LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold: 99 Essential Restaurants

Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant is proud to be a part of the LA Weekly’s latest 99 Essential Restaurants list authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic (and friend of Langer’s) Jonathan Gold.

Langer’s has finally become the institution it deserved to be all along: patronized by big shots, home to a radio show, beloved by the national food press, occupying a corner renamed Langer’s Square. It has become common knowledge that the late Al Langer was among the last of the great deli men, a guy who traced the contours of a properly steamed pastrami the way a great sushi chef does a fresh yellowtail….

…Bite into a Langer’s pastrami sandwich: thick slices of hand-sliced beef, glistening with peppery fat, as dense and as smoky as Texas barbecue; thick-cut seeded corn rye, hot, crisp-crusted and soft inside, with a slightly sour tang that helps tame the richness of the meat; a dab of yellow mustard as important to the whole as a sushi master’s wasabi. The fact is inescapable: Langer’s serves the best pastrami sandwich in America.

We are honored and humbled, Jonathan. The entire Langer family thanks you from the bottom of our collective heart.

Click here to read Jonathan’s complete review

Sheryll Bellman to speak in Pomona

America’s Great Delis author Sheryll Bellman will make a rare Southern California speaking appearance this weekend to discuss America’s deli culture at the Jewish Book Festival on Saturday evening at Temple Beth Israel in Pomona.

Sheryll is a big support of all things Jewish deli, and her book is one of the best on the subject (we even sell it here at the store).

For more information, click here to read the LA Times’ coverage of her upcoming event.

And if you attend the event, tell her hello from Langer’s Deli!

Personal Wine Buyer: Langer’s Deli

Tom Delorme of PersonalWineBuyer.com recently paid a return visit to Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant after a long break (we hope it was just because he was out of town). He had wonderful memories of the first visit, including our cabbage soup, so he wondered if his nostalgia for our quality was just sentimentality. His discovery?

Truth be told, it was better than last time. The bread’s crust was thicker — it was more like a shell than a crust — and of course the pastrami was delicious. My next trip I might just get a pastrami on rye with mustard — I can’t imagine it could get much better than that and the absence of cole slaw, cheese and dressing might be a better format to let the real stars of the sandwich shine. I left knowing that was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had — and perhaps at the very top of the list.

It’s a great article, and it includes a digest of Langer’s history.

Gourmet Pigs: An LA Pilgrimmage

The well-traveled and seasoned food reviewers at Gourmet Pigs recently paid their first visit to Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant. Two reviewers ordered; one got a #19 sandwich and the other a delicious pastrami platter (pictured). It’s a great review with excellent photography.

Upon first bite I understood why Langer’s is so popular. The pastrami itself was tender, smoky and peppery with just the right amount of fat that the thin slices retained both a great meaty flavor and an almost melt-in-your-mouth consistency. The cole slaw added a nice texture contrast between the tender pastrami and the chewy bread, though the swiss cheese was somewhat lost amongst everything.

Click here to read the complete article

Citysearch Blog: Bite This – Langer’s Deli

Food blogger Mar Yvette writing at the CitySearch Blog recently recounted her visit to Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant and took some great photos of our food while giving her appraisal of her first-ever Langer’s encounter:

Call me crazy, call me a charlatan, call me so-busy-checking-out-all-the-new-places-opening-up-in-LA-every-day-there’s-hardly-any-time-for-anything-else, but I had actually never stepped inside Langer’s Deli up until two weeks ago….

The pastrami is so tender it melts in your mouth, the bread is soft yet manages to keep it all together, and the slaw sweetly complements the dressing’s tang.

It was sensational.

 

An Immovable Feast: Langer’s Deli

Food blog An Immovable Feast recently visited Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant for the very first time, largely due to recommendations from friends and a mention from Jonathan Gold in the LA Weekly:

Like I wrote earlier, while I love good pastrami, I would not call myself an expert. But I have been to Katz’s and the Carnegie Deli in New York and Canter’s here in Los Angeles, and this sandwich from Langer’s was the best pastrami I have ever had.

