00:00Jewish jellies have been synonymous with the New York food scene for over a
00:04century, but eating at Katz's delicatessen is basically a New York rite of passage.
00:10Best known for its pastrami, the restaurant goes through 70,000 pounds of
00:16meat a week and can serve up to 4,000 people on its busiest day. It's no easy
00:22feat, but fifth-generation owner Jake Dell and his team know how to handle the rush.
00:27You know, no one here is really a newbie. We have staff here that have been here
00:3120, 30, 40 years, so everyone knows the drill and knows, okay, when do we scale
00:37up, when do we scale down, and that's the most important part of it, is how do you
00:40do it in a way that keeps up with demand in real time, but also doesn't go too far
00:45ahead of the curve, and that's just 137 years of practice.
00:49You're going to see exactly how the staff behind these counters delivers a
00:54flawless service to the masses.
00:58Doors open daily at 8 a.m. While the mornings may be quieter, that doesn't mean the team
01:08isn't already hard at work, preparing for the day ahead.
01:11We're known first and foremost for our meats, right? But we're also really well known for
01:16our matzo ball soups and for our latkes, you know, those traditional Jewish deli fare, then
01:22you can't find that much anymore.
01:25They make their matzo balls and latkes in-house and prep the batches in bulk so they can easily
01:30handle the volume of people they serve every day.
01:33We're always ahead of the game. We're always prepping. And we do it the old-fashioned way.
01:38And we take that really seriously. You know, we're here to do it the way that our grandmothers,
01:43our great-grandmothers, our great-great-great-grandmothers did, and not change that tradition at all.
01:50There are around 30 staff members working every shift, and each person is crucial to the success
01:57of this well-oiled machine.
01:59People are trained to work in every station. We don't just stop and say,
02:04okay, you're going to be a floor guy forever, or you're only going to be a cashier forever.
02:08We like to have people work in different stations, not only so that we can mix and match if we need to,
02:14but so that people understand the store more completely, and then can give better service more
02:19completely. Because there's always something that's going to go wrong in a restaurant,
02:23and you just have to be ready and prepared and know how to course correct in the moment.
02:28Everyone knows what they have to do, getting ready for the moment the inevitable lunch rush hits.
02:38As you walk through the doors, you're immediately handed a ticket.
02:42That's your check, right? It's an old system, but it works. You get that ticket,
02:47and you move from station to station. Maybe you get a hot dog, you get a sandwich,
02:51you get some soup along the way, some fries, some drinks, and you pay on the way out.
02:55As crazy as it is, as much chaos and confusion as it can cause,
03:00it still allows us to serve 4,000 customers in a day.
03:04It's not a system that's used very often anymore, and it comes with one golden rule.
03:09Do not lose your ticket.
03:12Paul, do you need to run out my ticket?
03:13Yeah, you just got to write the price down and give it back to you. That's your check.
03:17Don't lose it. If you lose it, we'll keep you here.
03:21Once you have your ticket, there are four counters you can order from along the far wall of the restaurant.
03:27But the most popular by far is the sandwich counter.
03:30We have the cutter station. As you can see behind me, there's cutters one through eight.
03:35You pick a line, get what you want from the cutter, talk directly to them.
03:38I like it a little juicy. I like it a little lean. Give me pastrami. Give me corn beef. Give me a combo.
03:43You do that right here. These guys are experts. They've been doing it for many, many, many years.
03:47One pastrami or one ruben? Yes.
03:50For that ruben, you want pastrami or you want corned beef?
03:52Um, what would you suggest?
03:54Try the pastrami. That's the best. Number one in your heart right there.
04:02The heart of Katz's menu is its legendary pastrami sandwich,
04:06a whopping 12 ounces of tender, hand-carved meat layered between slices of rye bread.
04:13The presentation may look simple, but it allows the quality of the meat to shine on its own.
04:19We cure everything ourselves. We smoke everything ourselves. So we go through
04:2240,000 pounds of pastrami every week, 20,000 pounds of corned beef,
04:26thousands of pounds of turkeys and briskets and hot dogs and salamis.
04:30We do about 70,000 pounds of meat every single week, depending on the type of meat.
04:35The corned beef and pastrami are prepared using a slower method, curing for up to 30 days,
04:41which enhances the flavor without injecting other additives to speed up the process.
04:47As a result, they become so tender that hand cutting to order is the only option.
04:52We hand cut the meat here because we cook it longer than anyone else.
04:56By the time that that's done being boiled, being steamed, if you tried to put it on the slicer,
05:02forget it. It would just crumble right through that slicer. So we gotta hand carve it. And part of hand
05:07carving it, the slicers end up being a little bit thicker than a machine would be. A little more sloppy,
05:13if you will, but that also gives it an added texture. You take a bite, it's delicious.
