Unbreaded

The Kibitz Room: Passionate About Pastrami & Pickles

As the name suggests, The Kibitz Room has an informal atmosphere where the deli men crack jokes about as fast as they slice the meat.  And this traditional Jewish deli has a few rules: corned beef, pastrami and brisket are only served hot; there is absolutely no white bread; no French’s yellow mustard; and no corned beef or pastrami will be served on whole wheat.  But if you ask owner Neil Parish, a Baltimore native who’s been slicing corned beef since he’s 14, the best sandwiches are served on rye with nothing more than their signature mustard.

The Kibitz Room is the sister restaurant of Parish’s New York style deli of the same name in Cherry Hill, no relation to Kibitz in the City on East Chestnut Street.  The 70-seat restaurant offers Jewish soul food via dine in, take out, delivery, catering, deli trays and meat by the pound.  About 95% of people order a sandwich.  The best sellers are corned beef, pastrami, turkey, roast beef, tuna, turkey pastrami and nova on a bagel.

Parish’s extensive taste testing led Kibitz to import brined, uncooked corned beef from United Meat & Deli in Detroit, which is boiled and steamed on the premises.  They also serve Naval cut Vienna Pastrami, which Parish calls “the best there is.”  They get bread from a variety of sources: seeded or plain rye bread from Collegeville Bakery, bagels from New Jersey, but the kaiser rolls, challah rolls and onion rolls are baked fresh at Kibitz.  The restaurant’s pickle bar (sourced from a local Philadelphia vendor) offers New York sour pickles, half sours, spicy pickles, pickled tomatoes, pickle chips, hot cherry peppers, a sweet pickle mix, sauerkraut and health salad.

Meat is piled high on bread, but the sandwiches are still manageable to eat – they compress just enough to bite so you don’t have to deconstruct the sandwich before you begin.  The pastrami has a peppery, spicy crust with a bold, smoky and salty flavor.  The meat is trimmed to offer enough fat to keep it moist and juicy but not thick ribbons of fat that overshadow the meat.  The corned beef is exceptional: warm, moist and full of rich flavor that significantly outshines most competitors’ corned beef.  (Extra lean corned beef is available but Parish doesn’t recommend it.)  The speckled deli mustard is a unique recipe made exclusively for Kibitz from a company in New York.  Not too vinegary, not too hot, it offers just enough twang to electrify the meat.

So where does the deli man go to get a sandwich?  Straight to Shank’s & Evelyn’s (soon to be a Center City neighbor of Kibitz) where Parish enjoys just about everything on the menu but called out the meatball, chicken cutlet with broccoli rabe (no cheese), roast beef and Italian by name.

Kibitz stays open until 9PM during the week, 11PM on Saturday and 8PM on Sunday because according to Parish, “Sandwiches are as good for dinner as they are for lunch.” (Editor’s note: Agreed.)

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The Kibitz Room
1521 Locust St, Philadelphia PA 19102 (Google Map)