"McGill is probably one of the greatest deli universities that you can go to," says David Sax, a McGill graduate-turned-deli aficionado who recently released
Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen.
While the Jewish delicatessen has long held a special place in Sax's heart, his journey from dedicated customer to hot pastrami-historian originated in an undergraduate course at McGill - The Sociology of Jews in North American, taught by Professor Morton Weinfeld. With the freedom to choose any topic relevant to the course material for his term paper, and in search of something a little more lighthearted than the assimilation of Eastern European Jews in post-World War II North America, Sax and a friend settled on Jewish delis.
"We realized that we couldn't just go to the library and read about this because there weren't any books written on it. So we went out and went to Schwartz's and we went to Snowdon Deli. We called delis that we knew in Toronto and even phoned a deli in New York and we spoke to the deli owners," says Sax. "And what we found was that there was this trend among the owners that they were all pretty despondent … and they were all worried about the future of the delicatessen. So we wrote about that in the paper, which really became the basis for the book."
After travelling between New York and Los Angeles to study the community history that nurtured the deli's rise, Sax points to both cultural and economic reasons for the neighborhood eatery's gradual decline.
"It went from being an immigrant food, like, let's say, Mexican food is now, where there is always going to be Mexicans coming over, to food that was very much Jewish Canadian or Jewish American," says Sax. "So every generation growing up made it more and more difficult for the business to survive."
Rising real estate and rent costs also add to economic challenges, particularly in a city like New York where, according to Sax, the famous Stage Deli just above Times Square pays over one million dollars in rent each year.
"You are selling a food that is actually quite expensive and difficult to produce … and yet you can't charge a lot for it because people expect it to be cheap."
Fortunately, for smoked meat lovers, Montreal and its preserved deli culture offer a glimpse of why some establishments have survived.
"Montreal is the exception to the rule," says Sax. "The deli culture is really strong in Montreal. Certainly stronger than Toronto and a lot of other places."
According to Sax, when the separatist movement began to emerge during the 1970s and the Anglos and Jews dispersed, the French Canadians, being such a food-oriented culture, adopted the deli business as their own.
"If you go to the Laurentians or Gaspé, way the hell out in the middle of Quebec you'll find a smoked meat sandwich in every diner of every town," explains Sax. "They love it and they have adopted it as one of their foods like poutine. And the smoked meat poutine is a logical next step."
Montreal's famous Schwarz's is probably the best example of quality and luck as the foremost explanations for why some delis withstand the test of time.
"Reuben Schwarz was a terrible business man, a horrible gambler, a philanderer, and he just happened to have the best food," says Sax. "He was actually out of the business really [early on] and good people took over."
With the majority of small neighbourhood delis having closed up over the years, Sax and his crusade to "save the deli" are attempting to preserve a small slice of smoked meat history.
"There is just that great communal feeling, that smell, that sound of a place that lets you know you are in a great Jewish deli."
So for all of the McGill students and Montrealers who don't realize that they are living in a dwindling Mecca of delicatessen history, Sax has a small piece of advice: "Ease up on the Alto's for one day."
David Sax will be speaking at Paragraph Bookstore on McGill College, Nov 5 at 6:30 p.m. Food will be supplied by several of Montreal's best delicatessens.
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