Katz's Delicatessen ~ Where Harry Met Sally

Katz's Delicatessen, is a kosher style delicatessen on the Lower East Side of New York City, located at 205 E. Houston Street, on the south-west corner of Houston and Ludlow Streets, in Manhattan.

Since its founding in 1888, and open 365 days of the year, it has become popular among locals and tourists alike as you can see by this crowd on Saturday afternoon. It's especially known for it's thick hot pastrami sandwiches.

Each week, Katz's serves 5,000 pounds of corned beef, 2,000 pounds of salami and 12,000 hot dogs. * source

During World War II, Katz's encouraged parents to "send a salami to your boy in the army" which became one of the deli's famous catch phrases, along with "Katz's, that's all!" which is still painted on the side of the building.

Katz's continues its "Send a salami to your boy in the army" to this day. The deli has arranged special international shipping only for U.S. military addresses and has been a source of gift packages to the troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Check their website for details.

The deli has served several U.S. presidents, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The walls are lined with pictures of writers, politicians and actors and actresses, and more, who have dined at Katz's over the years.

On this visit my husband and I shared a potato knish and a hot dog with sauerkraut, and a couple of Dr. Brown sodas. Then, before we left we decided to get an egg cream soda "to go" for old times sake.
An egg cream is a classic Brooklyn beverage consisting of chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer, and Katz's made a really good one!

Katz's has been used as a location in many movies, but the most famous is the "I'll have what she's having" scene in the movie "When Harry Met Sally." You can see a sign hanging from the ceiling pointing to the spot where actress Meg Ryan sat when this scene was filmed.

A close up of the sign. The Katz web site claims it was really their food that got her so excited!

A YouTube clip below of the "When Harry Met Sally"scene. Be prepared to blush!

(You will have to turn off my blog's music first by going to the purple playlist box on my right sidebar and pressing the two bars in the circle, which will turn the player off. Otherwise, you can double click on the Youtube below and it will open on the Youtube website.)

Or, if you prefer, you can watch a short Youtube here of some of the deli's highlights.

Eating at a delicatessen is definitely a New York experience. In time I hope to bring you to a few more!