Sometimes when I'm traveling, I just want a good ol' Jewish-style deli sandwich to have for lunch. Something where the pastrami is piled high on rye bread, maybe add some Swiss cheese to the sandwich and top it off with yellow mustard. Finding such a place can be challenging in the Midwest. However, Indianapolis has had a great Jewish deli for over 100 years now - Shapiro's Delicatessen. I went to Shapiro's on a recent visit to Indy.
There seems to be two different historical accounts of the Shapiro family and how they made it to Indianapolis. One account from Reid Duffy's book Guide to Indiana's Favorite Restaurants is featured on Shapiro's web site. However, there is a link to an article from the Indiana Historical Society magazine Traces next to that account that has a more in-depth and somewhat different story of the Shapiro family. I thought that seemed to be a more plausible story given that there are quotes in the article from family members, and even though the dates don't quite jive with the Shapiro logo stating that they've been around since 1905.
Louis Shapiro was a grain broker and a grocer in his native Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine) along the Black Sea. His grandfather was the food purveyor for the Tsar's Imperial Navy, so working with grain and dry goods was sort of in his blood. Louis had heard of the riches of the great new world known as America and he named his store the American Grocery Company.
(Pictured right - The American Grocery Company)
On trips across Russia to buy grain, he would stay with Jewish families along that way as Jews were not permitted to stay in hotels. On one of those stays with a Jewish family Louis fell in love with a young orphan girl who was living with her uncle. When the young girl came of age, Louis asked her to marry him and he soon took Rebecca as his wife.
He brought Rebecca back to Odessa to start their lives together, working in the dry goods store and raising a family consisting of five boys and a girl. There was a large Jewish population in Odessa and anti-Jewish sentiment toward the end of the 19th century led to a series of pogroms - organized riots (and mass killings, in some cases) against Jewish people in Russia. Led by conservative Pan-Slavic groups, the first pogrom against Jews was in 1871, a second one in 1881 was far more bloody and left scores of Jews dead in Odessa. At Easter of each year after that, Jews in Odessa worried about the rumors of impending riots against their homes and businesses.
In October of 1905, Tsar Nicholas II issued his manifesto that granted residents certain liberties and civil rights, a precursor to a democratic constitution for the Russian Empire. Russian conservative political groups didn't like the new freedoms bestowed upon the Jewish population and a political riot broke out against the Jews and their liberal supporters in late October of 1905. After three days of riots, the violence had taken 400 Jewish lives and injured another 300 - including Louis Shapiro who suffered a broken arm trying to save his store as his family hid in the basement. However, the American Grocery Company was destroyed, and Louis and Rebecca decided it was the best time to leave Odessa for America.
Louis and Rebecca along with their children were processed through Ellis Island in 1906. They had hoped to open a grocery store in Brooklyn, but the Immigrant Removal Organization - a paternalistic group run by German Jews - had determined that too many Jewish immigrants were gathering in New York and worked to move families around the U.S. Along with help from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Shapiros ended up in Lafayette, IN with Louis working for a Jewish junk dealer who sponsored the family's move to Indiana. Finding that the junk business wasn't quite his cup of tea, the Shapiro's moved to nearby Indianapolis to join the ever growing Jewish population in the area.
With the money they had saved, the Shapiros opened their first grocery store in the summer of 1906. The store was so small that it could not initially provide a sustainable income for the Shapiro family. Louis was forced to take a job at the Efroymson and Wolf department store, better known as the Star Store. However, a falling box injured Louis' neck and while he was being treated for that injury doctors found that he was suffering from tuberculosis. Louis was forced to go to Denver for months of treatment at the National Jewish Hospital.
Faced with raising six kids, Rebecca Shapiro started a cart business where she went door to door selling 1 pound bags of ground coffee. It turned out that she garnered such a large clientele that by the time Louis made it back to Indianapolis he went out and got a horse and carriage and sold tea and coffee to man in the immigrant neighborhoods south of downtown Indianapolis.
(Pictured left, a photo of the Shapiro family - now up to 8 strong - circa 1920. The youngest daughters, Sylvia and Belle, were the only American born children of Louis and Rebecca Shapiro.)
