Today I visited Schaller and Weber, on 86th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper East Side. It’s an old-time German Delicatessen that was founded in 1937. This is the kind of Central & Eastern European food market that used to dominate Yorkville, before gentrification set in and every other lot became a bank or a Starbucks.
Yorkville is a beautiful neighborhood. I actually lived there in the late 1990’s. It was originally settled by German, and later Eastern European immigrants, and they left an indelible mark on the character of the neighborhood. There are a lot of tree-lined streets fronting beautiful brownstones and townhouses. And plenty of mom and pop markets and delis.
But starting in the 80’s, luxury developers moved in and built lots of high-rise luxury apartment towers.
So by the time I got there in the late 90’s, the neighborhood had already undergone tremendous change.
Today it’s mostly yuppies, millennials, and some old money folks. But there are still plenty of older German, Czech, and Hungarian New Yorkers hanging on in rent stabilized apartments.
Schaller and Weber is one of the flagships of the Old Country in Manhattan. People travel from all around the city to get back to their Central and Eastern European roots, and to enjoy sausages, fresh hams, and German potato salad. It’s an emporium of European delights, and it excites the senses from the moment you cross the threshold.
I got there at 4:30 p.m., and it was moderately crowded. There are sausages hanging in the window, and hams, and salamis, and it’s all-together just an incredible smorgasbord for the palate.
So I got on line, not knowing what I wanted, and figuring I would just leave it to the deli men to steer me in the right direction. It’s a really old timey place, and the deli men still wear white uniforms.
The line moved slowly, and I started to get a little restless. But I was also fascinated with all this food that I saw in front of me. The person in front of me ordered ¼ lb of salami, and some other stuff, and I decided right then and there that I would have salami too. I knew I also wanted some ham, and they had a bunch of incredibly fresh looking ones in the deli case.
Finally my turn came, and the deli guy asked me what I wanted.
“I want to get a quarter pound of salami, and a quarter pound of ham, but I’m not sure what kinds I want, so is there anything you’d recommend?”
He recommended a garlic peppercorn salami, and some fresh Czech country ham. I said that sounds great my man, let’s do it. He went into the back to get the salami, and it took several minutes, and I started getting restless again. But this is the kind of place where they’re on their own time, and the food is so fresh and good that you just have to tolerate the slow Old World service that comes with it.
Finally he returned and started slicing the salami. There were two kinds he wanted me to taste. One was the garlic peppercorn salami, and the second was a beef salami with peppercorn only. I liked the beef salami, so I told him I’ll go with a quarter pound of that.
Next he started slicing up the Czech ham, and he gave me a slice to taste. Holy freaking crap! This was one of the best hams I’ve ever tasted. I’ve always loved ham, and ham and cheese is one of my all-time favorite sandwiches.
Fresh ham is even better. It’s kind of like an orgasm in the mouth. And this ham was one of the best I’ve ever had. It was just so sweet, salty, buttery, tender, and delicious. So as he was cutting up the quarter pound, I told him make it a half, my man, thanks.
Next I knew I wanted some potato salad, but they had like 5 different kinds from all over Central and Eastern Europe.
“I want some potato salad, but I’m not sure what kind, what would you recommend?”
“Definitely the German potato salad,” he said.
“Okay cool, I’ll take a half a pound of that.”
I finished my order with a stuffed pepper with ground beef and onions, and I got one small cheese wedge to go with it. The whole thing came to $21, which is really not that bad considering the delicacies I was able to procure.
That night I feasted on my food. The salami was pretty good, but not incredible, just how I remembered it. The ham was an absolute superstar, one of the best things I’ve eaten in a really long time. I ate some plain, and then I ate some on a roll with some low-fat mayo.
But the real highlight of the night was the German potato salad. The second I took a bite, my mind just shut down, all my confused and stressed out thoughts quieted, and I just fell into a moment of pleasure and bliss. I wasn’t stressing about anything anymore, about the day that I just had, about my blog, about the memoir I’m writing, or anything else. I was just eating kickass German potato salad, and freaking loving it.
I ended up eating about half the potato salad, and I decided I’d save some for later, it was so damn good. I also ate most of the stuffed pepper, which was pretty good too, but not quite as earth-shattering as the potato salad. The cheese wedge was just that, a wedge of Swiss cheese, nothing special, but I ate some of it anyway.
I sat back after I finished my dinner and popped on a basketball game on cable. I reflected on my time in Yorkville, and on the amazing delicacies I had from Schaller and Weber.
Yorkville is a pretty damn cool neighborhood, I thought to myself, but it’s slowly dying, which is sad. Sooner or later it’ll all be Gaps, banks, and Verizon stores.
But for now it still retains some of its Central and Eastern European character, and flavor, and Schaller and Weber is one of the key outposts holding down this Old World flair.
Thank God the old ethnic neighborhoods of New York City haven’t totally died out. Because when they disappear, New York becomes just another megamall. And Lord knows we don’t need another mall in this city.
