Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Nick Kroll’s Ode to L.A. Delis

Comedy Central

(JTA) — Comedian Nick Kroll, host of the eponymous Kroll Show, recently aired a heavy-metal ditty in homage to the pleasures of rocking it late-night in LA’s delis:

Kroll, a former Solomon Schecter student and the squeeze of comedy titan Amy Poehler, name-drops a few LA delis, including Jerry’s, Greenblatt’s, and Langer’s, but the obvious inspiration for the sketch is the connection between Guns N’Roses and Canter’s Deli — as successful a union, in its own way, as that between pastrami and rye. (In case you doubt that’s the inspiration, check out not Kroll’s wig, but also the band member sporting a top hat in clear homage to Slash.)

Dating back to the grade school friendship between delicatessen scion Marc Canter and GNR guitarist Slash, Canter’s Deli was the home of Guns N’Roses from the band’s earliest days. In fact, Canter is such an obsessive and authoritative fan that he’s even written a book about the band’s formative years, stuffed with his own photographs (and available for sale at Canter’s, of course).

Of course, delis have always been a part of the scene for LA musicians. Dr. Dre, for example, used to be a regular at Junior’s Deli (since replaced by Lenny’s Deli), which was near his office.

But Canter’s has two additional advantages over its rivals when it comes to wooing the rockers. One is that it has its own venue, the Kibitz Room, to host rock shows. And the other is that since it’s open 24/7, you can truly rock all night long. Don’t try that at Langer’s. They close at 4 PM.

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.