Harold's Deli revisited 3-17-08, Edison, NJ

I went to Harold's Deli for my pastrami fix

Harold's Deli signage.
(the deli is attached to the Holiday Inn , which is behind where I am standing; (not in pic)

Harold gladly obliged my request for a photo. ("sure, hon")

Harold himself, live and in person

Harold Jaffe, owner (former proprieter of Carnegie and the Claremont)

The rye bread is the best I've EVER had! (crisp seeded edges, so perfect) These are my findings from the "pickle bar". my sandwich arrived before I could start eating the yummy health salad, etc.
I enjoyed a few pieces of rye bread and butter after my pastrami

My pastrami sandwich (yum)


To my knowledge, this is the only deli in NJ that still makes its' own homemade pastrami! The sandwich is 13 ounces for $15.50.
I brought home 1/2 of it, to enjoy another time.
www.haroldsfamousdeli.com

Harold himself usually mans the podium, seating people, and calling their names on the microphone when it gets busy. He is a "hands on" owner.

I was on my way home to AC area, from my sisters near Freehold.
I took the "roundabout" way home, stopping at Harolds' for lunch, and Jersey Joe's (www.jjoes.com) near Keansburg for an Italian Hot Dog dessert!

and??????

sorry when I first posted the only thing there was the sign, I guess it takes awhile to upload pics.

Ohhh, so he owned Carnegie. That explains a lot. So that's Harold!

Before reading the caption, I thought, "That sure is good looking rye bread." From what you wrote, I gather it is as good tasting as it looks.

Good work, Ellen!

I guess you must have eaten that pastrami sandwich quite rapidly -- fast enough for it to be gone before the camera could catch it.

LOL..yup MH think you're right.

Wow, that's Harold?! I remember him 12, 13 years ago dining in the Parsippany location. Harold a) lost a lot of weight, and b) got older.

Ellen just used the wrong file id, is all, 4442 instead of 4441

http://www.roadfood.com/insider/photos/4441.jpg
http://www.roadfood.com/insider/photos/4442.jpg

Here's the sandwich pic

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

I guess you must have eaten that pastrami sandwich quite rapidly -- fast enough for it to be gone before the camera could catch it.

oops!!
I fixed it just now; I'm on break again at work. Now you can definitely see that pastrami.
Thanks TJ for fixing it, as well! You are a good moderator!

quote:

Originally posted by tamandmik

Wow, that's Harold?! I remember him 12, 13 years ago dining in the Parsippany location. Harold a) lost a lot of weight, and b) got older.

Yes, that is HIM!
Nowadays , he does not own that Parsippany location anymore; just this one in Edison.

Since I never really knew him before this last year or so, this is the only way I've known him... so he looks good to me!

That sure looks good, I'd be happy with that salad plate. I'd have to cut that sandwich into segments and eat off it all week.

Obviously the man knows his pastrami. Looks like a work of art!

Oh, Ellen, I am soooo jealous.The bread looks fantastic, and of course everything else does too(great looking pastrami)You are a lucky girl to live on that side of the states!!!

Harold? Is that you? I'd never have recognized him! He use to weigh 250-275 at least and had a full black beard....What happened old man? He's obviously not eating his own food anymore. He use to have this menu cover with him holding a tray of these humongous sandwiches. he was a big boy back then.

Ellen - thanks for the picture. MiamiDon.. No, he never owned the Carnegie. He was their manager for a brief period of time. Harold started in the Orange's (NJ) with a lot of help from my former business partner. He financed Hesh's (that's what he was called back in the day)first sandwich shop..Harold's Sandwich Shoppe. Eventually, my partner helped him in his purchase of the old Clarement Diner. What a place that was! Owned by Joe Baum back in the late 50's and early 60's. Lines out the door...An incredible eating expereince. Anyway, he turned that into Harold's. That business in Verona did not work out. People just could not accept it was no longer the Clarement Diner, in spite of the great food Harold put out.

Harold then moved around and in no particular order opened another Harold's in Lyndhurst at a Holiday Inn, became the manager at the Carnegie in NYC, opened a place in Parsippany and one in Edison. He is still the man when it comes to deli...Still the man. Glad to see he is well.

Baah Ben,
Thanks for providing us with such a thorough "Harold" bio! Wow, I learned a LOT!

