During early COVID lockdown, my stepdad always bragged that he could finally get into New York's famous Katz’s Deli. He lives nearby, so it was easy for him to walk the deserted streets right up to the front door, where for the first time in any of our memories, there was no line for pastrami. In such miserable times, it felt like a small joy. If the world was falling apart, at least there was no wait for a sandwich.
“Yeah, that wasn’t as fun for us,” jokes Jake Dell, Katz’s fifth-generation owner, when I visit on a press invitation on Monday. But luckily he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Katz’s, which opened on Manhattan’s lower east side in 1888, has long been the avatar of New York deli culture, both because its pastrami is truly fantastic, and because it’s almost the last one standing. But the reopening of society coincided with the TikTok boom, and the restaurant has actively courted a younger crowd, hosting DJ sets and comedy shows, and the wedding of the artist and influencer New York Nico. The line has been relentless ever since.
It’s a tricky job, balancing the needs of longtime regulars while attracting enough tourists and newbies to keep an operation going. Dell hopes the deli’s latest project will ease the wait. On Monday, I toured the new Ludlow Room, a separate dining room connected to Katz’s main space that seats about 60 more people. Dell explains that when Katz’s moved into the corner space on Ludlow and Houston streets in 1916 (it had been across the street before that), this was the original dining room. But as refrigeration technology became available, Katz’s built a bigger dining room in an adjacent lot, and the original space was turned into a massive walk-in fridge.
But now, the fridge has moved next door, and the Ludlow Room has been designed to mimic as close as possible what the original dining room looked like, complete with a new tin ceiling, as the previous one had corroded from decades of salt buildup. Dell also kept the human-sized meat scale at the entrance for fun. He’s still figuring out just what it will be, but hopes it can work as both a private event space and spillover for the main dining room, or a service counter if the main room is booked. “We hope it’s a place where regulars can still get their sandwiches. Tourists too,” says Dell.
At the end of my morning tour, as crowds were already piling up around the counters, Dell sent me off with a hot dog and a Cel-Ray. I like to think that no matter how else Katz’s grows and changes, the joy of that order will stay the same.
Stories From The Week
- Ashok checked in with CH Distillery, which produces the infamous Chicago liqueur Jeppson's Malӧrt, about how they may or may not be shadowbanned from the James Beard Awards Gala.
- Over the weekend in our newsletter, Courtney spoke with Jill Mapes of fellow worker co-op Hearing Things about the surprises and challenges of running a worker-owned publication.
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🐦⬛ Bird droppings
- Ashok was on WBEZ talking about how restaurants are still catching up from the hits of the pandemic. And also about a new publication called Ravenous. Maybe you’ve heard of it?
- Anna Hezel at Best Food Blog explores why cigarettes are showing back up at every party. Let me be the crank that goes on the record as not a fan! I don’t want to have to wash the smoke out of my hair every time I go out!
- DraftKings is closing its retail sportsbook at Wrigley Field after two years. You can still drink and eat there, but you’ll no longer be able to place in-person bets at the venue. So maybe it’ll just be the lesbians saving the sports bar.
