Deli Distress

Today's New York Times offers up a glowing behind-the scenes business article about a world-renowned deli. A deli - Are you sitting down? - that not only isn't in New York, but isn't even based in the Northeast. It's in Ann Arbor, Michigan of all places. Zingerman's the name - and apparently it's received kudos from across the globe:

The late New York Times correspondent R. W. Apple called it "the deli of my dreams." It was a campaign stop for the Democratic hopeful John Kerry in 2004.

"Zingerman's is unique in that it has a Continental reach," in the United States, said Peter Foynes, curator of the butter museum in Cork, Ireland, who led a butter tasting at the deli last month. "I can think of no food premises in Europe that has that kind of reach."

I don't know about you, but I feel a deli smackdown comin' on. And, if a New York deli doesn't claim the top spot, I will have to hang my Big Apple head in shame. Could a Michigan outfit really beat out an authentic NYC delicatessen?

Butter tastings aside, perish the thought!