{"id":477601,"date":"2026-09-27T18:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477601\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:38:20","slug":"the-nations-best-pastrami-is-in-l-a-and-it-just-won-the-gold-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477601\/","title":{"rendered":"The nation’s best pastrami is in L.A. And it just won the Gold Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s just before the midweek lunch rush at Langer\u2019s Deli and owner Norm Langer is behind the already-busy sandwich counter inspecting a stack of newly sliced rye bread. With him is Jaime Castaneda, a longtime manager, trusted counterman and one of the secret weapons Langer deploys to ensure the deli\u2019s famous pastrami is hand-cut with speed and precision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen without me,\u201d says Langer. \u201cBut it also doesn\u2019t happen without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s teamwork,\u201d chimes in Castaneda, who has worked at Langer\u2019s for 43 years. Or 44 years. The two go back and forth on the detail. <\/p>\n

\u201cI started working here when I was 3 years old,\u201d Castaneda says with a grin before turning to the hunk of hot pastrami he\u2019s placed on a cutting board. Gripping a knife in one hand and a carving fork in the other, he swiftly slices through the meat, each rosy, pepper-edged piece beautifully aligned with the next like a blackjack dealer\u2019s gracefully fanned deck of cards.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Norm <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Jaime <\/p>\n

1. Norm Langer, right, and trusted manager Jaime Castaneda. (Laurie Ochoa \/ Los Angeles Times) 2. Castaneda hand-slicing pastrami. (Laurie Ochoa \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

But about that bread. Langer is not pleased.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all this hot weather,\u201d he says of the recent L.A. heat wave. \u201cYou\u2019ve got air-conditioning fans on at the bakery so the air blows on the dough during proofing. It gets a skin on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTaste it,\u201d he says, handing over a slice. \u201cThe flavor\u2019s there. It eats right. It bites right. But see what I mean?\u201d He tears at a slice. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit stretchy. It\u2019s a little bit rough.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I let it go … if I don\u2019t jump up and down, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to get tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norm Langer rarely lets anything go. Neither did his late father, Al Langer<\/a>, who in 1947, with his wife, Jean, opened Langer\u2019s Deli on the corner of 7th Street and Alvarado Street in the building that once housed the 12-seat Famous Delly. \u201cWith two l\u2019s,\u201d Langer says.<\/p>\n

\"Norm <\/p>\n

Norm Langer, left, with his father Al Langer, outside Langer\u2019s Deli in 1997, the year the family\u2019s iconic restaurant turned 50. <\/p>\n

(Ken Hively \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Getting the rye bread just right was an obsession that Norm Langer inherited from his father, who came up with the idea for the restaurant\u2019s now-famous twice-baked rye in 1936 when he briefly ran a deli in Palm Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no bakeries in Palm Springs he approved of,\u201d Langer says of his dad. \u201cSo he found one in Boyle Heights called Detroit Bakery, and [had] bread shipped from East L.A. to Palm Springs by Greyhound bus. By the time my dad got it, it was a day old, and what was he going to do to refresh it, to make it something customers would come back for? He perfected this process of rebaking the bread, and then slicing it hot. It\u2019s got an outside crust that\u2019s crispy, and an inside crust that\u2019s very soft, very tender, and very moist. The problem is once you rebake it, you\u2019ve got to use it within an hour or it becomes hard as a rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

That refreshed rye bread, which now comes from Fred\u2019s Bakery and Deli<\/a>, a Beverlywood institution, is one of the key reasons Langer\u2019s pastrami sandwiches have become the standard by which all other pastrami sandwiches are judged. <\/p>\n

\u201cEmbarrassing to admit,\u201d the late New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton wrote<\/a> in 2012 when she was looking for a great classic rye, \u201cbut the best example of this fragrant bread is at Langer\u2019s Delicatessen in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writer Nora Ephron wasn\u2019t embarrassed when in 2002 she declared in the New Yorker<\/a>, \u201cThe hot pastrami sandwich served at Langer\u2019s Delicatessen in downtown Los Angeles is the finest hot pastrami sandwich in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, it was back in 1991 when this paper\u2019s late restaurant critic Jonathan Gold wrote<\/a> with a wobbly \u201cprobably,\u201d perhaps to soothe New York partisans, \u201cThe fact is inescapable: Langer\u2019s probably serves the best pastrami sandwich in America.\u201d (By 2005<\/a>, he dropped the \u201cprobably.\u201d)<\/p>\n

