2026 TRIP

As a good many of you know I love the pastrami from the Lido Kosher Deli in Long Beach, NY. Everyone who I’ve brought there also loved whatever they had.  That is all except one… a cousin from the San Fernando Valley in California. She claimed they had better pastrami “back home.”  So besides wanting to see my cousins from Southern California I figured this would be a good opportunity to sample the local fare. To be clear the cousins I dined with today and will dine with tomorrow were not the ones who had been critical.

So today for lunch I met cousins Bernie Golds and his son Ryan at Brent’s in Westlake Village. Brent's pastrami was moist and tender and had a really good flavor. It had a good smoky taste.  But what stole the show was their rye bread. Bernie and I both felt we could be incredibly happy just eating the rye bread with butter.

For dinner I met cousins Mark & Freya Ivener and we went to Nate & Al’s in Beverly Hills.  Another winner.  It was a bit hard to believe after this afternoon’s meal but I give the slimmest of edges in favor to Nate & Al’s for the pastrami but Brent’s by a wide margin for the bread. So if I had a choice of whose sandwich I’d order in the future it would be Brent’s.

Tomorrow it will be lunch at Langer’s and the final decision… the final decision for California.  Florida will enter the competition also.  For these meals I apologize to my ozempic.