Is Katz’s Deli the “Final Word on Pastrami”? Watch Josh Ozersky and David Sax Talk Amongst Themselves

How do New York’s modern delis stack up against their old-school predecessors? Oy, what a tough question!

Food journalists Josh Ozersky and David Sax work through their thoughts on smoked meat and nostalgia in “Debating the Deli” for the Jewish Daily Forward. The two discuss how places like Mile End have found success by focusing solely on food, rather than historical context (the Katz’s approach). “Colonial pastramisburg,” Ozersky explains, is not a movement that would necessarily appeal to Mile End’s twentysomething clientele. Fortunately, both writers seem to agree that the city is large enough to house more than arena for the pickle-inclined.