Best in the (North)West: Kornblatt’s Deli, Portland

Photographs by Andrea Fuentes-Diaz

The gourmet coffee and thriving food cart cultures of Portland, Ore., are hardly starving for attention, but the city is also quietly home to Kornblatt’s Delicatessen, one of the truly great New York delis outside the five boroughs.

Located in the Northwest 23rd shopping district, this displaced ode to New York deli counter culture strives for authenticity (Nova lox, pickles and meats imported from New York City), and yet it can’t help but reflect the differences between Manhattan and Portland. For starters, there are four local beers on tap, including Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Cascade I.P.A., as well as a spacious, relaxed dining room and a vegetarian Reuben option, both unheard of at, say, Katz’s or Eisenberg’s in New York. There’s even locally made organic chicken basil sausage on the brunch menu.

But New York City authenticity can be found elsewhere in the offerings: try the grease-free knish and fresh macaroni salad, made in-house and still crispy with bits of red onion and celery, or the Reuben sandwich, generously portioned with Thumann’s corned beef, imported from New York and griddled to rye perfection with sauerkraut and Swiss. The matzo ball soup is a delight of its own, its rich broth embodying the deep flavors of dark-meat chicken and marrow. Only the egg cream fails to deliver — Kornblatt’s would do well to skip Hershey’s chocolate syrup in favor of Fox’s U-Bet. Settle in with a Cel-Ray soda instead, served high with ice and a straw, and let Kornblatt’s send you downstream on Portland’s Willamette River, due east to the Hudson.

Kornblatt’s New York Style Deli, 628 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland, Ore.

Correction: January 14, 2011
An earlier version of this post misspelled Deschutes as Deschuttes, Thumann's as Thumman's and Willamette as Willammette.