Kenny & Ziggy’s Opens New Houston Deli
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The Deli Man’s got something new to kvell about.
Houston deli Kenny & Ziggy’s has opened a second location — a 2,500-square-foot space “about the size of the original Second Avenue Deli or the Stage,” according to owner Ziggy Gruber. “It’s an intimate space, and completely haimish.”
The new Kenny & Ziggy’s is located in Houston’s upscale West University neighborhood, a 20-minute drive from Gruber’s perpetually packed, 7,500-square-foot original in the Post Oak area. Gruber explained that Post Oak’s turbocharged growth over the last decade became a deterrent to some regular customers.
The new delicatessen. Image by Courtesy of Ziggy Gruber
“People didn’t want to schlep from wherever they lived because of the traffic,” he said. “But since we opened the second restaurant, I’m starting to see some of the same people there, twice a day.”
Gruber had originally planned to open without some of his more hardcore Ashkenazi specialties, focusing on more popular deli fare. But customers practically revolted.
“I’m getting a lot more Yidlach than I thought, and I underestimated the Yiddishness of the neighborhood,” Gruber said. Kasha knishes, which had not appeared on the new menu, are already back, and Gruber’s phasing in favorites like Ukrainian meatballs, gefilte fish and liver and onions. He’s also maintaining a huge selection of cakes and cookies, a Kenny & Ziggy signature. “You know how hard it is to find a decent Jewish deli anymore?” he asks. “Try finding a good Jewish bakery.”
Since the 2015 documentary Deli Man made him a bona fide star, Gruber’s also been seeing culinary tourists who’ve traveled to Houston just to try the deli. “We’ve become a destination,” he says. “They all say the same thing: ‘This is what deli used to taste like’.”
For his next act, Gruber’s looking West — to Austin, where he says the Jewish population has quintupled in just a couple of decades. “They need a Jewish deli,” he says. “They’ve got nothing like us.”
Gruber also owns the rights to Dubrow’s, the legendary Jewish cafeteria; he plans to debut that concept over the next few years in Houston. “We’re going to do it as a grill-type place, like a Jewish Houston’s,” he said. “It’ll be an inexpensive, streamlined menu.”
His growth plans don’t mean that Gruber is scheming to franchise Kenny & Ziggy’s or grow the brand nationally. “I wouldn’t want anyone to control my name,” he said. “I don’t need 300 units to make me happy. I opened the second location to make my customers happy.”
Not that there wouldn’t be demand, he says. Jews “want you to move all over the place. But as they say, you can’t dance at two weddings with one tuchis.”
Kenny & Ziggy’s, 5172-C Buffalo Speedway, Houston
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
