Who does the best Pastrami Dip sandwich in Los Angeles?

Langer's Delicatessen can be the most consistent restaurant in Los Angeles.

It is so consistent that my order has not diverted in 35 years. No. 1 with an extra side of Russian dressing to submerge.

“You used to suck the pickles before the teeth entered,” says my father during a recent lunch. The brown leather squeaks tufts while we both change in our seats. He has been arriving at the store since before I was born. He is there once a week, sometimes more. It is often said that this week will order the chef salad.

“But then I smell the pastrami and, well,” he says with a shoulder shrink.

The most popular Langer sandwich is No. 19, a tower of Pastrami, Swiss cheese, Col Col and Russian dressing served in double baked rye bread. It was created by the deceased to Langer, who opened the Delicatessen store in 1947.

The number 1, also my father's favorite, is almost identical, except Swiss cheese. It is the only time I will not invite cheese to a party. The Russian dressing, a thick and thick island of Thousand, is rich enough.

He took a recent visit with a Kentucky friend to deviate from my usual order. Before our lunch, I told him that Langer was home to the best pastry sandwich in the universe. But I never specified which of the dozens of ways to ask for pastrami in bread in the restaurant. When it was time to order, she chose the French immersion Pastrami ($ 26).

The sandwich is served in a golden gold roll made by Fred's Bakery and Deli, the same Beverlywood bakery that has been making the rye bread of the restaurant for more than 45 years. It is naked, soft and aerated with crunchy cortex, but produces contact.

The Pastrami mountain in the middle has seven dating. It is arranged in such a way that the meat covers every centimeter of bread, and then just hangs on the edge to attract fragments that can start when the elegant hits.

The Pastrami is the same in all Langer's sandwiches, made by RC's provisions in bubank for more than 45 years. It is a recipe of AL, whose Norm Langer son possesses and directs the delicatessen store. The meat is splashed, rubbed into a mixture of spices and then smoked. It is steamed in the restaurant for between 2 and 5 hours, losing about 35% of its mass in the process. When it emerges from the steam, trembling and gleaming, it is so delicate that it barely survives the knife of the knife, collapsing in a lot of fat and smoke in the cutting table.

Each slice is crowned with a bark layer, with hot and hot black edges. There is an edge of fat (unless you order your pastrami lean) that melts in reddish pink meat underneath.

Jus on the side is deep color and flavor, salty but balanced enough to drink.

“This sandwich has been in the menu since before you were born,” says Langer. “It used to be more popular years ago.”

It is not a sexy sandwich. There are no seasoning stretch marks. Only pink in beige with more brown to wet.

“Pastrami sauce in my place is not the big problem,” says Langer. “It's great. It's excellent, but people come to me [and] They want No. 19. If you ask me how much I sell compared to everything else, very little. “

But maybe it should be the big problem. In the same way that Pastrami purists will ask for smooth pastrami about rye, or even a lot of pastrami on a dish, I would argue that pastrami sauce can be the purest sandwich of all. Without the bite of the rye seeds, the smoke of the pastrami is bolder, its hottest black pepper in the tongue. The roll is more sponge than the ship, absorbing enough to moisten the sandwich without capitulating to the broth completely. A hot brown mustard jets every third bite helps penetrate wealth and increases spice.

It is a glowing sandwich in its moderation, the three ingredients allow each caution in their senses.

The Pastrami Sandwich of Philippe the original.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

“People have Philippe in mind when they listen to French immersion,” says Langer. “Or they think of the hat. They don't think about Langer's.”

But people think of Los Angeles when they think of pastrami sauce? The deceased and Great Jonathan Gold once called the sandwich a saving grace for the city's bad pastrami.

“Perhaps Pastrami's best experience in Los Angeles is the immersion of Pastrami, which combines the form of French immersion with a bad pastrami function, the spicy ethnic excess structured as the gentle lunch of a center entrepreneur,” he wrote.

The Pastrami Dip is a deeply rooted creation in the Sandwiches culture of Los Angeles, without the shortage of restaurants that announce their world -famous sandwiches.

Two restaurants in the center of Los Angeles, Philippe The Original and Cole's French Dip, claim to have created the French immersion sandwich at the beginning of the 20th century. In Philippe, the original, the rolls are crispy and resistant around a generous group of pastrami in fine slices. By itself, the pastrami is hard and gummy, with black pepper pockets where there is a bite with cortex. It is a sandwich ($ 15.50) that requires a double immersion in the jus when ordering and an extra side of jus to submerge. The hot mustard helps. It will anticipate your nostrils.

In Cole's, the French rolls are a deeper gold, roasted inside, more substantial and chewable. The Pastrami is a thicker cut, graciously, every smoke without pepper. It is less abundant in sandwich, the architecture that is missing with some meatless corners. As in Philippe's, the sandwich ($ 23) requires some dives in the Jus cup to hide a multitude of deficiencies.

The Pastrami Sandwich of the Connal sandwiches, also known as Connal's in Pasadena.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Connal sandwiches in Pasadena serve a pastrami sauce sandwich ($ 13.99) with such a light dip, the roll and the meat are dry. The pastrami is cut into resistant and unequal slabs that know smoked ham. With yellow and pickled mustard, eat as the type of sandwich you can do the morning after a vacation dinner.

The pastrami in the locations of the hat around Los Angeles and Orange County are divided into a different category, one that associates with the pastrami that you find in the hamburgers of the entire city. It is shaved in rebel tapes, and half of the content spills from the sandwich. The “World Fame Pastrami Sauce” of the hat ($ 12.60) is painted with yellow mustard and a handful of pickles in the lower half of the roll, while the upper half is immersed in a jus tub. Salt, fat and juice suffocate the pickles and mustard, turning off the vinegar and spike. A pastrami bombardment in a roll.

The welcome theme of the excess of Pastrami is echoed by Johnnie's Pastrami. The brothers Eddie and Eli Passy opened the restaurant in Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City in 1952. When they took care of the space, the signaling of the property said “Johnnies Pastrami”. It was too expensive to change, so although there was not a Johnny involved in the operation, the name stuck. At that time, the Pastrami Dip sandwich was $ 0.70. Like the hat, Johnnie's pastrami ($ 19.25) is full of shaved pastrami, only the meat is even thinner, more tender and with a heavier blow of smoke and maybe a little garlic. A single upper bun sauce in the dripping will be enough, but if dinner, you can request an additional cup on the side.

The French immersion sandwich of the Johnnie's pastrami in Culver City.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Can any of these sandwiches compete with the Pastrami immerse yourself in Langer's? It was never a fair fight. While I could eat a Pastrami dish of Langer, you can't say the same of others.

The Sandwiches Pastrami Dip of Los Angeles are their own race of sandwich, built on the Deli de New York pastrami sandwiches that gradually headed west in the 1930s and 1940s. The sauces are humid, messy meat, juice and bread giants. More sandy and humble than its predecessors on the east coast.

There will always be disputes when it comes to Pastrami. What style is better? The correct condiments. To submerge or not immerse yourself. Who does the best. This column will undoubtedly fuerd the fires. You saw the sandwich up or down as you want. But if your goal is to eat the best pastrami, appreciate the hours of smoke and steam, make sure it is from Langer.