Katz’s Delicatessen Written by Wendy R. Williams Photographed by Mary Blanco

"Senda salami to your boy in the army." - Katz Delicatessen slogan.

“I’ll have what she’s having.” - Estelle Reiner playing the “Older Woman Customer” at Katz’s Delicatessen in her son’s (Rob Reiner's) film, When Harry Met Sally.

The Lower East Side may have become a happening hipster magnet, but even the cool-kids-with-no-curfew need to eat sometime and haute vegan food doesn’t cut it when the party starts at 1:00 a.m. and ends at breakfast. Katz’s has been carving up corned beef and pastrami since 1888 and boy, if these walls could talk, they sure could tell some stories. There is a paper sign taped one of the tables in the dining room stating that, "You are sitting at the table where Harry met Sally." Yes, this is it. Katz’s Delicatessen is the place where Meg Ryan won the Oscar for Best Simulated Orgasm at Lunch with Cream Soda and Free Pickles.

So go order some Pastrami-on-Rye for $12.45 or some Knockwurst for $4.55 and/or an all beef hotdog for $2.40. And don’t forget to ask for some French fries (cooked in real chicken fat) and a free bucket of pickles (you have to ask). And don’t forget the Dr. Brown's cream soda ($1.50). Katz’s is one of the great old Jewish Delicatessens and is not to be missed.

P. S. The sign says no tipping but slip a dollar on the counter when it’s your time to order so you will look like a cool resident of the Lower East Side and not some tourist. And if you want to look like a real New Yorker, talk on your cell phone the entire time you are in the line and just slap down that dollar like you are on auto pilot.

Katz’s Delicatessen