Katzinger's Delicatessen
 Columbus, Ohio        Date of Visit  08/31/14            http://www.katzingers.com

For lunch we tried a young (since 1984…hey, that’s young…especially for a deli) delicatessen offering traditional Jewish classics and blasphemy (more on that in a bit). Before we walked into the doors of Katzinger’s I was happy. Loaves of bread are on display in the window and they look fabulous. Inside the door is a little shop offering all sorts of joy from cheese to bourbon chocolate nib brittle. The restaurant side of the building feels like it has many more years on it than the 1984 start date which is actually nice.
 

Just The First Section Of The Menu
 

Much of the menu is locally sourced or done in house. When you head towards the seats there are two large barrels with buckets of pickles set inside. One garlic, one dill. The garlic didn’t do much for me…the stink of the bulb was nice but there wasn’t much else to make the cucumber sing. Nowhere near the pungent bite you get at Carnegie deli. The more traditional dill had a much more rounded and pleasing flavor. If you order a sandwich, you can have as many of either as you wish, as long as you finish them. The locals are making great use of the barrels, mostly dill.
 

The knish was actually Katzinger’s “I’ll have what Marty’s having” Potato Knish, a pastry dough filled with mashed potato and caramelized onion filling. Brown and flaky dough (there might be some butter in there) filled with sweet onions and smooth mash. Things were off to a good start. Then the Gollum raised his dark and evil head.

The soup of the day…wait for it…was Matzo. Surprise. The matzo ball was supremely light and fluffy with a hint of texture remaining. Beautiful. The chicken broth was deep and studded with onions, tomatoes and greens. Excellent. And then there’s the bacon………………?!????!????!? Sacrilege! Desecration! Profanity! The most kosher of dishes befouled by the most seductive and unkosher of meats. Not being orthodox or even Jewish I don’t keep kosher…and while it may be wrong on so many levels bacon matzo ball soup is so right. Delicious. It’s also served with the heel of a gorgeous loaf of seeded Jewish rye. I wish the sandwiches had been as great…or novel.
 

Delish Knish
 

Steph ordered Katzinger’s Reuben, their best-selling sandwich with hot corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, their own Russian dressing grilled on rye. Everything you would want in a Reuben…save for a deep and dusky curing of the brisket. There's is thin on flavor for me but it is served on the same great rye from the matzo ball soup. Good sandwich. Not great.

Jegunda ordered the Mike and Rich Follow the Bubble, an Italian with Capicola, sopressata Italian salami, provolone, lettuce, roasted red pepper, herbed oil served on a warm baguette. This one also came in around average, the meats were nice but the additional ingredients didn’t bring the whole thing together like some of the incredible options you can find in Italian shops.
 

I went with Auntie F’s Mackinaw Monster. I would only order this at a place like this. And I’m glad I did. Smoked whitefish salad, scallion cream cheese, tomato and onion on a perfectly dark and scrumtrulescent pumpernickel. The fishy salad was lightly smoky (nothing like the crazy delicious punch on oilier fishes from Ted Peters) which worked really well with the whitefish and had chucks of cucumbers which started cutting through the richness. The fresh tomato and onion completed the job and made for a really sumptuous deli classic. So many more sandwiches. So far away. There is probably something at Katzinger’s you would go crazy for, but it may take a while to find it.