Corned beef is as American as the accordion.
Like the instrument heard in music from Mexico to Poland, the corned beef traditionally associated with the recent Irish holiday has long been a staple of the Jewish delicatessen.
Served on rye with a pickle and maybe some coleslaw it was fast food for a generation of European immigrants for whom the deli was a home away from the home they left behind.
“You can taste the diaspora,” says David “Ziggy” Gruber, about one of the traditional dishes served at his Houston delicatessen.
Gruber is a gregarious mensch and the documentary “Deli Man,” is as thick with his life and voice as his chicken soup is thick with schmaltz.
Jazz isn’t the only uniquely American artifact.
The delicatessen was also invented here, and New York City was its “cultural and spiritual homeland.”
Gruber’s grandfather started the Rialto on Broadway in 1927. At one time there was one on every corner, several on the same block and thousands of them in the New York area alone.
Today there are about 150 left in North America, a victim of rising prices, changing tastes and diets, assimilation and “customers who are dead or moved to Florida.”
The survivors include traditionalists like the Carnegie Deli in New York, Caplansky’s in Toronto whose motto is “Jew It Up,” and the modern fusion version of the cuisine by newcomers like the Wise Brothers in San Francisco.
But the double chinned, heart attack on two legs Gruber is an old school deli man who “Broadway Danny Rose” would recognize. The classically trained Gruber was born “an 80-year old Jew,” and learned the business at the apron of his grandfather, who died before he could pass down his gravy recipe.
Deli regulars like Jerry Stiller, Fyvush Finkel and Larry King offer reminiscences. Context comes from historians one of whom notes that a deli constant is a waitstaff “that treats you with a mixture of lack of respect and affection you only show to family members.”
And the food – from the braided challah, matzo ball soup and sandwiches so thick you could throw out your jaw – is lovingly portrayed in the film by director Erik Greenberg Anjou. The result is so tactile you can “smell it with your eyes.”
I gained five pounds just watching it.
Three stars ***
With David Gruber, Larry King, Fyvush Finkel, Jerry Stiller. Produced and directed by Erik Greenberg Anjou. Approximate running time: 91 minutes. Rated PG-13, mild language. Playing at the Downer Theater.
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