Goodbye Ben’s Best, One of NYC’s Last Classic Kosher Delis

So earlier in the week, when I covered the sad closing of Glaser’s Bake Shop, I promised you I’d be back with an ode to yet another New York institution that shut its doors over the weekend. And that is Ben’s Best, a classic kosher deli that has been a Rego Park, Queens, staple for 73 years.

Unlike Glaser’s, this closing is due to slow business. Owner Jay Parker—son of the eponymous Ben, who opened the kosher deli in 1945—says business has been down ever since the city installed bike lanes in the neighborhood, eliminating nearly 200 parking spaces from the area.

This is part of the sad trend of NYC deli closings over the past couple of decades (weirdly paralleled by the rise of the nouveau deli, most of which are annoyingly intent on flaunting their hipness by serving the treif-iest concoctions they can dream up—but that’s a rant for another time).

In a city that was once home to, according to one article I consulted, 1500 (!) kosher and kosher-style delis, there are now barely more than a handful left. At one time, there were 750 kosher delis on the Lower East Side alone.

My parents are hardcore deli enthusiasts, and they’ve been making occasional treks out to Ben’s Best for a number of years. I’ve joined on a few occasions, most notably to fuel up before catching a Flight of the Conchords show at Forest Hills Stadium. Good times.

Anyway, Ben’s Best was a super old-school, no-frills establishment, known for its classic kosher deli fare—you know, pastrami on rye, matzah ball soup, the basics. I don’t really eat meat so can’t attest to the quality of their sandwiches, but I hear that the pastrami was excellent.

My go-to order was the egg barley with mushrooms, which was pretty extraordinary (probably because they used like five times the oil I would at home, but what can you do?), and I was also a fan of their knishes. This last visit, I went all out and tried the noodle kugel too, which I’m sorry to report was merely passable. Oh, and a Dr. Brown’s Diet Black Cherry soda, of course. Delis are not really known for their desserts, but we finished things off with a black-and-white cookie and a slice of seven-layer cake.

Kind of like with Glaser’s, even if not everything on the menu was amazing (though some things absolutely were), I find it really sad losing these culinary cultural institutions. Even if the deli isn’t what it once was to NYC’s food scene, or to American Jewish culture, it’s still a huge part of the history of both, and there’s something special about being able to visit a living piece of that history.

The sad closing of Ben’s Best makes me want to double down on my efforts to support the city’s few remaining delis, and if you live somewhere with a deli you like, I encourage you to do the same.

My current favorite in NYC is Liebman’s Deli in Riverdale, in the Bronx—not the most convenient to get to, but it’s cute and homey, and for those of us who inexplicably love a good deli despite not doing the deli sandwiches, they have a surprisingly good falafel plate on the menu, with super fluffy fresh pita.