What is remarkable is that even with intense economic pressures putting the squeeze on restaurants, Langer\u2019s has not compromised on the quality of its pastrami. The meat, cured at Burbank\u2019s RC Provisions<\/a> with a proprietary recipe developed by Al Langer, still gets a lengthy \u2014 and costly \u2014 steaming after it arrives at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to break the tissues down so it becomes fork-tender,\u201d says Norm Langer. \u201cThat takes anywhere from two and a half to five hours in live steam.\u201d <\/p>\n

In fact, it becomes so fork-tender that the meat can\u2019t be sliced in a machine. You need an expert like Castaneda to hand-slice it. <\/p>\n

All that steam time also shrinks \u201cthe product,\u201d Langer says,\u201danywhere from 35 to 38%.\u201d That\u2019s a loss most other restaurants wouldn\u2019t tolerate. But for Langer it\u2019s necessary. <\/p>\n

If you only steam the meat for 45 minutes like many other delis, he explains, \u201cyou\u2019ve got to cut it on the slicing machine because it\u2019s tough\u201d \u2014 like \u201ca racquetball,\u201d his father, Al, told me years ago<\/a>. \u201cAnd you have to cut it paper-thin so people will be able to chew it,\u201d Norm says. \u201cBut steaming it as long as [we] do, you can bite it, you can chew it, you can enjoy it, you can savor it. That\u2019s what keeps my customers coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stubbornly sticking to this process over the years is why the pastrami sandwich that Gold ate in 1991, and throughout his life, isn\u2019t that different from the pastrami sandwich you eat at Langer\u2019s today \u2014 whether a plain pastrami on rye with a smear of Gulden\u2019s spicy brown mustard (my preference<\/a>) or the deli\u2019s most popular sandwich, the No. 19<\/a> with coleslaw, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing<\/a> atop the pastrami. In 2022, when restaurant critic Bill Addison inducted Langer\u2019s into the L.A. Times restaurant Hall of Fame<\/a>, he declared, \u201cThe No. 19 <\/a>should be named the official sandwich of Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Langer's <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"LOS <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

\"LOS <\/p>\n

1. Pastrami five ways: Langer\u2019s classic No. 19 with pastrami, Swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing. (Kirk McKoy \/ Los Angeles Times) 2. Purists prefer the plain hot pastrami on rye. (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times) 3. The No. 54 is a pastrami and corned beef combo sandwich, dressed in the style of the No. 19, with Swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing. (Jay L. Clendenin \/ Los Angeles Times) 4. Langer\u2019s No. 44 is a hot pastrami Reuben sandwich with sauerkraut and nippy cheese on grilled rye bread. (Kirk McKoy \/ Los Angeles Times) 5. Take away the rye and add fries to get Langer\u2019s popular pastrami chili cheese fries. (Jay L. Clendenin\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

So it only makes sense that Norm Langer and the whole crew of Langer\u2019s Deli should receive this year\u2019s L.A. Times Gold Award, which was established in 2017<\/a> to honor those \u201cexpanding the notion of what Southern California cooking might be.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the pastrami, however. Over the years, Norm Langer has fought to maintain his classic Jewish deli as a welcoming space for all of Los Angeles, pushing politicians, police and really anyone who will listen to clean up the neighborhood that has suffered for decades as a drug and gang haven. It got so bad that in 2024 he told Times columnist Steve Lopez<\/a> that he was thinking of closing the deli if the city didn\u2019t clean up the streets, and especially nearby MacArthur Park \u2014 described earlier this year by columnist Gustavo Arellano <\/a> as L.A.\u2019s Norma Desmond. That threat got the attention of Mayor Karen Bass, who met with Langer<\/a> a few days after the Lopez column and said, \u201cWe have to do whatever it\u2019s going to take\u201d to make MacArthur Park as welcoming as Langer\u2019s. <\/p>\n

\"Norm <\/p>\n

Norm Langer, second-generation owner of Langer\u2019s Delicatessen-Restaurant in Westlake.<\/p>\n

(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Maybe that was one of the factors behind a June surge in drug arrests<\/a> by the LAPD and federal agents, as well as a new $40-million lake and park cleanup<\/a> project. <\/p>\n

Langer has seen a lot of these projects come and go, including many that get abandoned after a promising start. But he\u2019s also seen some improvement and has gotten so many customers begging him not to close that late last year he pledged to keep his doors open at least through the L.A.-hosted 2028 Olympics \u2014 \u201cand likely beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n

We hope that \u201cbeyond\u201d goes on for many more years to come.<\/p>\n

The presentation of the L.A. Times Gold Award will take place at 8 p.m. during the celebration and tasting of the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, chosen by restaurant critics Bill Addison and Jenn Harris. Tickets are available at this link.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"LOS <\/p>\n

Restaurant critic Bill Addison says Langer\u2019s No. 19 (pastrami, coleslaw, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye) should be the official sandwich of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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