Less than a mile from one of my dealers in the north suburbs of Chicago is a deli that I've been wanting to go to since I was told that they have tremendously great pastrami on rye sandwiches. However, when I went to get a sandwich there about three years ago, I found that they were closed due to a fire. They reopened in the fall of 2012 and I finally made it there to try one of their sandwiches on a recent trip to Chicago.
Kaufman's Deli has been around for 60 years and the story of survival, perseverance, setbacks and success among the two families who have owned the place is worth telling. Maury Kaufman survived the Holocaust and concentration camps of Nazi Germany during World War II before emigrating to the U.S. in the late 40's. He ended up in the Jewish neighborhoods of Skokie and opened up a small bagel shop that immediately garnered acclaim for their taste and quality. Kaufman's Deli grew into a traditional Jewish deli and thrived for years before Maury Kaufman sold the place in 1984.
Arnold Dworkin grew up as a baker's son in Chicago. As a young boy, he would gather up bread crumbs, bag and weigh them. After graduating high school, he got his undergraduate degree then got his law degree fulfilling his father's wish that the young Dworkin do something other than working in a bakery. Arnold Dworkin worked as a legal aid in the army, but it turned out that baking was in his blood and he returned to the family business coming out of the service instead of practicing law. The rye bread made in his family's Imperial Baking Co. was said to be the best in all of Chicago in the late 60's and early 70's.
When Arnold Dworkin bought Kaufman's in 1984, he had his wife Judy and his daughter Bette helping him out in the kitchen. Almost as soon as they got things up and going, a salmonella outbreak that was linked to corned beef at Kaufman's sickened 250 people. Not long after, a second, but smaller salmonella outbreak that was linked to Kaufman's caused Dworkin to shut down the deli and do a thorough cleaning while replacing most of the equipment in the restaurant.
Pictured right - Arnold, Bette and Judy Dworkin
The salmonella setback didn't affect the perpetually gregarious and effervescent Arnold Dworkin. Moving past the salmonella scare, the family reopened the business with the Skokie village manager and city health inspector two of the first patrons. A year later Arnold Dworkin was awarded the Skokie Merchant of the Year.
Arnold Dworkin died in December of 2009 and his daughter and wife continue to run the daily operations. However, in 2011 a malfunctioning stove started a fire that severely damaged the delicatessen and forced the Dworkin's to close Kaufman's for nearly one year. This allowed Judy and Bette Dworkin to completely rework the establishment into one large space instead of having the deli on one side of the building and the deli on the other side.
Kaufman's is located just east of the Edens Expressway on Dempster Ave. (see map) There's a parking lot on the east side of the building and there was ample parking as it was after the noontime lunch rush.
Inside Kaufman's, there was a large open space that featured the deli along the east side and the bakery along the south side. A number of tables with chairs were placed in the center of the room. (Moments after I took the above picture, an older lady came out and asked me why I was taking pictures. I'm guessing it was Judy Dworkin. I didn't tell her that I was a blogger, but that I liked to take pictures of neat places I've been to for meals when I'm on the road. She nodded knowingly and went back behind the counter.)
The deli side of the restaurant had a glass counter that was full of nothing but fish - hickory smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, smoked lake trout and full whitefish. They also had New York-style whitefish salad and Chicago-style whitefish salad - don't ask me the difference between the two.
The bakery had glass counters full of cakes, cookies and pastries. Loaves of bread were lined on shelves behind the counters as were their famous bagels. The bakery was a popular place at Kaufman's with a lot of people milling about in front of the counter looking for baked items. USA Today once named Kaufman's bakery as one of the Top 10 in the United States.
The menu was on the wall behind the deli counter. As I said, I was just there to get a pastrami on rye with some Swiss cheese. But they had pretty much about any type of deli sandwich that you can think of at Kaufman's. They have four different grades of corned beef from extra lean to what they call "regular" corned beef depending upon the dietary restrictions of customers. They also have three different types of pastrami - from in-house smoked veal pastrami to lean pastrami to regular pastrami. I got regular pastrami. Sides include Jewish favorites such as potato pancakes, lentil and knishes, they had over a dozen different types of soup, and they also had full dinners such as sweet and sour meatballs, stuffed cabbage and lamb stew.
The pastrami was sliced lean and piled high on Kaufman's famous rye bread and topped with thick slices of Swiss cheese and a squirt of yellow mustard. It was placed in a paper bag and I went to the opposite side of the deli to pay for it at the register.
After I picked up a bottle of water and went to pay for the sandwich, the young lady asked me if I was going to dine in the deli. When I told her that I was, she handed me a small paper plate on which to put my sandwich.
The taste of the pastrami on rye was outstanding - exactly what I was looking for in a great Jewish-style deli sandwich. The meat had a slightly salty taste, but had great texture and flavor. The rye bread was equally outstanding. I'm guessing it's the same rye bread that the Dworkin family has had since the days of the Imperial Baking Co.
I can't believe that it had taken me that long to finally get into Kaufman's for a great pastrami on rye sandwich. The sandwich was simply excellent. There are some other deli's in the northern suburbs I'd like to try, but they'd be hard pressed to equal or surpass the sandwich I had at Kaufman's. Because of it's location, it will probably become my "go-to" deli in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
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