Langer’s Delicatessen will be the most constant restaurant in Los Angeles.

It’s so constant that my order hasn’t deviated in 35 years. The No. 1 with an additional facet of Russian dressing for dipping.

“You used to suck on the pickles before your teeth came in,” says my father throughout a current lunch. The tufted brown leather-based squeaks as we each shift in our seats. He’s been coming to the deli since earlier than I used to be born. He’s there as soon as per week, typically extra. He usually tells himself that this week, he’ll order the chef’s salad.

“But then I smell the pastrami, and, well,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

The most well-liked Langer’s sandwich is the No. 19, a tower of pastrami, Swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing served on double-baked rye bread. It was created by the late Al Langer, who opened the deli in 1947.

The No. 1, additionally my dad’s favourite, is sort of similar, minus the Swiss cheese. It’s the solely time I cannot invite cheese to a celebration. The Russian dressing, a thick, chunky Thousand Island, is wealthy sufficient.

It took a current go to with a buddy from Kentucky for me to stray from my standard order. Earlier than our lunch, I advised her that Langer’s was dwelling to the perfect pastrami sandwich within the universe. However I by no means specified which of the dozen methods to order pastrami on bread on the restaurant. When it got here time to order, she selected the pastrami French dip ($26).

The pastrami French dip from Langer’s comes with a cup of jus.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Occasions)

The sandwich is served on a golden French roll made by Fred’s Bakery and Deli, the identical Beverlywood bakery that has been making the restaurant’s rye bread for greater than 45 years. It’s undressed, comfortable and ethereal with crust that’s crisp however yields on contact.

The mountain of pastrami within the center is seven-slices excessive. It’s organized in such a manner that the meat covers each inch of bread, then simply barely hangs over the sting in attractive fragments you’ll be able to pluck out at any time when the flowery strikes.

The pastrami is identical on all the Langer’s sandwiches, made by RC Provisions in Burbank for greater than 45 years. It’s a recipe from Al, whose son Norm Langer owns and runs the deli. The meat is brined, rubbed in a spice mix then smoked. It’s steamed on the restaurant for anyplace from 2½ to five hours, dropping about 35% of its mass within the course of. When it emerges from the steamer, quivering and glistening, it’s so delicate, it barely survives the blade of the knife, collapsing right into a heap of fats and smoke on the slicing board.

Every slice is topped with a layer of bark, jet black-edged and sizzling with pepper. There’s a rim of fats (except you order your pastrami lean) that melts into the reddish-pink beef beneath.

The cup of jus on the facet is deep in colour and taste, salty however balanced sufficient to sip.

“This sandwich has been on the menu since before you were born,” Langer says. “It used to be more popular years ago.”

It isn’t a horny sandwich. There are not any striations of condiments. Simply pink on beige with extra brown for dipping.

“The pastrami dip in my place is not the big deal,” Langer says. “It’s great. It’s excellent, but people come to me [and] they want the No. 19. If you ask me how much do I sell in comparison to everything else, very little.”

However possibly it ought to be the large deal. A lot in the identical manner that pastrami purists will order plain pastrami on rye, or perhaps a pile of pastrami on a plate, I’d argue that the pastrami dip will be the purest sandwich of all of them. With out the chunk of rye seeds, the pastrami’s smoke is bolder, its black pepper hotter on the tongue. The roll is extra sponge than vessel, absorbing simply sufficient au jus to moisten the sandwich with out capitulating to the broth utterly. A squirt of sizzling brown mustard each third chunk helps penetrate the richness and heightens the spice.

Its a sandwich resplendent in its restraint, the three elements every allowed to enrapture your senses.

The pastrami dip sandwich from Philippe the Unique.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Occasions)

“People have Philippe’s in mind when they hear French dip,” Langer says. “Or they think of the Hat. They don’t think Langer’s.”

However do folks suppose Los Angeles once they consider the pastrami dip? The late, nice Jonathan Gold as soon as known as the sandwich a saving grace for town’s dangerous pastrami.

“Perhaps the ultimate Bad Pastrami experience in Los Angeles is the pastrami dip, which combines French dip form with Bad Pastrami function, pungent ethnic excess structured like a genteel downtown businessman’s lunch,” he wrote.

