Saul’s Deli

Today, let me invite you to Saul’s Deli, a popular restaurant in the hippie Gourmet Ghetto. It is a region of many tasty restaurants and charming shops. Most offer organic products delivered from nearby farms and crops.

Saul’s Deli offers Jewish cuisine, and the place itself resembles (but does not emulate) similar establishments in New York. Like the other restaurants in this Berkeley area, chefs are part of the slow-food, and the farm-to-table movement.

Sunday lunch was not the best choice of time. We arrived at the Deli around 1pm. Despite a long line, we decided to wait. We received a pocket buzzer, and our name was added to the waiting list. For the impatient there is an outside parkelet, funded by the city and residents.

Finally! The buzzer vibrates, and we enter inside. For an appetizer we instantly receive pickled cucumbers and a glass of water (in the United States, always with huge amounts of ice). I also ordered a cup of coffee. Drip Coffee refills are typically free.

Now we can order. Menu offers yummi gourmets. Pastrami Ruskie. Eggplant Shnitzel.. How could we decide, and still remember about our diet!

Rose politely ate her portion first. I’m glad that she has grown enough so we can dine without a stroller. She seemed very content to reach her next development stage.

I think that in almost Jewish delis one can eat a matzah ball soup. Does it look familiar? (For non-Polish readers it is very similiar to Polish soup rosół).

Pastrami sandwich. On my picture shown in a smaller size. Very popular in the USA. For me way too much meat. However my latkes – potato pankaces were just what I needed. I ordered ones with lox, but an option with apple suace is also available.

In an American restaurant, during a meal, waiters often repeatedly ask clients how is everything going? It is a little annoying, but good intentions count:)

A little savoir-vivre:  in the US holding hands on the laps during the meal are not perceived as bad manners. I would like to teach Rose that, depending on the situation, sometimes it is suitable keep it on the table (as I was taught).

Receipt – Always leave a tip. 15% is typical. You can add it to the credit card bill. And one more note; in some states, prices are shown on the menu without any sales tax; it will always be added at the end. Also, in the US, couples or groups of friends often split the bill.

We left full and happy. I am sure Saul’s Deli still had a busy day ahead. Before leaving one can stock with delicious treats.

After lunch we went for a mandatory walk. We saw Berkeley Rose Garden. Unfortunately the flowers have not yet started their season. But in Berkeley we can already see and smell spring.

Let me finish with a little culinary and linguistic humor. In the evening, Dean reads aloud his Polish textbook. This time the scene happend in the restuarant.

– .. We have chicken soup and soup – a fragment of dialogue read.

Oh does it come in combo? – A surprised Dean asked me!

It was a good weekend 🙂

PS. And here is an e-mail I received from Saul’s Deali couple of weeks later:

Helena,

The parklet was funded by Saul’s, not by the city and residents. It cost about $80,000! We did a kickstarter-type campaign where we sold giftcards at a discount to raise money for the parklet. We raised about $15,000 for the cost of the parklet that way. While we are grateful that so many people wanted to pay it forward for our parklet, it still meant that Saul’s pretty much paid for all of it since we were essentially selling gift certificates for food. Most parklets are funded by private businesses in the US, but remains public property. Anyone can sit in it, and anyone can purchase food from any business in the area and eat it in the parklet, even if that business did not contribute to the parklet. So on the parklet itself, we have painted a message that says something like “A gift to the City of Berkeley and its people.”

That was a long explanation . . . thanks for listening! I provided a lot of detail because I thought you might find how things work here as interesting, as a contrast to Europe . . . much of “public” infrastructure in the USA is actually provided by private funding, the government doesn’t seem to think of these things as much as European countries do . . .

Best,

Emunah Hauser