Perly’s Restaurant, Richmond, Virginia

Please welcome Senior Richmond and Deli Correspondent, Les Wexler. I had a comment from Les about a post, and the ensuing conversation led to pastrami. I’ve been thinking about pastrami lately — I keep meaning to get back to Silver and Sons (great smoked lamb) to try theirs — and I”m off on an effort to find top quality pastrami in the Washington area. Les and I commiserated over the loss of Krupin’s, but pointed me to a Perly’s, a Krupin’s-like Jewish deli in Richmond. It has a classic menu (scroll down) — and no bacon. Just sayin’.

Les also gave a couple of suggestions for places closer to home, about which I expect you’ll hear more in due course. But Perly’s is the real deal. And Les was kind enough to write up his experience at Perly’s.

Now, Les Wexler has pastrami street cred. He lives in American University Park, just over the way, and has since 1975. But he grew up on Long Island, where Jewish delis used to abound. That’s nearly 50 years pining for the great Jewish delis of the New York City region. You may know Les and his wife, the artist JoEllen Murphy. (I’m guessing that’s her in the above photo.) I looked through her website www.joellenmurphy.com, and saw some beautiful paintings.

Now let’s let Les tell us about Perly’s.

We went to Perly’s a few weeks ago on a Friday.  This was our 3rd try to eat there, as the first time it was closed and the second try last Spring it was a Saturday and there was an hour long wait for a table during a snow squall.  Perly’s had been visited by Guy Fieri on ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ and was highly recommended.  Be prepared to wait, outside, but they are very efficient.

JoEllen and I started with the Jewish Egg Rolls as an appetizer.  Think Reuben sandwich stuffed in an egg roll wrapper and fried, with two dipping sauces, honey mustard schmaltz and Amba.  Very tasty.  We also ordered Egg Creams.  If you’re not from New York, and egg cream is a wonderful drink consisting of milk, chocolate syrup (Fox’s U-Bet, to be authentic [Ed. True that.]) and seltzer or sparkling water.  Think chocolate ice cream soda, without the ice cream.  Worth a try.

JoEllen had the Shapiro Schnitzel sandwich,  

a chicken schnitzel cutlet on toasted challah bread.  She had the potato salad on the side.  I had the Jewish Sailor sandwich

open faced on rye bread, pastrami, chopped liver, smoked beef sausage, pickled vegetables, and a side of truly excellent fries.  The sandwich was great, giving me some of each of the basic Jewish deli comfort foods.

On the way out, at the counter, was a display of deli pastries.  I picked up some rugelach, a time pastry consisting of a dough made with sour cream and filled with cinnamon and raisins.  These were as good as my grandmother used to bake for me.  They also had classic, big Black and White Cookies and Hammentaschen.  Didn’t try those, as I don’t like Hammentaschen, but the cookies almost tempted me.

With a dearth of great Jewish delis in DC, it’s worth an excursion to Richmond to eat at Perly’s.

There you have it, a pearl in Richmond, and a great report by Senior Correspondent Wexler.

Now back to the Washington situation. Richmond has a Jewish population of about 10,000. The Washington area’s Jewish population is 300,000, or so I read. Can Richmond outdo us?  Are there places like Perly’s in the Washington area? Where are the Krupin’s of yesteryear? Please let me know!

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