710 ESPN: Trisha Langer Visits with Mychal and Brian

Today on the Langer’s High Noon Showdown on 710 ESPN Radio (click here to listen live), host Mychal Thompson and fill-in host Brian Long (Andrew Siciliano was traveling back from Super Bowl XLIV) welcomed Trisha Langer into the studio to talk about her dad Norm’s surgery and recovery (this is the entire Langer’s High Noon Showdown – fast-forward to 14:00 to hear Trisha):

Thanks to everyone who made our visit to 710 ESPN today a great success – we’ll see you all soon!

Click here to listen to 710 ESPN now

Modern Day Bullfight: 2nd Visit to Langer’s

LA-centric blog Modern Day Bullfight (and its author, Allison Orphan) paid a second visit to Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant recently, compelled by a sense of Los Angeles food enjoyment and the desire for a #19 and a French dip:

Talks of French Dips and the Number 19 inspired David and I to have another afternoon lunch at Langer’s. Langer’s is really that good. In researching people’s feedback on the home of the number 19, it was found that we were not alone in our worship for the food from the deli downtown. The second trip yielded a near exact order as the previous trip: me, a delicious french dip with a side of slaw and for David, the number 19. Two sodas. The only difference is we went sans fries as they ended up just sitting on the table post sandwich consumption last time.

Click here to read the complete article

710 ESPN Radio: Thank you, Andrew and Mychal

Yesterday on the Langer’s High Noon Showdown on 710 ESPN Radio (click here to listen live), hosts Andrew Siciliano and Mychal Thompson sent their get-well-soon greetings to Norm Langer, who just underwent knee-replacement surgery and is recuperating for his return to the floor at Langer’s – give it a listen:

Thank you, Andrew and Mychal, for thinking of Norm. We are proud to be associated with your fine program and station.

Click here to listen to 710 ESPN now

Urbanstylz: Visit to Langer’s

Here’s an interesting mini-photo essay on a visit to Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant by a fan from Germany named Reen. As you can see, the lure of pastrami knows no geographical boundaries:

Just by looking again at these pics, and seeing the amazing texture of the pastrami makes me want another one! … Hmm, maybe I should go again next week…

 

Metblogs LA Classic Eats – Thank you for coming to Langer’s

Everyone at Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant would like to thank all the members of the LA Classic Eats group from Metblogs who visited us last Saturday, 1/23/10. Norm Langer had a great time visiting with everyone and we hope to see you back soon!

The group had a great follow-up to their “Downtown Deli Smackdown” visits to Langer’s and Cole’s on the blog – Click here to check it out and see all the photos from both locations.

LA Weekly Food Blog: Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants

The Los Angeles Weekly’s Food Blog recently covered Food & Wine’s Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants (we didn’t make that list) – but we were graciously included in the LAW’s LA-centric Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurant list before throwing it open to the floor (or in other words, the comments section).

F&W’s Top 10? ElBulli, The Fat Duck, Pierre Gagnaire, The French Laundry, Nihonryori Ryugin in Tokyo, Dan Barber’s Blue Hill, Mugaritz in Spain’s Basque country, Noma in Copenhagen, Italy’s Combal.Zero, and Tokyo’s Aronia de Takazawa. Lovely. So as many of us will never see the inside of most if not all of those places, how about the Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants here in L.A.? Jitlada, Pizzeria Mozza, Urasawa, Golden Deli, Providence, Langer’s… Of course “life-changing” is a relative term. My cassoulet, your Korean BBQ. What goes on your list?

Click here to read the complete post and participate in the comments

Serious Eats New York: The Great Pastrami Taste-Off: Katz’s in New York vs. Langer’s in Los Angeles

Famed food columnist and reviewer Ed Levine has published part 1 of his two-part “Great Pastrami Taste-Off” pitting Katz’s of New York and Langer’s of Los Angeles. Who will win this incredibly important showdown?! Read on for the introduction:

Ever since I wrote my pastrami story for the New York Times a few years ago, I’ve wanted to conduct a taste test between Katz’s Delicatessen in New York and Langer’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles. Why? Many reasons, actually. I never tasted them side by side for that story. Nora Ephron opined on the record in the New Yorker that Langer’s served the best pastrami sandwich in America. Jonathan Gold stated categorically that Los Angeles has a far superior deli culture to New York’s. David Sax said the same thing in his book, Save the Deli.

So aiming to settle this East Coast vs. West Coast rap-style pastrami controversy, we decided to conduct a definitive pastrami taste test. And we invited the Los Angeles apologist herself, Nora Ephron, to participate. She graciously accepted, in record time.

Who wins part one? Click here to read the article and find out!

Photo credit: Carey Jones / SeriousEats.com

National Pastrami Day at Langer’s!

Thursday, January 14, 2010, is National Pastrami Day, and we are celebrating here at Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant! Stop by for a delicious no. 19 (pastrami, cole slaw, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing on rye), or a no. 1 (just pastrami on rye) and help us celebrate the great American institution that IS pastrami!

Langer’s Responds to the LA Times Article

On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, the Los Angeles Times published a page-one profile of two of Langer’s servers who also work part-time at Canter’s Delicatessen entitled “Double-dipping waiters sandwiched between two delis” by Robert Faturechi.

Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant enjoys an excellent relationship with The Los Angeles Times, having been profiled and chronicled in innumerable accounts over our nearly 63-year history.

While we were generally pleased with the presentation of our hard-working, valued servers, the article described our location as being “surrounded by drug dealers and vendors selling fake IDs,” which not only misrepresents the MacArthur Park neighborhood but denigrates our many neighbors who work to bring a new vibrance to the area.

Worst of all were unfortunate misquotations of Norm Langer which suggest he harbors negative thoughts about Canter’s Delicatessen and the Canter family.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Everyone at Langer’s has nothing but respect for Canter’s – along with all the Jewish delicatessens here in the Southland. As David Sax noted in his recent book “Save the Deli,” Los Angeles is unique for our cohesive family of delis, which he calls the best in the world. Our collective reputation is high because of the great efforts made by every Los Angeles delicatessen to serve the best food, with the best service possible, for every single customer. And in our book, Canter’s is a leading and unique member of the Los Angeles Jewish deli family, period.

We are disappointed that this otherwise interesting article contained such misquotations, including the particularly egregious “they [the Canter family] don’t talk to me…most of them don’t like me. I’m the guy getting all the publicity.”

Everyone at Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant, from the owners to the managers and the employees, works hard to build and maintain the respect of our customers and the community. We are saddened that such a misquotation would be published and disparage our positive relationship with Canter’s Delicatessen and the Canter family.

We hope this sets the record straight.

– Norm Langer, owner, Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant