PrintThe Second Avenue Deli: Reopening to Close an Old Wound
What's the most eagerly anticipated new restaurant opening of the year in New York? A deli. Who would have thunk it? Perhaps the most beloved New York Jewish-style deli of all time, the Second Avenue Deli, is set to reopen in the coming weeks. But when it does, which Second Avenue Deli will it be: the deli that served the best all-around deli food, which is what it was when the late, beloved Abe Lebewohl was around, or the very good but not great deli it became after Abe was senselessly gunned down while making a bank deposit and his lawyer brother, Jack, took over?
I am rooting for the Second Avenue Deli to come back better than ever, or at least as good as it was when Abe was alive. Alex Witchel in yesterday's New York Times Magazine shows that she is rooting for that as well. In heart-wrenching fashion, she describes how the deli's closing a year and a half ago reopened so many old wounds caused by Abe's death:
The one thing Jack can’t bring himself to talk about is the emotional fallout from Abe’s murder. No matter how many times I asked him, he could not answer. He spoke instead about religion or business or the New York City Police Department, whose efforts he still defends wholeheartedly. And he cried. When I asked Jeremy, who was 13 when his uncle was murdered, about the effect the deli’s closing had on his family, he told me, “It was almost like a person, a close family member, dying.” In the days I spent with both father and son, it became clear that reopening the deli is about much more than business. It’s about Abe.
For me, it's all about the return of a beloved New York food institution that at one point set impossibly high standards for deli food.
What Witchel and everyone else writing this story (which is a wonderful story to write, of course) hasn't mentioned is the reason the Second Avenue Deli was so great when Abe was alive was that Abe was not only one of New York's most generously spirited mensches, he was a food guy, a very good cook who knew what good and delicious were. Abe knew that dried porcini mushrooms were the key to the Second Avenue Deli's incomparable mushroom-barley soup. It was Abe who came up with the terrific cure that made the Second Avenue Deli's superb corned beef. It was Abe who refused to compromise the quality of his french fries when places like Katz's started serving mediocre frozen ones.
Delis need people who know what delicious is—just like any other food business. Look at Katz's. Its two current owners, who are reportedly feuding, started serving the same mediocre cole slaw served at corner delis and bodegas all over the city, as well as frozen french fries that are no better than your average Greek diner's. I wrote about the Second Avenue Deli's very good pastrami sandwich in a New York Times story. I even have a video Abe starred in, The Art of New York Deli Cooking, in which Abe gives us many useful deli food cooking tips.
After Abe was killed, Jack came in and tried to run it as best he could. But Jack is a real estate lawyer, not a food guy. As a result, the food suffered a little on his watch. It was still good when it closed, but it was certainly not what it was under Abe.
Now it's up to Jeremy Lebewohl to pick up Abe's mantle. He comes to it after a stint in the Israeli army and a couple of years in the bagel shop business. I hope he takes after his uncle, and the high quality of his bagels is a good sign. I have no reason to believe he won't. But it's the food that Abe served and the spirit he imbued the Second Avenue Deli with that made it the city's best deli when Abe was alive. That's what we need the Second Avenue Deli to be, a beacon of great food and a symbol of hope that reflects Abe Lebewohl's indomitable spirit.
Jeremy Lebewohl is clearly on a mission to both bring back the Second Avenue Deli to its former glory AND to bring some closure to his dad.
"There's something missing from my family," he said. "Forgetting about me, going to the generation before me, there are no memories without the deli. My father has no memories without the store." His smile was easy. "It'll be nice to have it back."
It will be more than nice to have it back when it reopens sometime next month. The city has been a lesser place without the Second Avenue Deli. I for one can't wait to have a bowl of that incomparable mushroom-barley soup. a corned beef sandwich, and an order of french fries. Welcome back, Second Avenue Deli.
If you have a memory of the Second Avenue Deli please share it with us.
Related: The Future of the Jewish Deli
Second Avenue Deli
Address: 162 East 33rd Street, New York NY 10016 (b/n Lexington and Third)
Phone: 212-677-0606
Photograph from In Praise of Sardines on Flickr
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8 Comments:
I have a memory of the Second Avenue Deli and one of Abe Lebewohl also. The deli memory is here in this little essay - for the Second Avenue Deli was the very first deli I ever ate at . . .
I went to my first Jewish deli when I was barely fourteen years old, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My boyfriend was Jewish. He ate the usual deli things plus those things that might be considered arcana for the casual lightweight diner dabbling in Jewish deli food.
