SADLY, LANSKY’S OLD WORLD DELI IS NOW CLOSED.
Jewish delis seem to be an endangered species. There are only a handful left in NY from the golden age (the ’20s and ’30s) and when many New Yorkers speak of delis now, they are often referring to the bodega on the corner. And I fear there is a whole new generation of people who don’t know from matzoh balls and kreplach.
Fortunately, a few of the classics are still thriving. And there even seems to be a quiet movement to save the dying delis. Fellow blogger David Sax wrote a book called Save the Deli, where he tries to do just that and embarks on a mission across the country not unlike my current journey of finding the best deli sandwich.
There is also a wave of new delis in New York that have built themselves to feel like they’ve been around since the beginning. These places aren’t always owned by Jews, but they’re tended by people who love and understand Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish) cuisine.
Lansky’s Old World Deli is one of the most recent attempts at the kosher revival. David Ruggerio is a French-trained, Brooklyn-born Italian chef who also owns the Japanese restaurant Sushi A-Go-Go. The guy is all over the place. But how does he fare when turning his knives toward corned beef and pastrami?
The first image when I approached the host stand at Lansky’s is an elderly (Jewish?) man dressed to the nines. He was wearing an old-fashioned suit and tie and looks like he’s been running this place since the ’30’s (which of course is just not possible since it’s only been around since the early ’00’s). But when I got closer, he didn’t move and a younger more able-bodied host sat me in one of the big booths.
And as I got further into my experience at Lansky’s, there were many things that made me realize I was in the 21st Century. Sure it looks classic with the spread out tables and checkered floors. But all the waiters were young and hip and probably struggling artists of one kind or another. The menu even listed cocktail options. I guarantee the original owners of Katz’s never considered making mojitos.
The service was nice enough although I was frustrated that I wasn’t allowed to get a half sandwich of the combo. They offer combos and half sandwiches but the two shall never meet. I even offered to pay extra, but the answer was still no. Too bad the leftover second half of my sandwich sat in my refrigerator for days. If it wasn’t so rainy and cold out, I might have found a homeless person who would have been happy to go kosher for the evening.
The meat on the sandwich was pretty good. The corned beef was very tender and bursting with flavorful, but I found it a bit dry in places. The pastrami, which had some fat running through it (even though I ordered extra lean), reminded me of a stick of butter. It was greasy, rich, and tasty, but I found it a bit stiff at times. The sandwich was good, but a tad inconsistent.
I did get the sense that Lansky’s takes itself a bit too seriously. It seems they have aspirations to be both a gourmet Jewish restaurant (with lamb shank on the menu) and an old-style deli. And it sort of ends up feeling like a diner more than anything else.
But I don’t want to fault this place too much because the sandwich was tasty and I have to applaud their efforts in reviving the classic deli. Even if they haven’t been around for 50 years or more, they’ve done their best to make it feel like they have. And one more step to save the deli from extinction is fine by me.
Is Lansky’s Old World Deli the best corned beef/pastrami in NY? The restaurant gets many points for inducing nostalgia and pushing the deli movement forward. But the sandwich itself, while tasty, only gets a 7 out of10 due to texture issues and flavor inconsistencies.
