Jewish Delis in Portland, Oregon

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

                                         The Lox Bagel sandwich with dill pickle

 We  have Ben and Esther's Jewish Vegan Delicatessen at 6912 NE Sandy Blvd. It's unique, being vegan as well as a Jewish delicatessen.   Named after the founder's grandparents, Ben & Esther's is a New York City-style Jewish deli and bakery that first opened in Portland, OR, in 2019. Although the concept initially sold animal products, it eventually transitioned to be completely vegetarian, then to 100% vegan. The flagship San Diego location of Ben & Esther's opened on the first of this year within Aztec Village Center near San Diego State University and is operated in partnership with Justin King and Marc Bennett, owner of nearby Pappy's Barber Shop.

The second San Diego location of Ben & Esther's will open this summer in the space that last housed Tambo Cafe in South Oceanside. Like other branches, expect a menu of New York style bagels with cream "cheese", deli sandwiches, knishes, matzo ball soups, lox made from carrots, whitefish made from hearts of palm, and a variety of pastries & sweets. This location will be operated by the same owners as the College Area branch.  Being vegan and Jewish style, I don't know nor like their "bacon" listed among their foods, which is my first complaint.  How can one be a connoisseur of Jewish foods and tolerate bacon, and claim to be vegan, yet?  That is certainly giving into the assimilated Jewish ideal, isn't it?  Ben & Esther's is anticipated to open this August at 1904 South Coast Highway, Unit 101, in San Diego's North County city of Oceanside. For more information, visit benandesthers.com.

Jacob & Sons, from Portland-raised chef Noah Jacob, will serve house-made pastrami, babka, and smoked fish.  It's a A Jewish Deli From a Wise Sons Alum that has come to Northwest Portland and is at 337 NW Broadway.  Before he launched his own catering company, Noah Jacob took a job at Elephant’s Delicatessen — as a teenager.  Jacob, who grew up in Portland’s West Hills, would walk from Lincoln High to Elephant’s after school to work in the kitchen. He continued to work in restaurants through college, eventually moving to New York to get his master’s degree in film. Throughout his New York years, Jacob was just a devotee of Manhattan institutions like Barney Greengrass, Russ & Daughters, and Katz Delicatessen. 

It wasn’t until he moved to California that he decided to return to the kitchen. “Growing up in Portland, with not a lot of cultural Jewish presence, in New York we definitely felt it,” he says. “When I got to California, I decided I wanted to get back to that.”So he did: After years studying and practicing the art of high-quality Jewish deli, Jacob has returned to his hometown to open his very own shop — a bakery, restaurant, and market with house-made smoked fish, pastrami, babka, and more.  The Jacob & Sons with wife Dori  deli will offer the full experience: 

The bakery will supply loaves of rye bread, challah, and bialys; plus, on the sweeter end, Jacob is planning to bake standards like rugelach, black-and-whites, and babka. The deli will cure its own fish, with different varieties of gravlax; the corned beef and pastrami will be made in-house, as well. In the case, Portlanders will find the works, plus things like tongue — on special first, to see what the local crowd will buy. “I would love to have chopped liver all the time; that would be the goal, to have things like tongue, creamed whitefish, herring,” he says. “But with COVID it’s so hard to tell. You can’t overstock everything, right? We’ll see what sticks.”

Kenny & Zukes Bagelworks Delicatessen may be the oldest in the city.  Now they're located at 1038  SW Harvey Milk St.  When they started up Kenny & Zuke's a little over 13 years ago, it was because of the lack of a good Jewish Delicatessen - and decent pastrami, bagels and the like. Little did they realize what they would set in motion. and what the response to it would be! The first thing they had to come up with was a superb pastrami And they found that very few people were doing it this way anymore. We were now considered “artisans” when all we were really doing was fabricating something the way it had always been done, before commercialization and standardization took its toll.

Our pastrami took us from a little farmer’s market in Hillsdale to a standing room only brunch at my old restaurant, Ken’s Place, to the wildly successful Delicatessen that bears the name Kenny and Zuke’s. And we found that once we had started tinkering with one thing, we just couldn’t stop. So we felt compelled to craft the pickles, and the rye bread, our fabulous bagels and bialies, a Challah worth the name, and virtually everything on the Kenny and Zuke’s menu. And the chord we hit in Portland was immediate and overwhelming, finding a place in the hearts of locals and tourists alike. What we produced touched a nerve. The flavors that we brought back to life were like old friends to our clientele, acquaintances they had made through their grandmother’s cooking, or visits to Delicatessens from wherever they hailed or visited, or childhood take-out feasts with their families. Ken Gordon is the Kenny of Zuke's.

Kornblatt's Delicatessen is an unassuming Jewish deli drawing crowds with giant sandwiches, buckets of pickles & breakfast at 628 NW 23rd Avenue. 

It's a New York style, and  they use only the freshest finest ingredients. "Our fish is flown in from the east coast weekly. Always fresh, Never Frozen. We use Thuman's Deli meats, also shipped weekly from the east coast as well as Hebrew National Salami and all beef hot dogs."

In 2008, Douglas Perry of The Oregonian said of the restaurant's latkes: "The most authentic version is at Kornblatt's, where it comes out gnarly on the edges and soul satisfyingly soft inside." In 2011, T magazine's Jordan Michelman said Kornblatt's was "one of the truly great New York delis outside the five boroughs" and wrote, "this displaced ode to New York deli counter culture strives for authenticity (Nova lox, pickles and meats imported from New York City), and yet it can't help but reflect the differences between Manhattan and Portland". The Oregonian's Licky Acker ranked Kornblatt's number 14 on a 2019 list of Portland's top 25 corned beef hashes. She wrote, "Kornblatt’s makes you feel comfortable. It's a place with regulars, and a fine spot."  Daniel Barnett and Brooke Jackson-Glidden included Kornblatt's in Eater Portland's 2021 list of "8 Real-Deal Bagel Shops in Portland". The duo described Kornblatt's as "a quintessential East Coast-style" deli and recommended the nova lox and cream cheese bagel, as well as the house whitefish and the sun-dried tomato and basil schmear as bagel toppings.

Newest listed is Pop up Kosher Deli in the Gresham Chabad Jewish Center Open from 5-7pm starting Sunday, July 24, 2022.503-389-0312, Gresham, Oregon just outside of Portland.  

Resource:

https://www.sandiegoville.com/2022/05/ben-and-esthers-vegan-jewish-deli-to-open-new-san-diego-location.html

https://jacobandsonspdx.com/supper-club-menu