What’s your favorite order at a New York-style deli? Is it the pastrami on rye, a potato knish, or perhaps some mouthwatering matzah ball soup? Whatever it is, you don’t have to go all the way to New York to satisfy the cravings. In fact, there’s an abundance of Ashkenazi comfort food all around Northern Virginia. Check out this list and give them a try sometime soon—we have a feeling you won’t regret it.
Touting themselves as a “real New York deli,” they certainly have the name for it! It takes chutzpah to name a restaurant Chutzpah considering most people won’t pronounce it correctly—case in point, this hilarious marketing video they put together:
But, what’s in a name when it comes to good eats… which this place has aplenty! Order takeout or dine-in, and you can even place orders for their meats, cheeses, fish, and “salads” by the pound for your next get-together or food-eating contest. We recommend eating there soon, but if you can’t make it yet, check out their “food porn” (seriously, that’s what it’s called) section on their website to get your mouth watering!
Looking for a real critic’s review? Check out Alice Levitt of Northern Virginia Magazine’s take. She called it her “latest obsession”; good enough for us.
Blintzes (Courtesy Celebrity Deli)
You needn’t look further than their blintzes (pictured above) to know that you’re in good hands at this nearly forty-year-old institution. You may be in Falls Church, but New York shines bright with the five boroughs written on each of the rafters and photos of Tony Soprano and Groucho Marx on the walls. Not to mention their reuben sammie (pictured below), named “I’ll Have What She’s Having.” Touting itself as a place “to feel comfortable and hang your hat,” there’s indoor seating only, but you can get takeout or catering, too!
“I’ll Have What She’s Having” (Celebrity Deli)
Reuben (Chewish Deli)
Originally a pop-up in Old Town Alexandria back in 2018, then a food truck that launched just as everything was shutting down in March of 2020, The Chewish Deli is now officially a brick-and-mortar shop offering bagels, coffee, and both breakfast and lunch sandwiches. The bagels are their claim to fame—hand-rolled using “New York style water,” (whatever that means!). They’re open for breakfast and lunch every day but Monday and Tuesday, so stop in and get your fill of bagels and allllll the deli toppings like shmears, pastrami, whitefish salad, and more!
Shmear on a bagel (Chewish Deli)
Have a suggestion we didn’t mention that’s in the DMV? Let us know in the comments!