The story has terrific photography and the entire piece is well worth reading. Click here to check it out.

Video: “A Reuben By Any Other Name”

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We recently heard from Robert Novak, producer of this short film, and took a look at it. It’s hysterical, and a great example of Jewish humor that should bring a smile to your face. Thank you, Robert!

Travel Writer Richard Atkins: Ooh la la! Rediscovering Los Angeles

Travel writer Richard Atkins recently paid Los Angeles a visit and included Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant on his itinerary. His reaction to his first visit to Langer’s?

Spending most of my adult life in New York City, I’ve become somewhat of a fanatical connoisseur of great delicatessen and no one does deli like New York. That is until now. Across from the famed MacArthur Park is Langers Delicatessen. Proud recipient of the James Beard Foundation Award, Langers opened its hallowed doors in 1947 with a whopping 12 seats. Through trials and tribulations, adversity and screams of “there goes the neighborhood,” the restaurant has stood the proverbial test of time.

Moreover, it’s satisfied those ruthless deli aficionados who will run you out of town if they think your pastrami is not up to their pretentious standards. The potato latkes alone are enough to send you into delirium. However, while you’re savoring their aftertaste, ecstasy is just around the corner with the No. 19. Pastrami, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and L’Chaim! You’re on top of the world.

Besides the pastrami melting in your mouth, the real secret is the double baked and steamed rye bread, which is softer than a 1,200-thread-count Egyptian Cotton sheet. Don’t forget to say hi to Norm Langer when you’re there. He’s the friendliest host you could ever meet and the perfect gentleman. Bravo, Norm!

It’s a great article so we recommend you click here to read the complete piece

Thank you again, Richard – The Langers

The #43 Mychal Thompson Sandwich

Norm Langer surprised 710 ESPN High Noon Showdown hosts Andrew Siciliano and Mychal Thompson today with a very special creation for Mychal – the #43 Mychal Thompson Sandwich. Created using a whole loaf of honey wheat bread and all the ingredients of our traditional #19 (only much bigger – 2.5 pounds of steaming hot pastrami, cole slaw, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese), the #43 was specially designed to address Mychal’s belief that Langer’s sandwiches are better tasting with honey wheat bread (yikes!) and not our delicious rye bread.

Show producer Drew Belzer kept Norm’s walk-in visit a complete surprise from Mychal and Andrew, who were genuinely shocked to see Norm walk in with a tinfoil-enshrouded mystery present for Mychal. Norm proceeded to describe how he had listened to last week’s Langer’s visit when we brought lunch in for the entire crew of 710 ESPN, and was shocked to learn that Mychal had (in anticipation of the free food) brought in his own honey wheat bread to re-make his sandwich more to his liking. Despite honey wheat being borderline heretical to a good Jewish deli sandwich, Norm felt it was his duty to bring something more to Mychal’s taste. We even brought Mychal a full bottle of mayonnaise (his favorite condiment), another heretical moment that nearly caused Andrew to walk out of the studio in protest.

In all, it was a great visit and Mychal was a terrific sport about it. In fact, he plans to take the huge, oversized sandwich with him on his flight to London accompanying the Los Angeles Lakers for their European exhibition trip beginning with an October 4th game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at London’s O2 Arena. It’s our guess the #43 will be long gone by then, though.

Enjoy, Mychal – and don’t forget the mayo!

Click here to listen to the show – scroll to 12:00 for Norm’s segment

LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold: Langer’s – the Last Supper

The Los Angeles Weekly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold – a true Friend of Langer’s – was recently asked by a reader what he would have catered at his funeral. His answer?

But who am I kidding? In my family, funerals are occasions to stuff down truly heroic amounts of deli, and when I have to go, I will die as I lived: seen off with Langer’s pastrami.

Click here to read the complete account – and thank you, Jonathan! We trust you will be around and eating with us for years to come