Katz Is That's All

You just can't walk past Katz's Delicatessen today and not notice it being besieged by property development. Ladies and gentlemen, our lifeline to pastrami is in jeopardy.

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Now, I know that there are other places in the outer-boroughs for good deli, and I've been to some of these places many times over. But let's get real: if you live in New York, you don't want to have to trek across the entire city to get a frickin' sandwich. (Pizza is a different story).

All of this casts a different light over Katz's neon sign that says "Katz Is That's All." The sign takes on almost an existential quality, like something Nelson Mandela might have said.

And that's how I like to think about my sandwiches -- icons of freedom and justice, not as signs of the continuously disappearing New York. As I took these photos, I couldn't help but think that a New York without Katz's is not a New York I want to live in. Who knows what the new residents of The Ludlow might think.