Cole Slaw on the Side

Hungry?   You will be after seeing this delicious documentary.  You might want to eat before.  Otherwise, your mouth will be watering for almost ninety minutes.  You can almost smell the dill pickles wherever this gem is playing.

"Deli Man" is exactly what the title is.  A close-up look at one delicatessen owner named Ziggy Gruber, who has a sit-down establishment in, of all places, Houston, Texas.   Apparently, this is a sizable Jewish population there.  Who knew?  Ziggy, a native New Yorker, saw the business opportunity there and seized upon it.

But this film is much more than a slice of life and bologna in the world of Ziggy.  The filmmakers use him as a jumping-off point for a look at the history of delicatessens in America.  A lifespan that began in the early 20th Century and is unfortunately dying.  

Delicatessens, both German and Jewish, sprang up way back when as a result of the influx of immigrants (legal, by the way) into America.  Delis were a means of giving these folks a taste of their homeland.  At one point in the 40s and 50s, there were thousands of such places in just New York City alone.  In 2015, there's just a little more than 150 Jewish delis in the whole country.  As the older folks die off, there is less focus on Old European foods.  Plus, well, the dieticians of the world have done their own nasty work condemning the fatty fare.  

Bastards.

My family frequented a few German delicatessens when I was a kid.  There was Knoop's in Mount Vernon, New York.  And a small one right underneath the elevated tracks around 238th Street and White Plains Road in the Bronx.  I forget the name of the place, but they had the best damn German potato salad anywhere.  I can still taste it.

I still crave German cold cuts and amazingly there are two such places in Los Angeles where I can buy them.  I'm less of a fan of the Jewish sit-down delis but, when I am in the rare mood, I do enjoy them.   I will never forget the night of 9/11/2001.  My writing partner and I, numb from hours of depressing news coverage, were starved and Nate N' Al's in Beverly Hills was the only place open for business.  Rodney Dangerfield, clad in his pajamas, was seated in the next booth.

For some reason, that Reuben sandwich hit the spot that night.

Still, "Deli Man," in its own way, reminds us that the Old European values this country was largely built on have virtually disappeared.  The hard-working proprietors like Ziggy Gruber are doing their darndest to keep us fed with culinary memories.  You see how hard their work is and how complicated their lives become.   But they do it for the love of their culture and the homelands they hold so dear.  

If you had no appreciation for them, you will after you see "Deli Man."  Another wonderful world brought to us in this, the golden age of documentaries.   Where real and simple stories are often the best.

LEN'S RATING:  Three-and-a-half stars.

Dinner last night:  Chicken fried steak and salad.