Rebecca Shapiro | WJW Intern

History is at the heart of the restaurant experience, and Montgomery County’s Jewish deli heritage is second to none. Three local establishments carry on this tradition, tracing their roots to families whose generations of hard work helped transform small businesses into local institutions.

The founders of Attman’s Delicatessen came from Ukraine and opened a little shop in Baltimore. Brooklyn Deli was founded by a man who wanted to provide for his family. Ize’s Deli & Bagelry was the result of a loving family wanting to start their own business.

Attman’s Delicatessen

Attman’s Deli started as a Jewish grocery store on Lombard Street in Baltimore, and has grown from serving sandwiches on the side of the road in 1915 to now having three locations. In 1915, founder Harry Attman was a Jewish immigrant from a village near Kyiv.

Harry and his wife got “up every morning at 4 o’clock to sell sandwiches for a nickel … did everything by themselves, and they were raising three sons. The three sons were upstairs, and they were outside selling sandwiches while people walked to work,” said current owner Marc Attman.

Attman’s Deli is now on its third generation of family ownership.

“I think what started it was … they didn’t need an education to get into the business,” he said.

Because Harry Attman owned his own business, it made it easier for him to bring his family over to the United States.

“My grandfather brought 12 people here. When you brought someone over, you had to guarantee them somewhere to live and a job. So that was a very big determining factor, and what he thought about what he wanted to do,” Marc Attman explained.

In the early years of their business, Attman’s was part of what became known as “Corned Beef Row.” Marc Attman does his best to reflect his grandfather’s mission through the deli.

“It’s an identity of the Attman family, what we try to do in the community,” he said.

The restaurant staff have been using the same recipes since 1915, such as the corned beef, pastrami, knishes, pickles, hot dogs, chicken soup, matzo balls and whitefish salad.

“All this stuff [was] passed down to me,” Marc Attman said.

Attman’s shifted its focus to deli meats and sandwiches in the 1940s, according to an October 2024 Washington Jewish Week article.

Attman’s Deli carries its history with it in every restaurant they open, with “photos [representing] the time when we were [first] in business [and] how we grew, how the people knew us, what was going on around us,” Marc Attman explained.

“They’re copies of what we did [on Lombard Street],” Marc Attman explained.

Now, Attman’s is one of only two remaining delis on Lombard Street, as well as the longest-surviving deli in Baltimore. It’s also the “oldest Jewish-owned delicatessen in the United States continuously by the same family, and we’re very proud of it. Our goal was family and community. That’s what we try to do, and that’s what we believe in,” Marc Attman said.

Today, Attman’s Deli has three locations, two in Baltimore and one in Park Potomac.

Brooklyn’s Deli

Guy Brandt is the founder of Brooklyn’s Deli, but he never thought he would be running a restaurant. When he was in high school, he thought he would be a musician. But when something changed in his life — becoming a single parent — he turned to the food industry. He worked for Kings Fare Group and other restaurants in Baltimore. “I just stuck with it,” Brandt said.

Originally from the Washington, D.C., area, Brandt didn’t originally want to come back to Montgomery County, but Celebrity Delly owner Chuck Rossler “kept bugging me to come work for him,” Brandt said. It was only supposed to be for two years. That turned into 28.

Throughout his years of cooking, Rossler was a “definite influence” in Brandt’s cooking, Brandt said.

Brandt was supposed to take over Celebrity Delly, but that fell through. When he left, he missed cooking and started a catering business. He rented a kitchen at Montrose Christian School. “It wasn’t the same as having a restaurant, so that’s when I opened in Travilah in 2004,” Brandt said.

Family and friends contributed to his recipes at Brooklyn’s Deli. Brandt’s mom made the potato salad. Minnie Katz, who was a “second mother” to him, made the coleslaw. Baltimore native Barry Levinson’s aunt, Peggy Levinson, provided the chopped liver recipe.

“There was this woman named Elaine Kaplan, who was a real character, and I would call her and get recipes of stuff that I didn’t really grow up making,” Brandt said.

There are pictures of customers on the walls throughout the place, but it didn’t always look like that. At first, Brandt had tablecloths and a few pictures on the wall, but the pictures multiplied as customers asked, “How can I get on the wall?”

He also displayed flags of colleges his student employees attended, including the University of Maryland, Virginia and Arizona.

Brandt helped feed refugees during wars and disasters in Kentucky, Poland and Ukraine via the nonprofit World Central Kitchen. “That was really enlightening,” he said.

“I got to see where my grandparents were from,” Brandt said of Ukraine. “There was a synagogue that was burnt down that was 150 years old that I got to see. [This] all has [a] very deep meaning to me,” Brandt described.

He would like to pass his restaurant on to his family.

“Because that’s history, and I don’t want it to change into anything else,” Brandt said.

Brooklyn’s Deli is located in Potomac.

Ize’s Deli & Bagelry

Angie and Lee Greenberg are the owners of Ize’s Deli & Bagelry on Rockville Pike and have been working in the restaurant industry since they were in high school. They were bussing tables, serving customers, washing dishes and hosting guests and, after college, they came back. Angie Greenberg graduated from Michigan State University studying hospitality management, and Lee Greenberg attended University of Maryland to study business.

Ize’s Deli & Bagelry was started in 2005. The Greenbergs previously had a Manhattan Bagel Company franchise.

“We converted; we wanted to get out of the franchise world, and in 2005, we left amicably with the franchise. We went independent. [In] 2005, our franchise agreement had ended,” Lee Greenberg explained.

The name came from the Greenbergs’ kids. The “I” is for their daughter Isabelle, “Z” is for their son Zachary and the “E” for their daughter Emily.

The Greenbergs wanted their restaurant to be family friendly. “We’ve always just had that part of our culture. [We want to] know customers, be friendly with everybody and develop relationships with people in our community,” Lee said.

Photos of customers adorn the walls, a practice the business has moved away from. “We’ve kind of stopped it, but we kind of keep them up now as a relic of the past,” Lee explained.

Ize’s Deli & Bagelry staff makes all of their chicken salad, tuna salad, whitefish salad, bagels and cream cheese using Greenberg family recipes. The matzo ball soup is a recipe from Lee’s mom. Angie’s mom would make banana bread and the pastries.

“We’re more than just your little bagel shop,” Lee said.