My God, the smell of those pickles set in the center of the table in their practical utilitarian silver bowl. I can honestly say that even thinking about those pickles, my mouth will still literally water sometimes of its own doing. Yes, those pickles were nocturnal-salivation worthy, even ah . . . too many years to want to add up and list, later.
The first thing we ate was matzoh-ball soup. It was okay. Very different than anything I'd ever eaten before, as the daughter of a single-mother-non-cook-WASP. Then we had some sandwiches. WASPs do not know how to make a sandwich, I realized, when I saw these sandwiches. What I had thought was a sandwich while growing up (a slice of bologna on white bread with yellow mustard, hey hey) was a parody. It was a parody of how life should be.
Roast beef on rye. Good, very good. We shared. And another. A combo. Corned beef, tongue, and turkey with coleslaw and Russian dressing. On rye, of course. The bread was soft and warm and yielding to its fillings, as if it loved them itself. The bread curled round the meats like a mother's arms round a new baby, coddling them, offering them up, saying "Look, how beautiful!"
Yes, they were beautiful and if the nature of Divinity has a taste, it exists in a well-made Jewish Deli corned beef, tongue, and turkey sandwich with coleslaw and Russian - with half-sour garlic-y pickles unending in the bowl between us.
We had stuffed peppers. Comforting. We had stuffed derma. To this shiksa, interesting. Not only the taste, you know, but the idea too. We had Dr. Brown's celery soda of course, and cream soda too.
We waddled off into the night after that meal and I felt warmed and good, with the food, the smells, and the banter.
In later years I met Abe Lebewohl in the course of planning a very large food function. I wanted to buy some Second Avenue Deli food for the party, which was a celebration in DC of NY State foods. Abe refused payment. Even though money was no object. He carried close to a hundred pounds of food with the help of one of his staff by plane and taxicab to the function, all at his own expense, just because he wanted to do it. He just wanted to give. He wanted people to know his food and he wanted to be sure it was right and good. He had nothing to gain by this act of generosity. No added advertising, nothing. Abe Lebewohl was that rare sort of being - a true mensch, without question.
I wish his family all the luck in the world in the new location, and I hope we hear about how it all goes here on Serious Eats. Please eat a pickle for me. :)
Karen Resta at 9:04AM on 10/22/07
friends and i have been calling weekly to find out when they are opening. as of now they don't know when but they HOPE in the next few weeks. a colleague mentioned January and the response was "hopefully" if anyone finds out info on when they are opening, please post. thanks.
jaf at 9:52AM on 10/22/07
In August 2006 I finally got around to having lunch at the Second Avenue Deli after many years. What a New York City moment: I, a Bronx raised Chinese immigrant, introducing my husband's visiting Italian cousins to their first Jewish meal. They took photos of the sandwiches and the pickles to show all the relatives back in their small Norhtern Italian town and thoroughly enjoyed everything.
LindaY at 11:24AM on 10/22/07
Does anyone know if the new Second Avenue Deli will be Kosher?
nycdawg at 3:18PM on 10/24/07
Shortly before they closed, I went to buy chopped liver for a party. The man who greeted me (tall, handsome, don't know his name) would NOT sell it to me for the next day because it's so perishable! He actually said he would meet me with a fresh batch in the morning in my neighborhood because I couldn't get to the deli the next day. Turns out I didn't do this, didn't want to put him out but this was the most honest treatment I ever received from anyone! The item I bought most was the kreplach and I hope they will use the same recipe. I loved their corned beef of course, but if the owners are reading this, PLEASE make the kreplach like before. Nobody makes them this good and that's all I am looking forward to. Thanks!
beanie at 10:27PM on 10/28/07
Last xmas/hanukah-I was one of only two customers. I needed to buy my Dad his birthday present: a pound each of corned beef, pastrami and chopped liver and a couple of latkes. There was this guy ahead of me who could've been the comedian Jon Lovitz's twin except he was like 400lbs and he was ordering his weight in cold cuts. Rather than be annoyed at the wait, I lucked out in that he tipped the countermen $50 and they proceeded to lay out samples of everything for him...and me! The deli closed soon thereafter but I'll always treasure that moment.
guttergour at 9:53PM on 10/29/07
Does anyone know the date they're opening? Please post if so! I thought they were opening in November and can't find any info online. Thanks!
beanie at 4:09PM on 12/09/07
Found it! December 17th...I can't wait, I am so happy! I have never found anyone who makes kreplach like them. I stock my freezer with them, put 3 or 4 in aluminum foil so I can just throw them in soup. Their chicken soup is the absolute best (and I never order it anywhere but this is amazing). Their corned beef sandwiches are also fantastic, never dry. Great message board, thanks for the opportunity to post!
beanie at 9:59PM on 12/09/07