I do remember how popular the Claremont was, and how they were known for their pies and cakes.
That triangular corner was never the same without the Claremont.

My best gal pal Robin told me her mom , Millie, used to work at the Claremont as a waitress back in it's glory days. How people would come in and say "I want Millie's section!!", and get mad if she was'nt there that day. And Millie had a "tell it like it is!!" personality! (RIP Millie Blitz)

I was in a perfect seat at Harold's , as I could watch Harold greeting and seating , etc...
he certainly comes across as caring to me. I had got there around 11 am, just ahead of the lunch rush.
I thought "Maybe Harold is'nt there yet, maybe he's taking it easy", but he was right there at that podium. And there was a lot more business as appeared, even at that early hour, as I saw lots of large trays and bags of take out orders waiting to be picked up.

BTW, I had already eaten some of that pastrami sandwich, so it was bigger than it appears. Plus, it's not too good of a pic.. (the pic did'nt really do the pastrami justice)(I've done better)

I saw a lot of recent Roadfood reviews of Harold's , but I did'nt notice any recent pics of the legend himself. Harold, keep up the great work!!

I'll never get over the moldy rye bread I picked up off the Pickle Bar during my "last" visit in January.

quote:

Originally posted by signman

I'll never get over the moldy rye bread I picked up off the Pickle Bar during my "last" visit in January.

This happened at the Harold's in Edison?

Yes, the exact one in Ellen's photos with the very same Harold right there that evening. Now I will say that it was around 9 PM on a Saturday evening, and the rye piled up on the Pickle Bar looked slighly different than what is pictured above, almost like they ran out of the good stuff and this was something they took out of the freezer or fridge, as it seemed cool. But there was no mistaking the mold that I found.

I'm probably playing with fire here, but........................................

Ellen, I always enjoy your posts and reviews. Please keep them coming.

Having said that, It seems like Harold's NY Deli manages to get a roadfood.com review on the average of once a week. I'm sure we all know what a great place it is by now. If I am ever travelling in the Northern/Central New Jersey area by car, I will make it a point to pay a visit to Harold's.

Nonetheless, enough is enough.

Waiting for the flames.

Wally

Wallhd - I posed that question to roadfood.com several months ago..I never got an answer. It was the reason I specifically asked Bruce and Sue, if Harold was a friend of theirs? They said no. That review has had a longer shelf life than even that molded piece of bread!

Perhaps roadfood.com can explain it for you....

Bruce and Sue never disappoint do they. They are amazing roodfoodies. That review of the donut place in Vegas was fantastic. Actually, Dunkin Donuts does make a buttermilk cake donut, too. It's not bad, but the pictures of the products out of that place in LV were special. I guess most of you have also seen the cake donut pictures from the Donut Plant in Lower Manhattan, too?

I'm still blown away by the prices. Now I realize that with the sandwiches, you get enough meat to feed a large family, but this is taken right from the menu from the "dieters section"

4 oz. GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST served over Lettuce, with Tomato, Onion and Sliced Egg 19.95

Are they kidding?

quote:

Originally posted by signman

Yes, the exact one in Ellen's photos with the very same Harold right there that evening. Now I will say that it was around 9 PM on a Saturday evening, and the rye piled up on the Pickle Bar looked slighly different than what is pictured above, almost like they ran out of the good stuff and this was something they took out of the freezer or fridge, as it seemed cool. But there was no mistaking the mold that I found.

9PM or not, that's unacceptable. Did you confront them with this info?

quote:

Originally posted by booboobirdie

I'm still blown away by the prices. Now I realize that with the sandwiches, you get enough meat to feed a large family, but this is taken right from the menu from the "dieters section"

4 oz. GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST served over Lettuce, with Tomato, Onion and Sliced Egg 19.95

Are they kidding?

You're right, booboobirdie. That's a really sick menu. Ol' Harold here needs to be fitted with a new pair of concrete shoes, seems to me. (Over $20 for a meatball sub. Give me a break. And on moldy bread.)

Yeah, I apologize for the frequent Harold's posting. We repost reviews when we have new content; that includes new photos. Since Harold's gets visited frequently, we often have new photos to showcase. Maybe we should try to space those repostings out more.

quote:

Originally posted by jimsock9

(Over $20 for a meatball sub. Give me a break. And on moldy bread.)

