What toronto resto gets the most ink in nyc? Caplansky’s! Today, the NYT has a story about reforming the deli, dissing the oldstyle stuff and saying
“places like the three-month-old Mile End in Brooklyn; Caplansky’s in Toronto; Kenny & Zuke’s in Portland, Ore.; and Neal’s Deli in Carrboro, N.C., have responded to the low standard of most deli food — huge sandwiches of indifferent meat, watery chicken soup and menus thick with shtick — by moving toward delicious handmade food with good ingredients served with respect for past and present.”
I wonder whether the writer actually TASTED Caplansky’ s”huge sandwiches of indifferent meat” or read any local reviews or blogs which routinely diss the place – I’ve had to take comments off my blog because they were so venomous. But then New Yorkers prefer to come to their own conclusions whether or not they’re justified and after all new yorker Ruth Reichl, formerly of Gourmet, loved Caplansky’s “decadent knishes”. I mean yanks know best.
For the life of me I can’t figure out why anyone has anything good to say about Caplansky. I was born in NYC, lived there for MANY years and have dined on Corned Beef and Pastrami in at least 5 different Delis in Manhattan and Brooklyn. ALL OF THEM were better than Caplansky. Please note I did not have smoked meat (that’s all that Caplansky’s serves) in any of the NY delis because it is not served there. It’s a Montreal invention and they do it better there than he does here. I think it’s best to say that Ruth Reichl is certainly entitled to her opinion, however, the fact that she is no longer at Gourmet speaks volumes about the integrity and validity of her opinion.
Come on Steverino. Things could be worse like at Yitz where they use the powdered chicken soup mix.
I can not for the life of me understand why this place gets so much good press. I’ve been there three times, each time worse than the other. The smoked meat is down right horrible and dont get me started on the poutine….oy vey.
Gina Please explain this to me
Totally stumped! Put it down to brilliant promotion fuelled by publicity given Ruth Reichl’s visit to it last year when promoting her book ….
That is what i thought cos the food is downright disgusting. But how long can it last? People must realize its an inferior product and will not return, isnt word of mouth your best source of advertising.
I don’t understand it either, but I’m going to investigate further — it has something to do with the passion being shown on both sides! please keep me posted ify you go again or get any interesting comments!
I tried Caplanskys for the firdt time and I was not impressed. The famous smoked meat sandwich was the worst sandwich i’ve ever had, it was cold, dry and terrible, especially after seeing the cook clean the glass with windex and proceed to touch the meat with his bare hand, I will never return