American delicatessens were born of immigration and have a storied history, particularly in their birthplace: New York City, where about 3,000 Jewish delis lined the streets by the 1930s. While that culinary presence is no longer as prevalent, it's still a major part of the community, and Katz's Delicatessen is one of the best places to get pastrami in NYC . It's also widely considered one of the best sandwich shops in America , but whether or not it's the oldest is a murky area.
According to Katz's website , it was established on Ludlow Street as Iceland Brothers in 1888, making it the first. After some partnership and ownership changes, it was eventually renamed Katz's Delicatessen in 1910 and moved to its current location on Houston Street in 1917 because of subway construction in the Lower East Side. While the story of how the deli came to be seems accurate, some historians debate the date because it doesn't match up with records.
In Daily Meal's own research of the 1888/89 New York City directory , the brothers who founded the deli — Morris Eisland and Hyman Iceland — weren't listed. The first occurrence we found of Hyman Iceland owning a delicatessen was in the 1907/08 New York City directory . With so many delis popping up in the late 1800s, even Ted Merwin, associate professor of Judaic studies and director of the Milton B.
Asbell Center for Jewish Life at Dickinson College, admits in an NYU Press post, "We may never know which Jewish delicatessen was the first to.