Photograph courtesy Izzy's
Back when Izzy Kadetz still ran his place downtown, a friend used to go in regularly for a heaping helping of abuse. Izzy would get this smirk on his face and say, “Naw, you don’t want that today.” Or he’d get this disgusted face as he looked her up and down, “No Reuben for you. You’ve been putting on weight. You’ll get the matzo ball soup today instead.” And of all the times she went there, Izzy never charged her the same price twice.
You could wonder about how he stayed in business, but the rude mouth was accompanied by a big heart and irresistible sandwiches. For years, Izzy charged on how you were dressed or what he thought you could pay on that particular day. The man himself is long gone, but overstepping the bounds to care about customers at Izzy’s lives on. As does his timeless menu. You can still get the World’s Greatest Reuben that my friend couldn’t. I asked the waitress why it’s “the World’s Greatest.” She gave me that “duh” look and sniped, “Because it says so on the menu.”
Photograph courtesy Izzy's
When your sandwich is plopped down in front of you, you get a whiff of the maltiness of fresh rye bread, grilled or toasted at your request. Between those two slices are imported Swiss cheese melted over the Best Tasting Corned Beef in the Midwest, and honest-to-Gott sauerkraut, all topped with Izzy’s special sauce. I didn’t dare ask what makes the sauce so special, but I did ask for extra. Maybe I broke protocol by dipping bits of the potato pancake into that sweet, tangy, pinkish stuff, and mmmm, just forgot about asking dumb questions at that point.
Like Cincinnati Chili, Izzy’s Reuben is truly iconic. You hear people say you have to go to New York City, the birthplace of the Reuben, to get the real thing. But there’s argument the Reuben was actually created in Omaha, so it’s possible that there is no “real thing” in New York. And Izzy’s father opened for business in 1901, over a decade before the history books say the Reuben was born. So did the Kadetz family actually invent the Reuben? I think if Izzy were still around today, he’d just give you that smirk.
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