Katz's Delicatessen: The Pastrami Monument of Houston Street

Why is it significant?

Pass through the neon-lit entrance of Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston Street and hold tight to the small paper ticket handed to you by the door attendant.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Pass through the neon-lit entrance of Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston Street and hold tight to the small paper ticket handed to you by the door attendant. The enormous, cavernous hall is a whirlwind of clattering plates, sizzling griddles, and the rich, intoxicating aroma of peppered pastrami, garlic brine, and rye bread. Along the bustling cutter counters, master carvers in stained white aprons expertly hand-slice steaming slabs of cured beef brisket with surgical precision, sliding complimentary slivers of juicy meat onto paper plates for waiting customers to sample.

Established in eighteen eighty-eight by the Iceland brothers and joined by Willy Katz in nineteen o three, this culinary landmark is the oldest continuously operating Jewish deli in New York. During World War II, with thousands of neighborhood sons serving overseas, the owners coined the patriotic slogan 'Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army,' shipping thousands of vacuum-packed salamis to troops stationed across Europe and the Pacific, a tradition that Katz's continues for active military personnel today. Decades of smoke and sizzling spices have seasoned the wooden rafters with an unmistakable aromatic patina, creating an authentic, no-nonsense New York dining institution where communal tables foster conversations between strangers from every continent.

Look around at the wood-paneled walls covered with thousands of signed photographs of presidents, actors, and world celebrities: right in the center of the dining room, an overhead sign proudly marks the table where Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal filmed the iconic scene in the nineteen eighty-nine movie When Harry Met Sally.

Note the slow, artisan curing process: while commercial delis inject brine with needles in hours, Katz's cures its beef for up to thirty full days, followed by forty-eight hours of smoking and three hours of boiling.

Walk west along Houston Street to explore the tranquil community gardens within Sara D. Roosevelt Park.