reviews - Jewish Book Council

A Conversation with David Sax
By Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Over the phone David Sax tells me it is almost a relief that I suggest a Lower East Side
coffee bar to kibbitz. (Apparently most of his previous profilers think a deli meet is
a novel idea.) David is already there when I arrive, a suspiciously belly-less young
Canadian in his early 30’s.
What authority
could he have to write
about the territory of
aging hefty uncles?
Nonetheless this
svelte hipster boychik
from Toronto has traveled
the globe in order
to understand the
warp and the weft of
this endangered food
niche. Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago. He
made it to other Jewish pockets of America
where, when ordering white bread on your
pastrami, no one clobbers you with a baseball
bat. He even hopped across the pond to see
The Beefeaters we rarely hear about in London,
the Salt Beef eating kind, not the warders
of her Majesty’s royal palace. And into Galiciana
Poland to see what Jewish cooking was
like in the new millennium. (Not so good.)
I tried to introduce myself at his book
launch in Ben’s Kosher Deli in the Diamond
District, but tell him that I have never witnessed
such joyous pandemonium at a book
event. Needless to say, the Save the Deli launch
was loud and fun and fully embraced its Jewishness.
Frankly, it felt more like a bar mitzvah
than a book launch; it was impossible to talk
to anyone over the gabble of hundreds of
happy partygoers, which included Catskill
legend Freddie Roman, and The Jewish Elvis,
Jelvis. David modestly shrugs off the lines out
the door, “Complimentary pastrami and
cream soda will do it.”
“Reviews have been phenomenal,” I remind
him, and he grins.
David’s humor runs dark in person and
on the page, as evident in his book’s details,
like his deep revulsion at watching his pastrami
sandwich microwaved by a deli claiming
to be authentic, and a customer choking on a
big chunk of phenomenal gefilte fish who
gets the Heimlich and then eats the projectile
again because it was so good. He can be
poignant too; I delighted in his often heartbreaking
portraits of diehard deli men and
their fantasias of making it big in Las Vegas.
And then he shows the loathsomeness of the
corporate “New York style” delis that have
Christopher Farber
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actually opened in the Casinos, even branches
of famous American delis that muck up the
failproof recipes. Mel Brooks also makes a
Hollywood cameo in the book.
What’s not to love here?
Is he going to follow up with more foodie
non-fiction, currently a hot slice of the book
market? Or stick to Jewish topics? Or do a
Carnegie combo of foodie and Jewish?
“I know I don’t want to get typecast in deli.
I’ve recently been posting radio stories on
NPR.” Like what? He smiles, “Last one is called
Man Enough to Love Eat Pray Love.” I laugh
hard, mostly because my husband despised that
book, which I got a big girlie kick out of. “I
majored in economics and history and wrote
serious journalism for several magazines, did
journalism stints in South
America, Argentina, and
Brazil. A million subjects
fascinate me. Actually, I’ve
had this idea for a long
time; while working on a
term paper an idea fixed in
my head to write this
book.” Probably the only
thing that doesn’t interest
him is writing fiction. As
our second coffee comes, I
wish him a creative nonfiction
career Rich Cohen
or Mark Kurlansky would
be proud of.
David was born in
1976 in Toronto, to parents
who had left the
Montreal Jewish community
during the first threats of Québecois secession.
Jewish on both sides, his mother’s family
emigrated to Canada in the early 1800’s, and
his father, like many in the Montreal community,
was the child of Romanian immigrants. I
ask more about old school Canadian deli, and
the Toronto food scene. Montreal is famous for
its smoked meat, sort of a pastrami-meetscorned
beef. “An artisanal deli restaurant called
Mile End has opened up in Brooklyn’s
Boerum Hill, where New Yorkers will get a
taste of what Jewish Canadians crave, and even
non-Jewish Canadians. And Caplansky’s in
EMERGING VOICES
Toronto is worth a visit. A new artisanal deli
getting it right too.”
But are artisanal delis in it for the long
haul, or still in love with the newness? He
shared my concern.
He spoke forebodingly of the future for
some of the old timers hanging on that he
profiled, the dedicated ones for whom
money, apparently, is incidental, but not to
their heirs. But he concedes this artisanal deli
movement, which includes Michael Anthony
making his own pastrami at Gramercy Tavern,
is a bright spot in the industry. “Can you
imagine the dedication that goes into curing
your own meat from scratch?”
One of David’s most startling discoveries,
after he carefully likens New York to the
Jerusalem of Deli, is that the best city for deli
is Los Angeles. Saying in print that Los Angeles
has the best pastrami sandwich? Isn’t that
an invitation to a war? “But it’s the truth,” he
says, “they have many great delis there, supported
by the Hollywood culture. And you
have to taste the pastrami at Langer’s. A different
stratosphere.”
I press him as our hour ends, is there really
a doomsday clock for my
father’s favorite food?
Can he vouchsafe pastrami’s
existence for my
young daughter’s generation
when health and bottom-line
concerns trump
narrowminded pursuit of
deli perfection?
“As long as there are
true fanatics I have hope.”
Sounding more like my
grandmother by the
minute, I wish him
nachas on his upcoming
wedding, and think,
maybe, just maybe I
should swing by Katz’s
for some takeout, to hell
with the diet.
To read more about David Sax, please visit
www. Savethedeli.com
Laurie Gwen Shapiro is the author of ALA Notable
Book The Unexpected Salami and The Matzo Ball
Heiress and other books for adults. She has also written
two books for young adults, most recently for
Random House. She is also a winner of an Independent
Spirit Award for co-directing the IFC documentary
“Keep the River on Your Right.” She is currently working
on YA novel The O’Leary Bat Mitzvah, and producing
a documentary about Iggy Pop. LaurieGwen-
Shapiro.com
Spring 5770/2010 Jewish Book World 25