Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Toronto Upscale Diner Converting To Jewish Deli

It was an unconventional announcement from an unconventional restaurateur: In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper last month, Toronto’s Anthony Rose announced he was reinventing Rose & Sons, his white-hot upscale diner, as a Jewish deli.

“I have been working on something I call ‘Pastrami’,” Rose revealed. “It is kinda sorta a mix between Corned Beef and Montreal Smoked Meat. It really is the future. I feel that deli is dying, baby.”

The interview, of course, was a fantasy, shared by Rose in The Monthly Anthony, his typically loopy newsletter. But the change is real. And after closing for a week, Rose & Sons has reopened as Rose & Sons Deli with a menu that seems radical because it’s so traditional – think kishka and gravy, knishes, matzoh ball soup, and salami, along with twists like Reuben fries and poutine.

“The long and short of it? Time for a change after 5.5 years,” Rose told the Forward by e-mail. “Keep it more Jewy and add on to Schmaltz and Pasha-like cuisines.” Rose also runs Schmaltz Appetizing, a pricy but popular appetizing shop, and Fat Pasha, a perennially mobbed Middle-Eastern spot. Dinner at Fat Pasha was a highlight of the Forward’s [Jewish Canada group tour] (https://go.forward.com/canada-then-and-now/) last year.

Toronto polymath Michael Wex, who wrote about deli in Rhapsody in Schmaltz, consulted on the menu, as did ‘Save the Deli’ author David Sax. “We worked on the Pastrami recipe for six months to get it right with plenty of help from them,” Rose said. ”Delicatessen is something we always wanted to try but it’s a very very specific world to move into. And everyone has something to say.”

Image by Rose and Sons

Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.