extramsg wrote:A bit of a postscript -- or perhaps a virtual postcard. I spent the last couple days in LA and hit Langer's, Canter's, and Nate and Al's. I thought all three were good and Langer's excellent. I was primarily there for pastrami. LA is a great pastrami town. It's all over the place. I have pictures of multiple places with signs that read: "Burgers, Tacos, Tamales, Pastrami" etc. Pastrami burgers are a staple. I'd only seen them in Utah before. And while the pastrami burgers I've had at Crown Burger and Royal Burger in Salt Lake and Provo were slightly better than the ones I had at Nate and Al's and Pete's Blue Chip, they were all three damned close in quality. (I've been bugging Ken, my business partner, for a while now to use the leftovers for his burger on his normal menu.)

Honestly, I think these three LA delis are better than the three most famous Manhattan delis: Katz's, Stage, and Carnegie. I realize Stage and Carnegie are touristy, but Nate and Al's is in the middle of Beverly Hills and Canter's is open 24/7 and has to serve a diverse crowd. (Langer's is in the middle of a Latin neighborhood.) Of course, this is based on limited experience with each. But just an impression of them. And there's no doubt that NY has more depth, especially as you move out into Brooklyn and Queens.

The real reason I'm writing this, though, is that I was surprised at how sweet the pastrami at Langer's was. Sweeter than our sweetest stuff, I would say. Less smokey, too, which was no surprise. And now that I've dialed back the sweetness to a point that I'm happy and dialed up the spices, we're much less sweet. Somewhere between there and NY, perhaps. This was true of the other LA delis, too, but not as much as Langer's.

Also, now I understand when people come in and say that we needed a seeded cornmeal crusted rye. They're LA deli people. That's all they had in LA, but I never saw it in NY, where the rye was always unseeded and a little darker, maybe a 30%-40%, just guessing. And it was never crusted with cornmeal.

LA Jewish Deli Icon Nate’n Al’s Closes its Doors in Beverly Hills Tomorrow