In DC have you tried DGS Delicatessen? Near Dupont Circle. My wife went to high school with the owner.
I like Attman’s in Potomac (the original is in Baltimore).
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I know - born and raised there, lived there some 30-odd years before moving up the 417, remember Ben’s on de Maisonneuve. 
Nothing wrong with pastrami, but if you give most Montrealers a choice, they’ll take smoked meat.
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I don’t think so – the “New Yorker” deli in Crystal City serves gyros and falafel, the other deli serves bi bim bap. Back in the District - some people like So’s Your Mom, in Adams Morgan, for smoked whitefish. The Union Market smoked place - Neopol - is good. They make a smoked tofu thing too, which, yeah.
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If you’re ever in Boston, Rubin’s is a great place if you’re looking for an authentic kosher deli. Pricey, but worth it!
(I’ve also been told that Zaftig’s, which is “kosher-style” is also really good, but I’ve never eaten there.)
Also, my grandfather owned a kosher deli in the Bronx during the sixties and seventies, right across the street from Yankee Stadium. Sadly, it closed a few years before I was born.
(The Roxy, for those who might be curious for whatever reason. See here: http://www.backinthebronx.com/story71.php)
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If you offered me $1,000 or a pastrami sandwich from Art’s or the 2nd Ave Deli, I would take the sandwich. You’d have to add sour pickles and potato salad.
I see you haven’t heard of this fabulous new invention where you can have whatever food your heart desires, almost always for far less than $1,000. It’s called…are you sitting down for this?..it’s called a kitchen!
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~$16 for sandwich, potato pancake (which are just as remarkable as the sandwich) and a drink. Not the most expensive meal you will ever have, but a bit steep for daily lunch. Although I guess if you count it as two meals it’s not so bad.
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Oh noes! Showing my age. Vaselka was always third behind 2nd ave and Kiev. I’ll have to start another thread about 80’s and 90’s east village eateries, music and culture. Can anyone say Loco Taco? Five Roses? Open Jam at Dan Lynch? Cheap eats at Jaffa?
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Eastern market used to have a Russian Jewish deli. The brisket was good, the chopped liver was great. It wasn’t in the market proper, but right across in those little shops between the bar and the corner.
Get the soup, too. They will make you a half sandwich and a bowl.
I was in the city by myself a few years back and had a late night, quiet meal in a booth with the paper spread out.
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Katz’s in Austin was pretty good back when it was still around.
That’s a remarkably silly statement anyway. If someone offered me the same choice, I’d take the $1,000, catch the bus down to Montreal, get a couple of smoked meat sandwiches at Schwartz’s, take in some of the night life afterwards, and still have most of the $1,000 left over.
I’m sure the author could do just as well, getting his pastrami and having money left over, the more so in that I suspect he wouldn’t have to travel 200 km to get to the source. I’m worried about the educational system in NYC if he can’t work out the arithmetic…
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Vaselka is the only one down there these days. The Stage Deli is still around too, I suppose. San Loco has expanded and is still as good as it ever was, but I do mourn Dojo and their carrot ginger dressing. Hell, even Shopsin’s has had to move into the Essex Market.
Wexler’s–that’s the GCM place, and it is indeed amazing. I only eat kosher meat, so I actually don’t have the pastrami there (or at Langer’s, more’s the pity), but the spouse loves both. The smoked whitefish at Wexler’s is outstanding.
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that’s an awesome name for a kosher deli.
i don’t have any other jewish delis to compare it to, but shockingly there was a jewish deli on Gay St. in Knoxville, the least jewish place i’ve ever lived. Harold’s Deli, right near the corner of… the brick street, where the Underground was. on the walls they had a bunch of memorabilia of Estes Keefauver, the only Jewish public figure from Tennessee. i ate there whenever i could make their early operating hours, but Greek-diaspora-owned Vic n Bills got a lot more of my business, being a 24 hour combo deli/diner filled with drunks, punks, and queers was much more my milieu at the time; though the sandwiches – while satisfying – were inferior to Harold’s.
i’m told all the New York diaspora here in Atlanta go to a spot up in Buckhead; not sure the name, i’m never up there. i imagine Toco Hills must have something good, too. i really oughta check that out.
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I go to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas day, but only because it happens to be the only restaurant open! If I had my druthers, a nice French meal would be a better choice for the day.
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You forgot to mention just how much better than pastrami, Montreal-style smoked meat is …
Richard, Richard, Richard, you MUST to go to Schwartz’s for a medium-fat with speck, some fries, a pickle or two, and a cherry coke. I suppose, if you can’t make it, I’m told that there are places in Manhattan which serve decent smoked meat.
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I ate at the Kiev many many times late at night when I lived in New York before bailing in 1991. I prefered the Apple Pancakes.
Vaselka’s is good, but the Kieve I used to eat at had supremely great apple pancakes and blintzes. Fruit blintzes I like; cheese I don’t need.
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I go to Toronto once a year, but not Montreal. Not my vibe.
And as for taking the $1,000: at that moment on New Year’s Day, I would not have taken it for the sandwich. Everything is relative. Besides, who wants to fly all the way to Montreal for a sandwich?
Bubby, you can’t make pastrami like that in your kitchen. At least I can’t.
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