05:17Enjoy your sandwich.
05:21Next.
05:23From the counter, customers can watch a master class in knife skills from the cutters.
05:28They're like surgeons with their knives, expertly trimming away sections of the meat before slicing it
05:34for the iconic sandwiches.
06:04There are around 30 cutters on staff, with an additional 20 or so in training. And each person
06:22has spent years honing their craft. We don't let a cutter become a cutter until they've been here for
06:27five, 10 years. You know, you've got to work your way up because a cutter is the symbol of the store
06:33in many ways, a representative of the cats' legacy. And so we want to make sure that that person
06:41is here with us for the long haul. And so my cutters are here 20, 30 years minimum. But, you know,
06:48everyone wants to be a cutter. We just got to test those knife skills and see if they're cut out for it.
06:51How many times have you done that before?
06:55A couple of times. 21 years.
06:58Really?
06:59And counting, yes sir.
07:00I was a kid when I started working here. It's crazy. 16 years old, man.
07:09There are eight available cutter stations, and each cutter, on a busy day, can make anywhere between
07:14200 and 250 sandwiches.
07:17In order to keep up with that level of demand, staff members are in constant motion,
07:24restocking the stations with more meat, pickles, bread, and plates so customers can taste the meat
07:31they choose. The taste is part of the cats' experience. It's to help you make sure you like
07:38that particular cut of meat. But there's a lot of first timers here, right? And there's a bit of a
07:42learning process happening here. Oh, I didn't know that I liked a juicy pastrami or a lean corned beef,
07:49which is crazy to me. That's a separate issue. But you can sort of talk to the cutter and try to
07:54get a sense of what you're into. That said, don't take too long.
07:58All of the sandwiches cost between $21.95 and $29.95, which may seem pricey, but according to Jake,
08:06look, if I told you a 12-ounce steak was $29, wouldn't you be happy? So, a 12-ounce sandwich
08:12was $29.00. You should be happy.
08:14Thank you so much. If I want to order a drink, I go to the beer.
08:19Okay, thanks a lot.
08:21Beyond the sandwich station, there are three other counters customers can visit to get food.
08:27So right now we're at the first part of the store, the first station. This is the grill. This is where
08:31you would get things like knishes, hot dogs. But this is kind of a good first stop. This is your
08:37appetizer. You get a hot dog while you wait in line to get a sandwich. Next, we have this soda and
08:41the fry station. You could also get potato salad, coleslaw, macaroni salad here, all your sides,
08:46french fries, drinks. I would recommend you get your sandwich first because that's usually the longer
08:51line. This is usually a much shorter line, so you can kind of grab it quickly. This is our final
08:56counter right here. This is, we call it the back counter. This is the wholesale counter. This is where you can
09:00get bagels. This is where you can order your latas, your blintzes, things like that.
09:04Once you have your food, the next task is finding an available seat.
09:08When we're at full steam, we're really just firing it on all cylinders. It looks like chaos,
09:13but we like to think of it as organized chaos. You know, we know how to move people in and out of
09:18the store. Those lines may look crazy in front of the cutters, but there's a little method to the
09:24madness. So everyone is important. Look, if you don't have the busboys, you don't have a clean table,
09:29customer can't sit there. Now they're walking around. Now you're going to back up the line
09:33over there, right? And you can go through that through every single position that exists in
09:37this store, and it's a dance. You've got new people replacing old people at the tables,
09:41and it's chaotic, and the atmosphere here is so alive and so fun.
09:48After a few hours of operating at full capacity,
09:51the team finally gets a chance to breathe before the dinner shift.
09:54It's been open since 1888, nostalgia may play a part in Katz's popularity,
10:03but there's another reason the deli has stood the test of time. It's the team's commitment to
10:09providing the highest level of service to every customer that walks through the door,
10:13while still maintaining the traditions that started it all.
10:17In 138 years, there's really not much that has changed. We're here to help maintain deli traditions that
10:23we largely don't see anymore. You know, this is one snapshot in time, one group of people,
10:30one food tradition, and our job is to preserve that. So I hope that when my first-timers leave here,
10:37they leave with a sense of awe, wonderment, thinking this is the best pastrami they've ever had in their
10:41life, thinking I can't wait to tell my friends, I can't wait to come back. Love that experience.
10:46And for my regulars, I hope they say that is exactly what I remembered.
10:53It's a beautiful day, it's the best pastrami on the planet.
10:57Yeah, if you get a pastrami better than this anywhere else, let us know.
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