Hot Brooklyn Appetizing Shop Now Offering Deli
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The popular smoked-fish store just added Jewish classics such as smoked meats, kasha varnishkes and kugel. Photograph courtesy of Shelsky’s.
Fans of Shelsky’s, the always-mobbed Brooklyn smoked-fish emporium, are getting even more to fress.
Starting today, the white-tiled appetizing shop will expand its menu to include classic deli sandwiches, Ashkenazi side dishes and meats by the pound.
“It’s something we’ve always wanted to do,” owner Peter Shelsky told the Forward. “We’ve done smoked fish for a while. Now, we want to play both sides of the News York Jewish food game.”
Shelsky’s redux had been set to open Tuesday, but “our pastrami’s still curing,” Shelsky said earlier this week. The shop will cure all of its own meats, including corned beef and tongue; revered local meat palace Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue will smoke Shelsky’s pastrami exclusively.
The meats will fill classic deli sandwiches on Orwasher’s rye bread; Shelsky’s will also offer haimish side dishes like kasha varnishkes, stuffed cabbage, kishke with brown gravy and knishes. On weekends, Shelsky will even serve a “Shabbat cholent” based on his grandmother’s recipe. “It’s shtetl food to fill your belly,” Shelsky laughed.
Dessert offerings will grow as well. “We’re going to do apple strudel, and we always have rice pudding,” Shelsky said. “If you consider noodle kugel a dessert, we’ve got that too. My non-Jewish wife is like, ‘Why do you eat this as an appetizer? What’s wrong with you people?’”
Michael Kaminer is a frequent contributor to the Forward.
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