What is an authentic Jewish deli? At Saul’s, we believe it is much more than a mountain of pastrami. Saul’s is engaging in a larger story than one generation’s mid-20th century New York experience, which is only one stage in the evolution of our cuisine.
Saul’s connects to our Jewish roots all along the timeline of that evolution. The recipes of Old-world kitchens grew out of pre-industrialized food supply systems, local economic partnerships, community self-sufficiency, resourcefulness and hearty pragmatism. Our immigrant cuisine of the late 1800’s, which gave birth to the American Jewish deli, owed its robustness to these cultural mores. While we all might have different opinions of exactly how this or that classic Jewish dish should taste or look, the core of authentic Jewish cuisine can be traced to these roots.
In an effort to reconnect to these mores, Saul’s partners with local organic producers wherever possible, avoids industrial pre-processing, and embraces sustainability as the ultimate pragmatism. This is how Saul’s holds true to the hearty, authentic culinary traditions of Jewish culture.
This is our Jewish restaurant and deli. This is Saul’s.
Because Jewish culinary history is so rich, because there is so much work to be done to return authenticity to our food system and cuisine, Saul’s mission is quite ambitious.
We are a resource for shared culinary traditions, taste memories, and progressively, ethically
sourced and influenced dishes. We strive to re-establish the food systems of our roots,
and we are a place where diverse and intimate community congregates to eat a familiar and vital cuisine.
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For the record, the nostalgic “New York style delis” of more recent memory came to represent radical changes in Jewish food values mirroring changes in American food production generally.
To name a few:
Factory-produced rye bread replacing old-world style rye from artisanal local bakeries each with their own ingredient sources and special variations in texture and flavor.
Intensive, confined feeding operations and routine use of antibiotics and hormones for smoked and cured meats.
The consolidation of the soda industry, from hundreds of small-batch, regional and local soda alchemists in the New York area alone, to just one brand recalling that era and those flavors.
Dr. Brown’s– which originated as a small producer — is now sweetened with high-fructose
corn syrup and owned by Canada Dry, which is owned by Dr Pepper/Seven Up, a unit of Dr
Pepper Snapple Group.
All this centralization brought more food miles, more fossil fuel inputs, and diminished the integrity of the neighborhood deli experience. Close relationships between local purveyors, restaurants, and customers were lost, existing more in memory than in the present.
No wonder delis conjure so much unapologetic nostalgia, so much searching to re-live memory and re-assert shared experience.
