot the Russian dressing or used such a small amount of it that I couldn’t taste it, but in reviewing the menu after the fact I noticed that they don’t include any on their “Reuben” sandwiches!! For the size of this sandwich, it should cost only a little more than half as much as it does. Pass the smelling salts, but I almost wonder if Canter’s makes a superior Reuben sandwich!!

The accompanying coleslaw was crisp, but a bit bland, too.

Gimlet cocktail was good, but the star of the meal was the Warm Challah Bread Pudding – very eggy, custardy and delicious! Very large portion, too. Honestly it’s more than enough to share.

This all came to over $50, inclusive of the 10% tip I left due to the poor service.

I’ve contemplated whether or not to give this place another chance by ordering something else, but the service tips me towards a hard no.

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Yes, love pastrami. Been to Katz and Carnegie in NYC. Both good

Made my own which turns out really good and cheat and use prepared corned beefs when on sale after St Patty’s day. Desalinate, spread on yellow mustard and add pastrami spice mix that I make and toss in the smoker then finish over steam in the oven

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Friends took us there when they weren’t taking us here:

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In some ways, Los Angeles has become the last stand for the classic deli with Canter’s, Langer’s, Nate ‘n Al’s and Factor’s all still going strong!

Um…and what about Brent’s and Art’s?

Carnegie was epic, but I had a strange (only in New York) experience there maybe 35 years ago. I was at a trade show at Columbus Circle (then the Coliseum) and three of us walked down to Carnegie for lunch. We were seated at a long, family style table in the middle of the place, with my two associates opposite each other and me across from an already-eating stranger. When the server came for orders he took my 2 associates’ but refused to take mine because I “wasn’t at his station”. ‘My’ server was busy and I had to find a manager to get my order taken. I was born and raised in NYC and that conversation was interesting to say the least.

The food was great as usual though.

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Carnegie deli - my dad had a business that necessitated weekly sojourns to New York - they kept a small place a couple of blocks from the Carnegie, Pastrami was my aspirational meal.

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Carnegie was pretty good but from what I hear, it’s nowhere near as good as Langers.

I’m headed to LA in a few days and Langers is at the very top of my list

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There’s maybe a meaningful difference in sourcing:

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Another venerable pastrami name in the Los Angeles Basin:

https://www.brentsdeli.com/

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Well folks, I made it to Langer’s and boy oh boy was it absolutely scrumptious. I got oh-so-popular #19 pastrami on rye, with slaw and Russian dressing and it lived up to everything and then some. See below:


Special shoutout to their matzo ball soup as well, which was very chicken-y (which was surprising considering how clear the broth was). Also the matzo ball itself was a sinker but still great!


The outside and inside decor were classic - can’t beat it. And the neighborhood wasn’t nearly as bad as I was made to believe. We parked in the Langer’s lot a block away and it was fine, especially in broad daylight.



Wish Boston had a deli this good…

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So jealous!!!

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Yes.