The pastrami dip is a creation deeply ingrained in Los Angeles sandwich tradition, with no scarcity of eating places promoting their world-famous sandwiches.

Two downtown Los Angeles eating places, Philippe the Unique and Cole’s French Dip, declare to have created the French dip sandwich within the early twentieth century. At Philippe the Unique, the rolls are crusty and durable round a beneficiant cluster of thinly sliced pastrami. By itself, the pastrami is hard and rubbery, with pockets of black pepper wherever there’s a chunk with bark. It’s a sandwich ($15.50) that requires a double dip within the jus when ordering and an additional facet of jus for dipping. The recent mustard helps. It’s going to tingle your nostrils.

At Cole’s, the French rolls are a deeper gold, toasted on the insides, extra substantial and chewier. The pastrami is a thicker lower, gristly, all smoke with no pepper. It’s much less considerable within the sandwich, the structure missing with a couple of meatless corners. Like at Philippe’s, the sandwich ($23) requires a couple of dips within the cup of jus to cover a large number of shortcomings.

The pastrami dip sandwich from Sandwiches by Connal, a.okay.a. Connal’s in Pasadena.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Occasions)

Sandwiches by Connal in Pasadena serves a pastrami dip sandwich ($13.99) with a dip so slight, the roll and meat are dry. The pastrami is sliced into rugged, uneven slabs that style like smoked ham. With yellow mustard and pickles, it eats just like the type of sandwich you would possibly make the morning after a vacation dinner.

The pastrami on the Hat places round Los Angeles and Orange County fall into a special class, one which I affiliate with the pastrami you discover at burger joints everywhere in the metropolis. It’s shaved into unruly ribbons, and half the contents spill from the sandwich. The Hat‘s “world-famous pastrami dip” ($12.60) is painted with yellow mustard and a smattering of pickles on the bottom half of the roll, while the top half is dipped into a vat of jus. The salt, fat and juice smother the pickles and mustard, snuffing out the vinegar and tang. A bombardment of pastrami on a roll.

The welcome theme of pastrami excess is echoed at Johnnie’s Pastrami. Brothers Eddie and Eli Passy opened the restaurant on Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver Metropolis in 1952. After they took over the area, the signage for the property learn “Johnnies Pastrami.” It was too costly to vary, so regardless of there not being a Johnny concerned within the operation, the title caught. On the time, the pastrami dip sandwich was $0.70. Just like the Hat, the Johnnie’s Pastrami dip ($19.25) is filled with shaved pastrami, solely the meat is even thinner, extra tender and with a heavier smack of smoke and possibly a little bit garlic. A single dip of the highest bun into the drippings will suffice, however for those who dine in, you’ll be able to ask for an additional cup on the facet.

The pastrami French dip sandwich from Johnnie’s Pastrami in Culver Metropolis.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Occasions)

Can any of those sandwiches compete with the pastrami dip at Langer’s? It was by no means a good battle. Whilst you may fortunately eat a plate of Langer’s pastrami naked, the identical can’t be stated for the others.

The pastrami dip sandwiches of Los Angeles are their very own breed of sandwich, constructed upon the New York deli pastrami sandwiches that regularly made their manner west within the Nineteen Thirties and ’40s. The dips are moist, messy behemoths of meat, juice and bread. Grittier and humbler than their East Coast predecessors.

There’ll all the time be bickering relating to pastrami. Which model is greatest. The right condiments. To dip or to not dip. Who makes the perfect. This column will little doubt stoke the fires. Costume the sandwich up or down nevertheless you want. But when your purpose is to eat the perfect pastrami, to understand the hours of smoke and steam, make certain it’s from Langer’s.

The place to search out your subsequent pastrami dip sandwich

Langer’s Delicatessen, 704 S. Alvarado St., Los Angeles, (213) 483-8050, langersdeli.com

Philippe The Unique, 1001 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles, (213) 628-3781, philippes.com

Cole’s French Dip, 118 E. sixth St., Los Angeles, colesfrenchdip.com

Sandwiches by Connal, 1505 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 794-5018, theconnals.com

The Hat, a number of places at thehat.com

Johnnie’s Pastrami, 4017 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver Metropolis, (310) 397-6654, johnnies-pastrami.fork-res.com/