Before I lived in Bend, I was living in New York. The Big Apple gave me an appreciation for many things: street art, the perfect music venue (Bowery Ballroom, the Mercury Lounge), well-run subway systems. But perhaps most importantly, New York instilled in me a love of kosher delis. Not just the perfectly sliced, flavorful meats and cheeses and fresh-baked rye bread and onion rolls. Jewish delis have personality that can't be contained in their often small, nondescript digs. Walk one of these delis, and see if you don't hear at least one dude behind the counter shout “Hey there!” with a huge smile on his face while the patriarch mastermind whips up head-sized sandwiches behind the counter.
While Bend's dining scene is growing, there are a few big-city institutions we're still waiting for. A killer cheese shop. Vietnamese sandwiches. Ramen. And, until recently, a kosher deli. But not anymore. Let's all say Shalom to the Letzer family, who has brought a real live Jewish deli to Bend.
