A Look Back at Our Greatest Delis. Then ess, tottelah, ess.

Delicatessen is a word of German origin, which, literally translated, means “a store selling cold cuts, cheeses and a variety of salads, as well as a selection of unusual or foreign prepared foods.” As with so many other words, the definition has been massaged and morphed over the decades so that we, the American people, use the shortened word “deli” to describe almost any food and beverage operation that sells those products, either at one or more counters or in a restaurant setting.

Particularly in metropolitan areas, a deli today is generally thought of as a place to either eat in or take out a variety of cooked and often cured meats, along with various soups, egg dishes, assorted salads and breads such as bagels, challah and rye – not to mention unusual fish items, including delicacies such as chubs, sturgeon and gefilte fish with toppings such as “schmaltz” (chicken fat). They also have wonderful desserts ranging from “real” cheesecakes (made with cream cheese and butter) and chocolate marble cake to various unique and unusual pastries, including “real” Danish.

Miami was overlooked as a food city in the third decade of the 20th century, likely because it was thought of as mostly a winter resort town until after World War II. However, by the late 1930s, a few excellent dining spots emerged and our first delis started to make their appearance. Few people who wrote or write about local history do so from firsthand knowledge, but my family arrived on Miami Beach from New York in August of 1946.

The Dawn of Miami Delicatessens

Dad opened York Sign Company in 1947, and many of his customers over the years were restaurants, including delis, and that is how this writer’s familiarization with those wonderful places began.

Deli-type operations began popping up on Miami Beach beginning in the late 1930s, possibly with the famous Rosedale. That operation originated on Washington Avenue but apparently, sometime in the late ’40s, moved to NW Fifth Street in Miami, a bit west of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, along with several others, such as Pickled Herring Charlie’s, the wonderful and surprisingly “haymisheh” (Yiddish for family) deli on NW 62nd Street at 37th Avenue.

There is almost nothing that remains of those places, other than in our memories. Unlike most of the operations noted below, neither photographs nor postcards or menus from Rosedale and Charlie’s exist.

Rosedale’s last corporate report was filed in 1976. Pickled Herring Charlie’s, owned by Charlie Friedman, appears to have closed sometime in the 1960s. Charlie’s legacy was carried on by his daughter, Joyce, who operated an eponymous catering business in the Miami area until the ’80s.

We certainly don’t want to forget Town Restaurant and Sandwich Shoppe in downtown Miami, which featured the sandwich man carving the corned beef and other deli meats right in the front window. Long gone, it is, like almost every other eatery featured herein, today only a memory.

Now, though, on to the real and true and great memories of a number of wonderful eateries (and take-outeries!) that so many recall so fondly.

Exploring Local History, One Menu at a Time

To begin, there were delis which were, for the most part, places to go on Sunday mornings to pick up the traditional bagels, lox and cream cheese, as well as salads and such delectable desserts as rice pudding, chocolate babka, prune danish and other savories. Those stores were small locales with maybe three or four small tables in case one or a couple did want to sit and eat, but they were in no way shape or form considered restaurants. Tables were there only as a convenience, sometimes with plastic flatware provided but with no service staff and no table service offered.

While most South Floridians with good memories think that most of the “name” delis were on Miami Beach (which they were), we mustn’t overlook such other wonderful places as Marshall Majors or Junior’s, both in Coral Gables, as well as the relatively short-lived Bagels and Donuts in North Bay Village. North Miami Beach was home to Seymour Paley’s wonderful Corky’s restaurant and deli, which, like a number of the other eateries of that genre, offered complimentary mini danish and breakfast rolls during that meal period, with large bowls of kosher dill pickles, coleslaw, shredded sauerkraut or sliced cucumbers in a wonderful vinegar dressing, at no additional cost or charge during lunch and dinner, along with dinner rolls.