Working out of their house on S. Illinois street, the Shapiro's were forced to find a new place to live when the floor collapsed under the weight of the dry goods they stored in the house. With now enough money on hand, Louis was hoping to find a place to open a grocery store in addition to getting a new home for the family. In 1911, he was able to find a building on the corner of the S. Meridian and McCarty streets that had a storefront on street level and an apartment on the upper floor. It is the same corner where Shapiro's Delicatessen is today. (see map)
Louis - known for having grandiose displays to catch the eye of customers - and Rebecca - who would offer suggestions to customers for what foods to make that evening - built a business that catered to the ethnic neighborhood around the store. Rebecca would spread fresh spices on the floor of the grocery store daily to give the place a distinctive smell. The Shapiro's were well known for their fresh produce as well as serving kosher deli meats from the Vienna Beef Company from Chicago. The couple got their children involved with the store with the five boys sweeping, restocking and making deliveries, while daughter Fanny watched after her youngest sisters upstairs. When the youngest daughters were as young as five years old, they, too, were enlisted in helping in the store.
World War I had forced Louis to send his two oldest sons, Harry and Joe, off to the military - they would never return to the family business. Son Max headed west to Southern California to hob nob with Hollywood stars and son Abe went to New York City to work in restaurants and delis there. Youngest son Izzy stayed back in Indianapolis to help his parents by running the meat counter.
In the mid-20's, Louis Shapiro redecorated and renovated his store into a clean and sleek modern day art-deco establishment. By the time the Depression took hold across America, Louis Shapiro was hobbled with a bad back. Max - now a dapper young ladies man - and Abe - now an award winning chef - came back to help their parents and siblings in the business. When Prohibition ended, Max suggested the family sell bottles of beer to the workers that came in from the rapidly growing industrial area near their store. Using some of the things he learned in New York City, Abe began to sell kosher meat sandwiches in the grocery store to go along with the beer.
Mother Rebecca had long been known as a good cook and the brothers began to install steam tables to serve some of their mother's delicious food. Her specialty was spaghetti and meatballs, a dish that the Shapiro's highlighted daily. But there were family disputes who made the better corned beef - Abe or his mother Rebecca. It quickly became Shapiro's signature item on their short menu.
In the mid-30's, Louis and Rebecca took a short step back from the business to explore expansion options around the Indianapolis area and the kids stepped up to run the family business. Abe was in charge of the kitchen, Izzy ran the take-out counter, and oldest sister Fanny opened the place every day. But Max was designated as the heir-apparent to the family business. His outgoing nature greeting people at the counter - plus the fact that he was single and could devote more time to the business - made him the natural choice to take over the original family business.
Louis had planned on opening other Shapiro locations putting his kids in charge of each location. However, only one location opened - on Indianapolis' north side which was experiencing a growth of Jewish immigrants who were displaced from their south side homes by new factories and warehouses - and it was run by Fanny for a short period before it was eventually closed.
By 1940, Louis and Rebecca were still around giving moral support to their kids working in the delicatessen. The transformation from neighborhood grocery store to a full fledged deli serving south side warehouse and industrial workers - as well as workers at nearby Eli Lilly - was nearly complete. Louis passed away in 1949 and three months later Rebecca suffered a debilitating stroke and was bed-ridden up to her death in 1956.
Max oversaw a number of expansions in the 40's and 50's geared to serve the nearly 1500 people who came in to Shapiro's each week day. He added a bakery that allowed the restaurant to bake up to 200 loaves of their signature rye bread daily.
Pictured right - Max Shapiro
Max did find time to take time off to go to exotic locales - Miami Beach in the 40's, and after a brief marriage in the 50's he'd take trips to Acapulco in the early 60's. But most of the time he'd work behind the counter at the delicatessen choosing to spend most of his waking hours kibitzing with customers and regaling his friends of the highlights his trips where the weather was warm year round. Abe and Fanny Shapiro continued to work behind the scenes of the deli while Max became the "face" of the business.
Max married for a second time in his 60's. His wife, Ann, came up with many of desserts that Shapiro's became famous for. By the early 80's, Shapiro's was doing more than $3 million dollars in business. But it was also time for Max to think about a successor. His sister Fanny was still working in the deli well into her 80's, but his two marriages yielded no children. Determined to keep the deli in the family, Max turned to his nephew Mort - a partner in the investment firm of Goezler and Co. - who was also a businessman who owned nearly two dozen liquor stores in the greater Indianapolis area - and Mort's son Brian, fresh out of the Indiana University's Maurer School of Law. In 1983, Brian joined his great uncle in running the day-to-day operations of the business with Mort concentrating on the books and payroll. A year later, Max Shapiro passed away and Brian and Mort became the proprietors of Shapiro's Delicatessen. When Mort died in 1999, Brian became the sole proprietor.
