NOT IN THE CATSKILLS ANYMORE (Kutsher’s Tribeca)

My search for the best corned beef/pastrami in New York continues….

SADLY, KUTSHER’S TRIBECA IS NOW CLOSED.

I’m not going to spend too much time reviewing the new restaurant Kutsher’s, which just opened a few weeks ago in Tribeca, for a number of reasons. First off, I’m really only including them on this blog because they do serve pastrami. Secondly, they’ve been opened just under a month and I understand it takes time to get the restaurant on its feet. And finally, it really wasn’t very good when I went.

You may recognize the name Kutsher’s as the historic country club/restaurant up in the Catskills. If you don’t, odds are your parents or your grandparents do. The restaurant up there is known for Jewish comfort food in a kosher setting. Nothing fancy, just classic stuff.

The new Kutsher’s, which is backed by the original owner’s son is sort of the opposite of that. It’s not kosher and the food is refined, hip versions of those Jewish classics. The ambiance is strange in the new restaurant. If you squint, you’d think you were at a Jewish diner circa 1970, but the lights are dim, the staff is attractive, and the music is all wrong (they were playing 90’s alternative rock and the owner annoyingly kept changing the soundtrack mid-song).

We ordered a bunch of appetizers (Jewish food is supposed to be appetizing, right?) and there were a few hits and misses (mostly misses). Everything was severely overpriced and overall, I think this sort of food has never been successfully refined for a reason. This is rustic food for sustenance, it’s really pointless to refine it.

Alright, enough already. I said I wouldn’t critique the restaurant itself and I already got way too involved. Let me get back to the pastrami. It was one of the options on their Delicatessen Platter, along with some deli staples like tongue, chopped liver, and spicy salami. We picked three options (for a hefty $16), yet due to some miscommunication in the kitchen, we received four.

Nobody explained to us which meat was which and when I asked the manager (who turned out to be the owner himself), he wasn’t sure either. Well, I think there were two types of pastrami on the plate: flat and deckle. The menu hinted that they were one in the same, but the owner told us otherwise. He also told us the leaner one was deckle. Um, I don’t think so. I know deckle is the fatty cut of brisket and, flat, I believe is the leaner one. So if it’s one in the same, shouldn’t it just be pastrami? Oy vey! Whatever.

Well, I’m not sure which was which, but one (I assume the deckle) was much better than the other. The first one we tasted was dry and tough! Even the mustard and rye bread couldn’t liven it up. It was so tough, I had to use my fingers to pull this apart and I actually exerted force. This should never happen at a Jewish restaurant. We don’t want to do work!

The other cut of pastrami resembled corned beer and was slightly better since it had some more juicy fat marbled throughout, but it too was lacking much flavor beyond that. And the idea of eating small slices of pastrami on slices of toast seemed totally inappropriate. I don’t need an over-the-top deli sandwich, but Jewish comfort food should not be refined to small, dainty portions. It just doesn’t make sense.

Alright, I think I’ve hinted enough at my disappointment at Kutsher’s. Perhaps it will get better with time (the early online reviews have been mostly positive). And I realize it wasn’t time to review them yet. But based on that experience, I don’t really want to go back.

Is Kutsher’s the best corned beef/pastrami in NY? Well, they only serve the pastrami and in a much different setting than the classics. But the meat is on the dry side and one cut was almost inedibly tough. So forgetting the other disappointments in our meal, the meat gets a paltry 5 out of 10.