Actually, that's $20 for a regular meatball sub. The one on moldy bread is only $17.50.

quote:

Originally posted by booboobirdie

I'm still blown away by the prices. Now I realize that with the sandwiches, you get enough meat to feed a large family, but this is taken right from the menu from the "dieters section"

4 oz. GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST served over Lettuce, with Tomato, Onion and Sliced Egg 19.95

Are they kidding?

I think Harold tries to discourage dieting customers from entering. pb

Bruce and Sue........Yes, I said something to my waiter, and showed him the evidence. I was seated with my back to the Pickle Bar, and I did see another waiter headed back there with a tray full of bread shortly thereafter. Then as we were leaving, my companion pointed out Harold, and said that she thought that was Harold, but I did not say anything to him.

Additional confession - I had the pastrami, and it just didn't taste all that great that evening. At some point I may go back, but I really am put off a bit by the size of everything. Ever since my first visit years ago, I have marveled at the brilliance of Harold's business plan. He's easily getting 50% or more revenue from each customer, essentially selling the meal in the restaurant as well as a stealth carry-out order. And the customers don't seem to mind spending so much to get so much food. And the word of mouth about the huge portions is great free advertising.

I hope they apologized profusely.

You're right about the sizes. They make a point of saying how things are big enough to share, but it looks like few people do. We rarely do either. That's because we're all too happy to have leftovers to bring home. But the result is that Harold makes bigger sales than if he sold normal-sized portions.

Our opinion is that the huge portions are only half the appeal/word of mouth. The quality is the other half; we think, food-wise, it's the best deli we've been to since the old days at Carnegie. But quality is a subjective thing, and what's fantastic to some people will be disappointing to others (moldy bread aside).

quote:

Originally posted by wallhd

I'm probably playing with fire here, but........................................

Ellen, I always enjoy your posts and reviews. Please keep them coming.

Having said that, It seems like Harold's NY Deli manages to get a roadfood.com review on the average of once a week. I'm sure we all know what a great place it is by now. If I am ever travelling in the Northern/Central New Jersey area by car, I will make it a point to pay a visit to Harold's.

Nonetheless, enough is enough.

Waiting for the flames.

Wally

No flames, Wally...
I hear what you are saying...

That's why I tried to put a little twist on things and post a pic of Harold , as well, instead of yet just another pic of Harold's Deli pastrami. I figure a lot of Roadfooders were thinking "Just who is this Harold, anyway?!?", while others may not have seen him in years, and were curious.

With that being said, I always do a completely brand new review, even if I am going back to the same place. (as I don't want it to look like a "re-run"). So , hopefully you found a few things you liked about this one!

ellen

p.s. That was disheartening to hear about that moldy rye bread, signman. Let's hope that was one of Harold's darkest moments, but it was a shame if he was never officially alerted to it. Sounds like it was a case of "emergency" rye bread that had unwittingly went bad in the freezer.
I figure he would be very embarrassed to find out about it, but that he would rather still know, so he could prevent it from happening again...

That's a definite case of rye bread gone horribly wrong.
I'm sure he does'nt want to be known for moldy bread.... hopefully there will be more watchful eyes on that rye bread now before it leaves the kitchen....

Signman...Sorry, but did you say what day/night it was when you had the bad rye bread? You know, I am surprised because this guy really is a very, very experienced operator. I really think someone should mention this to him. I think he deserves that after all these years. He'll appreciate it..Seriously. Isn't it better to hear it right up front than to have people talk about it and he never learns of the problem.

Harold made his bones by serving huge sandwiches. That's what he's was and still is all about. Don't take this the wrong way, but for a time, he was all about establishing new stores and selling them. He'd build up the volume in a store and that attracted buyers. But, the buyers in some instances (many actually)could not make a go of it for a lot of reasons. None of them were Harold, of course.

Just because you see big volume in an operation does not mean it translates into bottom line profit. Maybe the new buyer(s) got in and were disillusioned? Maybe they felt they had to lower their food costs? Reduce the portion sizes? Who knows? Are any of his original stores still operating? The one in Parsippany? How about Lyndhurst? How do they compare to his own store in Edison? I'd love to hear some comparisons. I've heard, but it was a long time ago...

Ellen - Our little Pastrami Queen. What a nice project for you. Just kidding. Please, stay off that diet soda. It's loaded with chemicals. We need you in good health to continue making all these fantastic roadfood trips!