In my last post on Philly’s legendary Famous 4th Street Delicatessen back in July, I mentioned that it was up for sale. New ownership was found and the transaction was completed last month. After having my first meal there since then over the weekend, I’m pleased to report that nothing of note has changed. The food and atmosphere are as good as ever – at least.
My wife and I met up with my cousin, her husband and my sister at the deli, which sits in the Queen Village section of South Philadelphia, for lunch Sunday. I expected a crowd and was correct, but we were ushered to a corner table in their narrow back dining room after a wait of no more than 10 minutes. That gave us a chance to admire their appetite-enhancing food cases while dodging servers who carried drinks and thick sandwiches.
In addition to the food and atmosphere, the menu appeared to be unchanged. Aside from Famous’ trademark corned beef and pastrami on rye, they offer a full breakfast menu, as well as dinner entrees and an array of specialty sandwiches. It took some time for my companions to decide what they’d be having, but I had a strong hankering for pastrami.
My sister opted for a corned beef special – a Philly standard that comes topped with coleslaw and Russian dressing – while my wife went for a big plate of matzoh brei, a dish my mother used to make for me when I was a kid.
That left my cousin and her husband, who went the specialty sandwich route. They ordered a “West 38th Street,” which is actually a pair of sandwiches – one each with corned beef and pastrami – served on extra wide potato knishes.
Everyone seemed to be extremely pleased with their choices. I didn’t hear a single word of complaint.
I also had pastrami on rye during the aforementioned July visit. Sunday’s sandwich was every bit as good as that one and maybe even a little better. It seemed like it may have been slightly thicker too, but I’m not certain about that. Regardless, it was moist and extremely flavorful.
Russ Cowan, the now former owner of Famous 4th Street and other great delis of yore, is working on a new place in Cherry Hill, New Jersey that will be called Radin’s. That’s expected to open in the coming weeks and I’m already eager to get over there and try it.
BZ Maestro Eats 
Gorgeous! Thanks for the post!
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So many good things on the menu! Can the hot corned beef and hot pastrami be ordered cold?
The meats look like they have a decent amount of marbling, too. As much as I love corned beef and pastrami, I’m not a fan when it’s excessively lean. Are customers able to specify lean, fatty, or mixed?
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You can request lean. It might cost extra. I know it does at some places. But I don’t think there is a cold option. It comes out of the steamer.
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After a long day of traveling we decided to order in. We spent almost $100 only to be
total disappointed. We ordered cherry blintzes and received plain cheese. We order applesauce and sourcream and only received applesauce. We ordered potato pancakes and the same thing, we only received applesauce. We ordered kasha and gravy and only received the sauce, no kasha. We ordered eggs with toasted bread with butter and only got untoasted bread. And absolutely no silverware to eat with. I called them and asked for a manager and was told there isn’t one. Richard told me they don’t include flatware on DoorDash orders. He doesn’t know why. He said he was stressed out and not to complain to him, call door dash for a $5.00 voucher and hung upon me,twice. We never ate our meal since we didn’t have any silverware. I’d think twice about ever ordering from this restaurant. They couldn’t care less about their customers.
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