The slogan "Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army" is, today, associated with Katz's Deli on New York City's Lower East Side (see the Roadfood.com review), but the semi-rhyming words were crafted by a waiter named Louis G. Schwartz at the now-defunct Sixth Avenue Deli, which was located about a block from the present-day Carnegie Deli (see the Roadfood.com review). Louie the Waiter was famous in the 1940s for his deli rhymes and his prowess at selling war bonds to his customers.

We were spellbound by an article we stumbled upon that tells Mr. Schwartz's story, called The Bard in the Delicatessen, by Philip Hamburger, from the March 18, 1944 issue of The New Yorker. The story is all the more fascinating for having been written in 1944, when deli life in the city was still thriving, and WWII was still being fought. Essential Roadfood reading.