The important thing to know is that … it’s finally here! After much anticipation and a few complications, the 2nd Avenue Deli on First Avenue and 75th Street has officially opened on the Upper East Side. “I feel tired, excited, and nervous,” 29-year-old owner Jeremy Lebewohl tells us this morning. Sooo, tell us? “Well, our first customers ever were two young girls who wanted latkes, potato pancakes, at six-thirty in the morning. I have no idea what they were up to; it’s August, they weren’t going to school!” His second customer was quite a thinker, too: “A surgeon came in at six-forty and ordered ‘the Instant Heart Attack Sandwich.’ I thought that was pretty great.” Remind us what’s on that? “Any meat of your choice, he chose tongue pastrami, and it’s sandwiched between two potato pancakes.” Oy. But the day is young for Lebewohl, who at 10 a.m. had about a dozen people in the shop, starting their day off right (or wrong? Whatever!). “I doubt I’ll even have time for lunch today, but I’ll try to sneak in a hot dog and coleslaw at some point,” he says, like a true deli superstar. [Related]
