The Shop Brings Katz’s Pastrami To Midtown (Sort of)

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I don’t know what made me stop in at newly opened restaurant The Shop (5th Avenue at 41st Street) in the swanky boutique hotel, Andaz. It was sure to not be a Midtown Lunch: there aren’t any bargains and obviously its regular clientele are tourists. But, I did check out the lunch menu out of idle curiosity and was shocked to see something I’ve wanted in Midtown for years: Pastrami by Katz’s.

Yes, really. According to someone on staff, the theme of the restaurant is locally produced food and drink. They want to give their guests a bit of a culinary tour of New York, so they stock local pickles and NY State beer and the menu is full of organic this and farm raised that. And when it came to our famed Jewish Delis, they decided to just go get the best in town. I can’t argue with that.

I’m always skeptical when new hands get into old favorites, but being able to get my hands on that luscious pastrami mere blocks from my office would be amazing.

See what I found after the jump.

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My high hopes allowed me to look past the $15 price tag, which is less than what I’d be paying if I took a trip down to the Lower East Side.

When I got the sandwich, I have to say I was disappointed by the reversal of the meat to bread ratio. Clearly, The Shop wasn’t going to be serving the monstrous, hand-cramping, jaw-breaking mountain of sliced meat between thin slices of rye, but I wasn’t expecting to find these rather thick slices of soft, fleshy rye bread taking up so much of the sandwich’s thickness. That’s not a bad thing. The bread is actually quite good, sprinkled with caraway seeds, it’s more than just a host for the filling.

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The meat or lack thereof was the real disappointment. The portion probably looks fine if you’ve never been served a mountain of smoked meat on a couple slices of bread that you could barely wrap your hands around. If you’ve never had an old man behind the counter hand you a couple meltingly tender chunks of pastrami while you wait, you’ll never know what’s missing. But I have, so it just wasn’t the same.

The meat was also on the lean side, as opposed to the extra fatty cuts I would usually request from the counter at the source. I suppose this just means a trip to the Lower East Side is in order.

The + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

  • I’ve never been to New York before, so this is the best Pastrami I’ve ever had.
  • There’s no way I can make it to the LES during lunch, but I need some good Pastrami.
  • The rye bread is genuinely good.

The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

  • I’ve been to Katz’s.
  • I can go to 2nd Avenue Deli if I need a good Deli sandwich but can’t leave Midtown.
  • I need a sandwich bigger than my head.

The Shop @ Andaz 5th Avenue, 485 5th Ave. (on 41st) 212-601-1234

35 Comments

  • Whoa. And that pastrami doesn’t look hand carved to me. Katz’s pastrami is the best in the city. It’s kind of wrong to misrepresent how the most sensual of sensual meats is served.

  • Clay must be trolling. This can’t be a serious post. I bet he’s reading all of the rage comments and laughing it up.

  • I have to say, I am enjoying all this.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Hey Look! Asians! They’re everywhere!
    did they fluff that meat before they sent it out?

  • I would be SO PISSED if they served me this for $15. I would literally ask the waiter to ‘stop kidding’ and give me the rest of my sandwich.

    there is no proper price point for a sandwich like that. seriously, you can get more sustenance from the bread basket

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Katz’s pastrami is made in albany at old world provisions, under the brand name “Jomar”.. anyone can purchase this stuff. the reason katz’s sandwich is so good is the way they steam it and slice it, their bread to meat ratio, and the (poor but perfect) quality of their bread. To buy jomar pastrami slice it thin (unsteamed) and put a few slices on the thickest slices of rye bread i’ve ever seen and call it a “katz’s pastrami sandwich” is patently absurd. Its like buying oysters from the same guy thomas keller uses, putting them on a wheat thin at room temperature and calling it “french laundry oysters”. Here is what I suspect is going on. The guys from “the shop” walked into katz’s, thinking they cured their own pastrami, and asked the counterman “how much would it cost for me to buy your pastrami for my restaurant?” and the counterman likely said somewhere between 16 and 25 dollars per pound whereas Jomar meats are around $2.50 to $4 a lb. from the source. This probable premium they are spending would certainly account for the paltry sandwich.

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