The Deli Counter

GINSBURG:Our matzo balls have been called bowling balls.

BLOOMGARDEN:Not for texture, I'm sure.

ON THE FAMILY BUSINESS:

BLOOMGARDEN:There have been up to nine members of the family working at any one time. My parents and grandparents were working 20 hours a day for many, many years. Now it's my father, who just retired, my uncle and myself who run the business. I have three cousins who are very active. My kids work there too, and I'm sure their kids will when the time comes -- if and when they have them.

SAUL:I must tell you: It's very difficult to work with two sons. Have you ever watched a pingpong match? My kids tell me, "Hey, Pop. You're pretty stupid." My youngest son says, "You don't know how to start a computer. You don't know how to use the register. You don't know how to take a reading." My oldest son, David, says, "Yeah, Johnny, but he was smart enough to start this business."

GINSBURG:I'm still in therapy, working with my two kids.

SAUL:My kids are my therapy.

ON CHANGE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:

GINSBURG:We opened [Art's] in 1957. In 1959 and '60, Laurelwood was built on the east side and the west side of Laurel Canyon. And that was going to a lot of young families and kids moving from the Fairfax and the city area. People moved from Boyle Heights, City Terrace, then they moved from West Adams, then from Beverlywood, and then all of a sudden they were all in the Valley. It was younger families then. Now, we're finally getting younger families again. A different generation, a different flow.

BLOOMGARDEN:Our situation is unique because we're open 24 hours. In the '60s we had the hippies there. In the '70s we had bikers. Now we have the Generation-X people. So at night you have this different thing. I can literally walk out of my office and, without looking at my watch, tell approximately what time it is by who the customers are. I think the neighborhood itself has changed, but the customers haven't really. You still have what I call the "Little United Nations" of people that come in at all times.

LANGER:You don't actually change along with [the neighborhood]. You operate a business the way you think it should be operated. I specialized in pastrami and corned beef.

SAUL:Would you believe this man is going to be 90 years old this week? And he's still active, and he's just an absolute mensch.

LANGER:There's a reason for it: Langer's pastrami!

SAUL:Let me tell you about neighborhoods changing. You still have your original customers -- I have customers that have been coming to Junior's for 43 years, and they're bringing in their children, their grandchildren. But we're getting a lot of other people. We're getting black people, Chinese, Japanese -- every ethnic area. Because Jewish food, deli food, is comfort food. I sell 10 tons of turkey breast a month. That's the big thing now -- not pastrami or corned beef like it used to be.

LANGER:Tell me who don't like breasts!

SAUL:I don't. I hate white meat . . . Oh, I get it! I'm very slow on the uptake. I bet you didn't know you were gonna have a couple of nuts over here!

ON FAVORITES:

GINSBURG:My favorite sandwich is -- I take a an onion roll, hollow out the top of the onion roll, hand-cut my pastrami, and then, where I hollowed out the onion roll, I put juicy coleslaw and then smack the two together.

BLOOMGARDEN:That's my sandwich.

GINSBURG:That's your sandwich?

BLOOMGARDEN:The only thing he's left out . . . We make our own pickles. I think we're the only place left in town that does . . .

SAUL:Hey! I gave Art my pickles recipe. Didn't I, Art?

GINSBURG:Yes, you did. But you didn't tell them that I gave you my coleslaw recipe.

SAUL:Quid pro quo. One hand washes the other.

BLOOMGARDEN:One thing I have to say -- we are four independent restaurants in Los Angeles. We see each other occasionally, maybe at a restaurant show, or wherever. But the camaraderie that we have here, and the kind of competition that we're talking about, is really very friendly. There is enough business out there for the whole community.

ON THE DECLINE OF THE JEWISH DELI MAN:

LANGER:Years ago, it was Jewish people behind the counter. I had one counterman, Goldstein, who was with me 30 years. Now you have Mexican counter people mostly. In our business, we don't look at religion or anything. We hire waitresses and busboys and countermen regardless of their color or make or anything. We're very proud of doing that.

GINSBURG:The Jewish deli men disappeared, I think, around the mid-'60s. The supermarkets started opening up service delis, and they offered the deli men jobs as managers, so they didn't have to pay them on an hourly basis. When they went to work at the markets, we all had to start training our own.

BLOOMGARDEN:The amazing thing is, the Hispanic deli men know more Yiddish than I do.