Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen is a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

-based chain of

Jewish deli A Jewish deli, also known as a Jewish delicatessen, is a delicatessen establishment that serves various traditional dishes in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, and are typically known for their sandwiches such as pastrami on rye, as well as their soups ...

s and bagel shops with 9 locations throughout the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

and in

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

in the

Los Angeles Area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Cou ...

s in California, and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Overview

Wise Sons serves various foods from

Jewish cuisine Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (''kashrut''), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions cen ...

, such as

pastrami Pastrami (Romanian: '' pastramă'') is a food originating from Romania usually made from beef brisket, lamb, pork, chicken sometimes from turkey. The raw meat is brined, partially dried, seasoned with herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed. ...

bagel A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is first ...

corned beef Corned beef, or salt beef in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, is Salt-cured meat, salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and sp ...

Reuben sandwich The Reuben sandwich is a Cuisine of the United States, North American grilled sandwich composed of corned beef, Swiss cheese (North America), Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing or Russian dressing, Grilling#Flattop grilling/gri ...

es, and more.

History

2002-2015

Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen was founded by brothers Evan & Ari Bloom and their friend Leo Beckerman at 22nd and Mission Street in the

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

neighborhood of

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

2015-2020

On January 27, 2015, a fire broke out in the 2588 Mission Street building on the corner of 22nd and Mission. This was the deli chain's flagship location, and housed its commissary kitchen inside which served their other locations. Wise Sons had been planning to launch a new line of bagels baked on-site that same week, complete with a small to-go window that had been constructed in a 100-square-foot space in the building. The fire killed a 38-year old man, and destroyed the homes of 54 people as well as numerous businesses besides Wise Sons including Mission Market, taquerias, and a

Popeyes Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., also known as Popeyes and formerly named Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits and Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken & Biscuits, is an American multinational chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants that was formed in 1972 ...

. The subsequent water damage from firefighting efforts also devastated the company's central office that has been located in the building, destroying computers, files, and all of their equipment for their annual booth at the

Outside Lands Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District, San Francisco, California, Richmond District and Sunset District, San Francisco, California, Sunset District in San Francisco, California. With few roads an ...

festival. Due to the fire destroying their commissary kitchen, Bloom was looking for a new 2000-4000 sq ft space to use, but temporarily the 24th Street location handled smoking meats such as pastrami and making sauces such as Russian dressing, while the Contemporary Jewish Museum location baked

challah Challah (, he, חַלָּה or ; plural: or ) is a special bread of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major Jewish holidays (other than Passover). Ritually acceptable ...

and bialys in the evening hours. For the first time

rye bread Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat f ...

was sourced from an outside supplier.

2020- present

In the spring of 2020, business was down by 50%, their bagel shop at the Marin Country Mart was temporarily closed, several executives were fired, and their catering business had declined due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Wise Sons launched a delivery-only

ghost kitchen A virtual restaurant (also known as a ghost kitchen or dark kitchen) is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick up based on phone and online ordering. It is a separate food vendor entity that operates out o ...

concept out of their location at the

Contemporary Jewish Museum The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the historic ...

called ''Lev'', serving Israeli food such as chicken shawarma, falafel,

Impossible Impossible, Imposible or Impossibles may refer to: Music * ''ImPossible'' (album), a 2016 album by Divinity Roxx * ''The Impossible'' (album) Groups * The Impossibles (American band), a 1990s indie-ska group from Austin, Texas * The Impossibl ...

Kefta meatballs over turmeric rice, fries dressed in a harissa with herby yogurt dip, and Israeli salad. The name of the restaurant is derived from the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

region, the western region of Asia where

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

is located. This Wise Sons first venture that does not serve

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

cuisine, instead serving

Sephardic Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

and

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...

cuisine. Lev had been in development for several years prior as a catering company, and in 2018 Lev opened a permanent food stand in

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

headquarters. Wise Sons opened their first location in the Los Angeles Area, in August 2021 with the opening of their downtown Culver City location in the former Amacita space directly adjacent to

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's headquarters. This location had been under development since at least March 2021.

Locations

There are currently ten locations, 9 of which are located in Northern California, and 1 of which is located in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Los Angeles expansion

In July 2019, it was reported that Wise Sons was considering expanding to Los Angeles and opening their first Southern California location in the building that formerly housed Lenny's Deli in

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

. Building owner Lenny Rosenberg said of the potential sale, ''“I had a management company in there for few years that did not do a proper job so I decided to flip it/sell to Wise Sons.”'' In a statement Wise Sons said, ''“We do not currently have a completed agreement with the Landlord on leasing the space, nor is Lenny ‘flipping’ anything to us. Negotiations are ongoing at this time.”'' Wise Sons expanded their operations to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

in August 2021.

References

External links

*{{URL, http://www.wisesonsdeli.com/, Official Website 1927 establishments in the United States Companies based in San Francisco Restaurants in Tokyo Jewish delicatessens in the United States Jews and Judaism in San Francisco Cuisine of the Western United States Jews and Judaism in California Restaurants established in 1927 Restaurants in San Francisco