Local Bay Area delis that David Sax recommends:
Saul's
1475 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 848-3354
Website: http://www.saulsdeli.com
David's
474 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 276-59-50
Website: http://www.davidsdelicatessen.com
Miller's East Coast
1725 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 563-3542
Website: http://www.millersdelisf.com
Moishe's Pippic
425 Hayes Street # A
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 431-2440
Join David Sax at a book signing and Q&A tonight at 6 p.m. (Monday, October 26th):
Book Passage
1 Ferry Building, #42
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 835-1020
About David Sax:
DAVID SAX was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1979. His parents were both originally from Montreal, and while his father was a lifelong deli fanatic, his mother came around to the pleasures of pickled meats only after their marriage. Growing up, David and his family ate at least weekly at Yitz's delicatessen, near their house, where the affable Mr. and Mrs. Yitz would tousle the young boy's hair at every visit. He mostly ate corned beef, salami, or baby beef sandwiches on challah, along with a mug of pink cream soda. The same foods found their way into David's lunchbox, so he basically ate deli every day until he graduated from high school. The formative shift in David's life, turning him from a deli eater to a deli lover, occurred during visits with his father to downtown Montreal's remaining Jewish delicatessens, including Wilensky's Light Lunch (home of the fried salami special) and the legendary Schwartz's. It was here that David first tasted mustard, rye bread, and karnatzel, a thin, garlicky beef salami. He was also shaped by a visit, at six, to Miami Beach, where he and his parents ate at Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House every day for breakfast or lunch. When he was in college David expanded his knowledge of deli culture, sharpening his palate and expanding his waistline. After graduation, he harbored dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent and took off for Israel in the summer of 2002. Realizing there was no deli in Israel, he soon returned home.
In early 2003, David decided to relocate to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he worked as a freelance journalist. Though Argentina has a sizable Jewish population and plentiful beef, the deli options were limited to one place, Big Momma, which offered weak yet satisfying interpretations of corned beef on rye. Alas, this void could not be supplanted by endless grilled meats, and David returned home to begin work on Save the Deli. In the ensuing years, he has launched the popular blog savethedeli.com, which serves as a portal for deli lovers everywhere. It has helped establish David as one of the world's foremost experts on Jewish delicatessens, and he has been quoted on deli in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Time Out New York. He has visited hundreds of delicatessens around the world, and is often the first person deli lovers and owners contact for information. In addition to his work on Save the Deli, David has written on a variety of subjects for publications such as the New Republic, American Way, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, GQ, Portfolio, Gourmet, and vanityfair.com. He relocated to Brooklyn, New York, in October 2008, just in time for the economy to collapse. In his view, the world needs deli now more than ever.
Website: http://www.savethedeli.com
