The corner of Houston and Ludlow since 1888: the red sign band, salamis in the window, a ticket at the door, the long cutting counter with its numbered stations, and the wall of regulars, every one of them a New Yorker.
Katz's began in 1888 as Iceland Brothers, a small deli on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side. Willy Katz arrived in 1903 and the name became Iceland and Katz; his cousin Benny bought out the brothers in 1910 and Harry Tarowsky joined the partnership in April 1917. Subway construction pushed the deli across the street to 205 East Houston, where the present storefront went up between 1946 and 1949. During World War II the owners' care packages to their sons became the slogan: Send a salami to your boy in the army. Martin Dell, his son Alan and son in law Fred Austin bought in on the 100th anniversary in 1988.
Source · Katz's Delicatessen, Our Story ↗
The corner sign band and neon, salamis hung in the windows, the ticket at the door, the numbered cutting stations, steam tables, the tin ceiling and ceiling fans, the photo wall of regulars, the table where Harry met Sally. Mood: houston street, lunchtime. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.