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I live in Jersey and so far the best Jewish Deli is in Cherry Hill. It's called the Kibitz Room. The Matzo ball soup is to die for, the liver knish is one of the best I have ever tasted. When I need a Kibbitz "fix" I go for the pastrami sandwich with chopped liver on pumpernickle, a liver knish and matzo ball soup and their pickles and green tomatoes. The matzo ball soup and the knish get eaten later for dinner. The sandwiches come half or whole and they also have a humongous sandwich called the g.b.m.f. It is insane. It took four of us to eat it. Next time anyone is in Jersey and close proximity to Cherry Hill, try them. The deli guys are a riot and they do kibitz with you and the waitresses are funny.

attmans: i concur w/ teh guy above; really, really good, but i do like arties better. (i've owned a house in balto since '97).

alas, been here 4.5 yrs, and have yet to get to Katz... sacrilege, i know.

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!

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.

I accept the fact that Langers has very good pastrami, but what am I to make of the fact that this "Deli" that some hold out to be so special, offers a pastrami sandwich WITH CHEESE?????????????

Aiy gavalt!!!

re Tabatchnik's in Union, N.J.: I could write a sonnet each about their deli and their appetizing. They smoked their stuff on site...the smokehouse was in back. I heard they were no longer what they had been when the closed, but still good.

I remember a good deli on Norwood Ave. in Deal, NJ in the old days. Any good delis on the Jersey shore these days?

Reading about all these delis is making me hungry. But for me delis are about something more than food: they're about nostalgia. Normally, I find all nostalgia corrosive and to be avoided, but nostalia for the deli is irresistable and not all that bad for you--like a pastrami sandwich once every other month: it won't kill you. So, to indulge... Ed's recent musings about delis past reminded me of the Strathmore Deli on Northern Blvd (I think) in Manhasset on Long Island. My parents liked it because they knew the owner who had worked (or partly owned?) the Turnpike Deli in Forrest Hills (which was a GREAT deli). The owner (I wish I could remember his name) was married to the woman who worked the cash register. There were numbers on her arms. "From the camps," my parents informed me quietly. At the time, it didn't seem out-of-the-ordinary for me to meet a Holocaust survivor. This was the Sixties and WWII was more recent history for my teenage self than the War in Vietnam is for today's young people. ...These are odd images to indulge when discussing delis, but my memories do point to the uniquely Jewish (and perhaps vanishing) sense of community one felt in a local deli when I was growing up. Everything felt famliar and family-like...in the good and bad sense of those phrases. I loved the food, of course, but the experience of going to the deli, was about much more than food. But honestly, I could go on for hours (or paragraphs)...so intense are the memories evoked by Ed's piece.

Oh, I though you said they would put the cheese on the side (which means they serve cheese on the premises). It's not for me to consider whether a place is kosher. Food might be technically kosher, but if an establishment is open on the sabbath, you'd be hard pressed to find a rabbi willing to sign his name to a certificate verifying the kashruth. You could find some rabbis who would sign off on it, but many stringently observant Jews with [what they consider to be] the highest standards wouldn't eat there.
PS: Wow, 6:24 am. You wake up pretty early in the morning to blog!

the whole kosher thing is a morass.

Glatt Kosher: the highly certified, closed on sabbath and all holy days, watermark of orthodox eating. If you're frum, this is where you eat. Noah's Ark on Clinton is one.

Plain old Kosher: uses certified kosher products, though not necessarily glatt (Hebrew Ntl), open on sabbath, but no milk and meat, treyf. Kosher people will eat there, but not Orthodox. 2nd Ave Deli is prime example.

Kosher style: an outdated term. Once meant "hey, our meat may not be kosher, but we don't put cheese on our sandwiches, and no bacon will enter this store". Then kosher style places started serving treyf, and now it basically is a euphemism for Jewish Style.

Deli: any of the above, providing they serve steamed pastrami, corned beef, and other jewish specialties. They can be glatt kosher (Essex on Coney), or completely treyf (Carnegie), but you only know it when you visit. If the smell of salt and steamed meat doesn't knock you over, it ain't a deli.

I've never been to Hobby's, so I can't compare it to any others. I'm really not qualified to comment on delis since I almost always get hot dogs. I've only had pastrami at Katz's. Occasionally I'll have a corned beef reuben. While eating my hot dog and pastrami sandwich at Katz's a few years ago, I sampled my wife's corned beef reuben. While very good, I preferred the reubens at Syd's and Tabatchnik's in Union, N.J. Unfortunately both of these places, which were located in the same strip mall are gone. They were forced out to make room for a Staples. These 2 places were 2 of my favorites. Syd's was known for their hot dogs, which I consider the best I've had.

From what I understand Kosher delis cannot mix meat and dairy; it isn't Kosher. Kosher style delis, like Katz's can, since they aren't certified Kosher. Deli King in Clark, N.J. is Kosher, and will not make a reuben, but will put the cheese on the side. Yet they are open on the Sabbath. When I asked the owner about this, he couldn't give me an answer. Another Kosher deli, Maple Kosher Meats, is closed on the Sabbath. One of the owners there told me that the Rabbi that certifies Deli King as Kosher must be liberal. Interesting. I don't understand it. Maple Kosher Meats is one of the few places I know of in N.J. where you can get Hebrew National franks with a casing. It is a collagen casing, and you can get as little as one if you wish. They are always kept sealed in a package and not left open. They're located in the same strip mall as Syd's and Tabatchnik's before they were kicked out. That is the Millburn Mall (although technically located in Union) on Vauxhall Rd. in Union. Goldberg's Kosher Meats in Old Bridge is another place where you can get Hebrew National with casing. Wegman's in Woodbridge is another, but I wouldn't get them there. The one time I did, they were left out exposed to the air too long and were dried out when I had them.

I think Savta is right, though in thinking about NYCdawg's post, I'm sure to many people delis do have to be kosher and observe dietary laws. I myself have been raised on non-kosher deli food, so that's what I have come to think that deli food is.

Adelmans on Kings in Highway in Brooklyn -- Better corned beef than 2nd Avenue Deli!