Max had resisted opening a second location for a number of years, but before his death Mort and Brian convinced him to open a second location in a strip mall near a heavily Jewish neighborhood on Indianapolis' north side at W. 86th and Township Line Road. The large space in the strip mall served Shapiro's famous sandwiches for 15 years before closing in 1999 due to dwindling dinner crowds and high rent.
Pictured left - Brian Shapiro
Looking to stay open on the far north side of Indianapolis, Brian Shapiro scouted out a number of places over the next couple years before building a lavish brick building in Carmel's City Center entertainment and residential center. The building gave Shapiro's 11,500 square feet of space, but development in and near the City Center project was slow to materialize. For years, Shapiro struggled with keeping the space open before he was forced to close in 2013 for financial reasons.
However, in the fall of 2014 Shapiro's opened a new north Indianapolis location in the Fashion Mall at Keystone. Brian Shapiro was urged by Herb Simon, the owner of the Indiana Pacers and chairman emeritus of the Simon Property Group, the owner of the mall (and many other malls around the United States) not to forget about the north side of town "where all the money is" and to open a location there. The 4200 square foot space is much smaller than other Shapiro locations, but is a perfect fit for the clientele of the upscale mall. (Shapiro's also maintains a location with a limited menu at the Indianapolis International Airport.)
It was just after 1 p.m. when I got into Shapiro's Deli. The dining area - basically a big "L"-shape - is well lit, spacious and filled with a number of tables with chairs. It had that sort of homey, Jewish deli feel to the place.
As you come into Shapiro's, you'll find the baked goods and carry-out counters. Shapiro's expanded their bakery a few years ago and offers fresh-baked bagels, pies and breads, as well as dessert bars, made-to-order cakes, cookies, cheese cakes and assorted sweets. A number of people were in line at the carry-out after calling in deli orders when I walked in.
It's cafeteria-style ordering at Shapiro's with the menu on the wall behind the steam bins up front. In addition to sandwiches, Shapiro's Delicatessen serves fried or baked chicken, meat loaf, stuffed cabbage, Swiss steak, and beef liver and onions along with other things. Soups include old fashioned Jewish-style chicken noodle soup, traditional matzo ball soup, vegetable soup and chili, as well as cabbage borsht - a Russian recipe handed down through generations of the Shapiro family. Shapiro's also opens at 6:30 daily serving breakfast items such as omelets, corned beef hash, lox and bagels, and biscuits and gravy.
The deli sandwiches are the star at Shapiro's. You can get sandwiches made with meats - still from Vienna Beef in Chicago - such as corned beef, rare beef, brisket, salami, turkey or chopped liver, as well as a beef tongue sandwich - Shapiro's is one of the few places that offer sliced beef tongue I understand - made from a recipe that Abe Shapiro perfected years ago. Tuna salad and chicken salad are available, as well.
Shapiro's offers nearly a dozen different types of bread including their famous baked in-house rye breads, as well as other in-house baked breads such as sour dough and gluten-free. Six different types of cheese, ketchup, mayo, three types of mustards and a chopped liver schmear is also available.
I went with the pastrami on rye topped with Swiss cheese and slathered with yellow mustard. A kosher dill pickle came with it and I got a bottle of water to wash everything down. I passed up sides such as Shapiro's famous potato latke and their equally famous potato salad, cole slaw, bean or broccoli salad, and the house-made macaroni and cheese.
From the first bite, I knew that I had something special in my hands. The pastrami had that great peppery taste with a hint of smokiness. It had a bit of marbling and was tender and almost melted in my mouth. The rye bread had a crunchy crust but the inner part was soft and moist. With the thick cut Swiss cheese and the liberal amount of yellow mustard, this was simply an outstanding sandwich. I was in deli sandwich heaven.
Sometimes I take many of the places I eat for granted when I'm on the road. It's tough enough being on the road for long stretches of time, but going to places like Shapiro's Delicatessen bring back great memories of great food. With a deep history of oppression, rejuvenation, success and setbacks, the Shapiro family story is - in many ways - more enlightening than the wonderful food they serve. This is a place that I'll have no problem visiting again on future visits to Indianapolis.
