When David Sax stops by Saul’s to flog his new book Save the Deli tomorrow he may be in for a bit of culture shock, but it’s of exactly the type he wants to see. While Saul’s — with its grass-fed corned beef and pastrami — is a pretty far cry from New York’s Katz’s or Second Avenue delis, Sax doesn’t have a problem with its direction. He wants to see more like it.
“That DIY ferry terminal marketplace, hipsters butchering cows, that kind of thing. There’s going to be somebody in San Francisco that does that with deli,” Sax told Grub Street on the phone. “In Porland, which was never a big deli town, two years ago a deli called Kenny and Zuke’s opened there that got its start selling pastrami at the farmers’ market and they’ve done really well,” Sax said. Those interested in the future of the deli can taste it at Sax’s reading and discussion appearance at Saul’s, where they’ll be doing a taste test of grass-fed Marin Sun Farms corned beef and grass-raised, corn-finished Niman Ranch Pastrami with pastrami made from the conventionally raised beef that supplies Katz’s. The festivities start at 4 p.m.
