By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO — You don’t have to be Marcel Proust to recognize the association between the aroma of a Jewish deli and memory. It still happens every time I enter DZ Akins. For me, the intermingling of the scents of fresh challah, chicken soup, chopped liver, corned beef, flanken, grilled onions, lox, pastrami, rye bread, and many other entrees evoke moments of noshing and conversing with family and friends at Chicago delis like Ashkenaz, The Bagel, Braverman’s, Max and Benny’s, and New York Bagel and Bialy.
Added to this is the comforting sense that you’ve met the clientele, owners, and waiters before even if you haven’t. A few kibbitzers seated in a booth are talking loudly about their businesses, children, health, politics, spouses, or recent vacations. At another table, some women are conversing about the latest events in their lives. Parents try to get a quiet meal while babies are crying, toddlers are throwing tantrums, and preteens are diving under the table. Waiters dispense advice and attitude as well as food. The owner dashes from table to table asking how their meals were.
Erik Anjou’s documentary Deli Man captures the ambience, hubbub, lore, nostalgia, smells, and tastes of this Jewish culinary institution. As historian Jane Ziegelman explains, the deli filled a culinary niche for homesick immigrants first from Germany and then Eastern Europe. Though not initially a Jewish phenomenon, it increasingly became one with the mass migration of Jews from Hungary, Russia, Poland, and Rumania in the late 19th Century. When Jews became more acculturated and geographically, the numbers of delis dwindled from over a thousand in the United States in the 1930s to only 150 today.
While consisting primarily of interviews with famous customers like Philip “Fyvush” Finkel, Larry King, Freddie Roman, and Jerry Stiller, and owners of America’s leading delis in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto, the film focuses on David “Ziggy” Gruber who left his career as a promising gourmet chef to emulate his grandfather’s vocation of running a deli.
His Kenny & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen Restaurant in Houston demonstrates that hefty portions and high quality baked goods, meats, sandwiches, smoked fishes, and soups can attract a loyal following anywhere. Ziggy’s rotund face, haimischness, and sense of humor make him an appealing poster boy for pastrami on rye.
What becomes evident in the course of the film is how dedicated someone must be to manage a successful deli from pleasing customers, purchasing the best ingredients, preserving old recipes, and slicing meat and fish properly. Indeed, Ziggy has sacrificed most of his private life for the sake of his business, but (spoiler alert) finally marries at the end of the film. Although he rejects updating his menu to cater to newer culinary trends, the Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen in San Francisco dishes up fusion versions of deli standards.
Deli Man is like its subject: delicious, nostalgic, and substantial. It will fill you up with an appreciation for the kind of restaurants that continue this tradition and with reminiscences of all the times you dined at such establishments. It opens this Friday at the La Jolla Village Cinemas.
Baron is a professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted at lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com