Among the very first of the Miami Beach eateries was Irv-Ann’s Appetizing, which moved to 163rd Street in North Miami Beach in the early 1950s. There also was Suniland on Washington Avenue in South Beach, Hal’s on Normandy Isle and Uptown Deli on the west side of Collins Avenue between 74th and 75th streets. Boris Pritcher’s Isaac Gellis took Rosedale’s place at what we believe was the same location. Pritcher went on to be a partner in Southern Caterers and eventually came to own, among others, Piccadilly Hearth, which I managed after leaving Lloyd’s of the Maison Grande and Bernard’s in the Carriage House.

Pastrami on Rye With a Side of Larry King

It would be a “shonda” for the neighbors, (translated from Yiddish, a shame!) to overlook a terrific Miami Beach deli on 41st Street (Arthur Godfrey Road) originally known as Raphil’s, owned by, yes, seriously, Ray and Phil. What a blessing for me to remain in touch with one of their daughters, Judy Malschick! Getting older, the couple sold it to Arnie and Richie, who then gave the place their names. After they, too, found age creeping up on them, the establishment became a Roasters and Toasters, and now, in its third incarnation, is still operating.

Many post-Rosedale Miami Beach delis’ names literally roll off the tongue, including Al Nemets on 22nd Street, just off Collins, and Mammy’s and Pappy’s, both on Collins between 19th and 20th streets, and then the later great names that still bring tears of joy when stories are related.

If you grew up in Miami or on Miami Beach from the late 1950s through the early ’90s, you frequented the two Wolfie’s locations, Pumpernik’s, Rascal House and Junior’s. The tales of and about the owners, managers and characters who frequented those places are similar to Damon Runyon stories – fascinating, delightful and almost unbelievable, but for the most part, completely true.

For some years, Larry King originated his radio show at Pumpernik’s 67th Street. Innumerable celebrities frequented all of them but my dear and late mom was owner Wolfie Cohen’s night cashier at Rascal House for nine years and met innumerable stars.

While Gabe Kaplan (“Welcome Back Kotter”) was less than gracious, Robert Conrad (“The Wild, Wild West”) would come in frequently with his friend and always greeted Mom with a hug and a kiss. Wolfie became one of my mentors in the business and was never too busy to answer my questions relating to food and beverage management and operations.

One night, I asked him why Rascal House seemed to run out of all the cured meat items (pastrami, corned beef and tongue) as well as such staples as roast turkey, roast beef, tuna salad and chicken salad, and his response was as succinct as it was logical and totally and completely indicative of what made him (and most of the other deli operators) so successful.

“Seth,” he said, “I want to run out every night because that means that we have no leftovers and no complaints about how the food tastes, because we start fresh every day.”

I was awed by his honesty and realized then, as I do now, that the key to those wonderful operators’ success was exactly that: only the finest, the freshest and the highest levels of quality would suffice.

Modern-Day Bites From a Bygone Era

Today there are several deli-type restaurants in operation in greater Miami, perhaps not as lavish or as generous with their portions as their predecessors, but for the most part they give their guests (we do not have customers in the restaurant business: we only have guests) a pretty good “bang for their buck,” even without the complimentary rolls and salad items that used to be part of every deli meal.

Consider, if you will, that Bagel Cove in Aventura, Bagel Bar East on NE 123rd Street in North Miami, Big Apple on Biscayne between North Miami and Miami Shores and the folks at Bagel Emporium on US 1 in Coral Gables are all working hard to produce a quality product. “It ain’t like the old days,” but, truth be told, what is?

All of those operations, then and now, were and are wonderful places for both the schmoozers (talkers) and the “fressers” (the eaters and diners) so “ess, tottelah, ess” (eat, bubbeleh, eat!) and know that every time you enjoy a snack or a meal in any of the still existing delis, you are continuing and carrying on a wonderful and now almost centurylong tradition in Miami.

Seth H. Bramson is adjunct professor of history and historian-in-residence at Barry University. The lifelong Miamian is also the company historian of the Florida East Coast Railway, a prolific Florida history book author and the country’s senior collector of Floridiana, Florida transportation and Miami memorabilia. His collection of greater Miami hotel and restaurant ephemera is the largest in public or private hands in the country.