Honor Your Elders
There’s something hilarious about finding a restaurant called Café New Yorker (see review) in the least-urban setting imaginable, in this case an Overland Park shopping center. The name New York suggests sophistication, I suppose, and that’s a commodity Kansas Citians apparently crave. The town boasts a New York Brake repair shop; New York Barber Shop; New York Burrito; New York City Shades; the New York Hair Salon; and an adult-themed venue called the New York Times Square Video, a name that’s quaintly anachronistic now that the real Times Square has been sanitized.
But one of the oldest restaurants in town has paid homage to the Big Apple for nearly a century. The New York Bakery & Delicatessen turns 100 in a short ten months, and owners Jim and Barbara Holzmark are already planning ways to celebrate the unassuming joint’s centennial. There’s always the idea of asking patrons to “come in and taste Kansas City history” — the deli’s menu hasn’t changed much since Polish-born Esther and Isadore Becker opened the original spot at 919 East 18th Street.
In 1920, the Beckers followed the immigrant Jewish community to the southern suburbs, opening a newer and bigger place at 1307 East 31st Street. Two decades later, they moved again, to the current location at 7016 Troost. The Holzmarks bought the business from the Beckers in 1981. The breads and pastries are still kosher, but the deli sandwiches aren’t.
“They never were,” insists Jim Holzmark. “Not even 99 years ago.”
The biggest change came when the Holzmarks dropped most of the grocery items — the market business had died off with suburban flight — and decided to focus on their baked goods and sandwiches. The neighborhood is ethnically diverse now, and the Holzmarks sell their bagels, danishes and hot dogs to doctors (at nearby Baptist-Lutheran Medical Center), blue-collar workers, hip-hop kids and the occasional Johnson Countian who still craves one of the overstuffed, $8.48 “Awesome Reuben” sandwiches.
“We didn’t invent that name,” Barbara Holzmark says. “It’s almost as old as the deli.”
Over the years, patrons have asked the Holzmarks to move north of the river or to Lee’s Summit, but they’re sticking in the heart of the city. “They’re building a new YMCA right next to us,” Jim says. “And we think that will be great for business. People can work out, then come over for a big sandwich.”
