When I get desperate here in the Midwest I go to Jason’s Deli, a national chain that’s ok. Before they arrived there was no pastrami in town worth eating.

once they had to compete with people paying lower taxes, lower payroll taxes, lower electric, free equipment, mentorship, and other perks. how could they afford real rye, and other such things?

the pickles moved this year to brooklyn… you want to go on a two hour trip now to get pickles instead of one hour? fuggidabbotit

Let them come to Brooklyn – and not to snobbish Park Slope. In any Russian or Polish deli they’ll find excellent rye, and not just of traditional American variety.

Just in my neighborhood’s tiny Russian store there are 11 kinds of “healthy” bread (not white wheat), including imported black breads from Lithuania, with caraway seeds, caraway grains, honey, sunflower seeds, etc.
Also, 3 building down the block from my house, there is a Greek restaurant Yanny’s, where they have brick pizza oven and offer artisanal breads- warm, if you happen to stop by at 10am – ‘multigrain’, “olive”, “Irish soda”, and 5-6 more varieties, all for $3.50 a loaf or less.

NYTimes critics have to come out more…

There are pickles outside of lower Manhattan, there are states other than New York and some even make their own bread and cure their own meats. I haven’t been to New York in a long time (I try and avoid it if at all possible), but there are more than a few good Jewish New York style deli’s around outside of New York. Of course, you loose the “New York” part of it and I rather suspect there is more of that than actually the blind taste (that is the pickle is better since it comes from lower Manhattan and *nothing* can compare because of that).

Indeed, if you can get not only get over the deli not being in New York but not only being Jewish there are even more out there. I just got back from a business trip to Miami, several nice little mom/pop places that use all fresh Cuban ingredients (for one thing there is no “sara lee” to buy thier stuff from).

I still call it a deli, but then I never really thought those New York things were that great either – it always seemed to be more that they were nostalgic mixed with “New York is the BEST”. Since I detest large crowd and have yet to find a city that didn’t smell bad I never got the whole “but this is made in New York” thing either. Food was good, but it wasn’t anything specially crunchy, tangy, or chewy compared to similarly made food purchased elsewhere.

Last Saturday night I brought a good book (“The Man Who Was Thursday”) and a small hope, and walking through the oohs and aahs of tourists from as far away as Europe and as nearby as Great Neck (these awestruck sounds greeted the sky-high sandwiches and the giant wedges of cheesecakes carried nonchalantly through the pre-theater crowds by an interesting mix of Chinese waiters and Latino bus”boys” – a stately African-American veteran waitress smoothing out any kinks as they occurred ***

Oh where are the sainted elder Jewish waiters of yesteryear? Just wondering……..sigh

***) was seated at a small table, with expertise, as though the radar had discovered: um -
a native. I must report the pickles were superb – I don’t touch those like cukes, only the Real Deal. As I don’t eat bread, can’t speak of the rye. I ordered (after 40 years)
a Hot Pastrami sandwich – “wrap half, please” – and, friends,
I was not disappointed… even the mustard was divine. Perhaps there was cole slaw, I do not remember. Certainly there was a potato pancake – just fair…. but between Chesterton, attentive service, and the international and borough accents to my right and left – beneath the signed photos of people I had heard of and not, there was bliss.

True, though without a microwave, who can say – the 2nd half of my pastrami portion was not quite as superb the 2nd evening, where it constituted my protein for a pot luck with friends.

With all its ghosts, this deli did not disappoint. A lovely tourist trap, accordingly overpriced:

The Carnegie Deli, NYC.

go to
http://www.sba.gov/

look to the right.. and you see a foto of the white deli grocery owners as if they exist much at all.

here is the 8a program
http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/8abd/index.html

they have a lot of programs and they dont give grants but they give grants to companies to provide services to 8a qualified people.

here are their resources
http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/8abd/resources/index.html

there is SCORE mentership programs with volunteers to help you (if your not an oppressor class).

there are Women’s Business Centers… knowing the rules is why womens businesses are some of the fastest growing ones. not necessarily because they are competing. but because of these advantages, and beacuse married couples change ownership to the wives name so suddenly a company that wasnt eligible becomes so.

There are almost 70 women’s business centers in 40 states; all the centers offer financial management, marketing, and technical assistance to current and potential women business owners and each center tailors its style and offering to the particular needs of its community
(1) business technical assistance offered directly or through funding to private entities; and

(2) in certain federal agencies, procurement incentives for bidders on certain projects that have pre-approved mentor-protégé relationships in place at the time of the bid.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Telecommunications Development Fund (TDF)

Department of Agriculture(USDA)
The USDA also administers the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community Initiative to promote economic opportunity and new private sector partnerships.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is a network of manufacturing extension centers located throughout the country that works with local organizations either to establish a new program or expand existing services for smaller manufacturers.

there are things like the 5X5 program where there are two databases for getting entities to bid for governmen contracts. you have a regular database where everone is in with their corporate dun numbers. and a second one where these minority and women owned businesses are in there. every bidder has to take 5 from the first and 5 from the second. the special businesses are allowed to collude with larger entities to do the contracts.

this is a interesting program called surplus property
http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/8abd/surplusproperty/index.html

If a federal agency no longer has a need for personal property, it declares the
property excess property, and the property is then made available to all other
federal agencies. If no federal agency claims the excess property within a certain
amount of time, it is declared surplus property.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Small Business Act provides that eligible 8(a) Program participants are
qualified to receive federal surplus property on a priority basis. 15 U.S.C. §
636(j)(13)(F).

so basically a cafeteria closes and the big kitchen stuff that a deli would use becomes available to a person in this program for free so they can start a deli, or kitchen, or whatever…

remember this stuff was originally bought by our tax monies… and that this law presumes some nefarious advantage that a certain class of people are supposed to have.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Mentor-Protégé program enhances the capability of 8(a) participants to compete more successfully for federal government contracts. The program encourages private-sector relationships and expands SBA’s efforts to identify and respond to the developmental needs of 8(a) clients.

Mentors provide technical and management assistance, financial assistance in the form of equity investments and/or loans, subcontract support, and assistance in performing prime contracts through joint venture arrangements with 8(a) firms.

good luck if you are your own guy and are trying to learn as you do your business…

The SBA administers a business assistance program for small disadvantaged businesses. The program is the 8(a) Business Development Program. The 8(a) Program offers a broad scope of assistance to firms that are owned and controlled at least 51% by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Benefits of the Program

Participants can receive sole-source contracts, up to a ceiling of $3 million for goods and services and $5 million for manufacturing. While SBA helps 8(a) firms build their competitive and institutional know-how, the agency also encourages them to participate in competitive acquisitions.
Recent changes permit 8(a) firms to form joint ventures and teams to bid on contracts. This enhances the ability of 8(a) firms to perform larger prime contracts and overcome the effects of contract bundling, the combining of two or more contracts together into one large contract.

To qualify for the program, a small business must be owned and controlled by a socially and economically disadvantaged individual. Under the Small Business Act, certain presumed groups include African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Native Americans, and Subcontinent Asian Americans. Other individuals can be admitted to the program if they show through a “preponderance of the evidence” that they are disadvantaged because of race, ethnicity, gender, physical handicap, or residence in an environment isolated from the mainstream of American society. In order to meet the economic disadvantage test, all individuals must have a net worth of less than $250,000, excluding the value of the business and personnel residence.