The Best Jewish Deli in Salt Lake City: How Michael and Janet Feldman Brought New Jersey Soul to Utah's Mountains

There's something deeply comforting about walking into Feldman's Deli on a Tuesday afternoon—the smell of wet-smoked pastrami hitting the griddle, the sound of knife against cutting board as half-pound sandwiches get assembled, the hum of conversation from regulars who've been coming here since 2012. One customer perfectly captured the experience: "I loved everything about the sloppy joe sandwiches. They were piled high and creamy. Kept me full." This isn't just another sandwich shop tucked into a Canyon Rim strip mall. This is Utah's only authentic Jewish deli, and it exists because two people from Newark, New Jersey missed home badly enough to recreate it 2,000 miles west.

How a New Jersey Couple Created Salt Lake City's Only Real Jewish Deli

Michael and Janet Feldman arrived in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics—Michael worked as a drug-testing specialist, and the couple fell for Utah's mountain scenery hard enough to stay. But something was missing. As Michael remembers it, they asked around for good East Coast Italian food and realized immediately: "I wasn't in New Jersey anymore." If they couldn't find the Italian mom-and-pop joints they grew up with, what hope was there for authentic Jewish deli?

So they built it themselves. When Feldman's opened around Thanksgiving 2012, their goal was straightforward: create an authentic delicatessen that tasted like the flavors they knew growing up in New Jersey and New York. Janet, whose family owned bakeries in Newark, took over the kitchen. Michael, a chemist by trade, handled the front of house. And crucially—because this is what separates Feldman's from every other deli wannabe in Utah—they ship their meat, pickles, and mustard directly from New York to deliver that authentic Northeast experience.

Michael won't reveal his exact pastrami source—"I've been sworn to secrecy," he told City Weekly—but confirms it's Carnegie-style wet smoked meat. The rye bread gets baked to Janet's specifications because nothing produced locally met her standards. Even the pickles are Brooklyn brined, not vinegar-based. This isn't cosplay. This is the real thing, transplanted.

The Legendary Sloppy Joe and What Makes Feldman's Sandwiches Unforgettable

Let me be clear about something: the Sloppy Joe at Feldman's isn't the Manwich ground beef thing you remember from elementary school cafeterias. This is a completely different animal with a backstory that runs through Ernest Hemingway's Havana.

The story goes like this: Hemingway frequented a bar in Havana called Joe's that served a double-decker sandwich with beef tongue and ham on Cuban rye. He told his friend Thomas Sweeney, the mayor of Maplewood, New Jersey, about it. Sweeney wanted to replicate the sandwich back home, but kosher delis couldn't serve ham—so they substituted corned beef and pastrami, added coleslaw, and the New Jersey Sloppy Joe was born.

At Feldman's, the signature Sloppy Joe is a double-decker masterpiece: corned beef, pastrami, Thousand Island, and coleslaw on Jewish rye—no modifications allowed. It's a full half-pound of meat. One reviewer called it simply "the best Pastrami sandwich I have ever had in my life." Another described it as "the best sloppy Joe's pastrami sandwich in the northern hemisphere."

But here's the thing about Feldman's—every sandwich hits like that. "The Pastrami and Corned beef are shaved super thin, stacked mile high, and lovingly grilled for the best sandwiches around," explained one regular who's eaten at delis from New York to Chicago to LA. The corned beef Reuben comes with Swiss, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island. The pastrami Reuben earned raves: "don't try to share one with your partner, get your own—SO GOOD!"

A customer summed it up perfectly: "What an awesome sloppy Joe! The sandwich was put together so well and with so much meat! The bread was so soft and tender I literally loved every bite of the first half of my sandwich." That last part's important—these are legitimately half-pound sandwiches. Most people take half home. Some eat it for breakfast the next day, which is not a joke these folks are making.

Beyond Sandwiches: Matzo Ball Soup, Bagels, and Old World Specialties

Walk into Feldman's any day and you'll find homemade entrées including Pierogi, Stuffed Cabbage, Kielbasa, Brisket, and matzo ball soup. The matzo ball soup brings people back to childhood Passovers. One reviewer captured the full East Coast deli experience: "great Matzo Ball Soup, followed by an overstuffed sandwich and great pickles."

John Feldman, who took over operations from his parents in 2023, hand-rolls and bakes two dozen bagels daily—42 on Saturdays. They're traditional New York style, boiled and baked fresh. Customers report they often sell out by noon, so get there early if bagels are your goal.

The Old World specialties menu reads like a love letter to Eastern European Jewish cooking: gefilte fish, smoked whitefish salad, knishes, latkes (potato pancakes), chopped liver. One customer noted "Potato pancakes and matzoh soup are the stars of the menu." These aren't afterthoughts—they're family recipes Janet brought from New Jersey, the kind that require "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" rather than precise measurements.

A Family Business Passes to the Next Generation in Canyon Rim

In May 2023, John Feldman—Michael and Janet's youngest son who'd worked at the deli since age 13—took over daily operations. In June, Janet left the kitchen. For a 26-year-old, that's a heavy torch to carry. John worried the longtime staff wouldn't accept him. But as he tells it, because his parents trusted him, so did the team.

The hardest part wasn't managing people. As John explains, "My mom can just touch anything and it turns to gold." So he sat with Janet, watching her make every menu item, trying to decode her Yiddish-style cooking where everything's "a little bit of this, a little of that." He enrolled in Park City Culinary Institute. He had Michael and regular customers taste-test everything until he got it right.

"At least 500 people came up to me to say how awesome the deli was," John remembers from accepting a dining award. "It just made me realize, I don't want to take that away from this community."

That community shows up. Food writer Stuart Melling called Feldman's "a restaurant for everyone, from every background," noting how the deli attracts a stunning cultural mix—doctors, day laborers, ladies who lunch, Park City art collectors, ski bums stopping by before hitting the slopes.

Salt Lake City's Jewish Deli Scene and Feldman's Place in Utah Food Culture

There are about 6,000 Jewish people and four synagogues in Utah, plus more than 200,000 Utahns who grew up with real deli culture. For them, Feldman's isn't just good food—it's cultural memory made edible. But the deli's appeal extends way beyond nostalgia.

City Weekly's glowing 2012 review launched "the rocket ride," as Michael calls it, but he's clear: "the No. 1 thing that drives business is customers talking about it." During one visit, a customer was overheard telling his first-time friend: "My boys told me about this place." That's how Feldman's grew—word of mouth, one transcendent sandwich at a time.

The deli features live music Friday and Saturday nights. Michael himself sometimes sits in with his impressive collection of acoustic guitars, hosting everyone from JT Draper to Doug Winch and the Wandering Stars. The atmosphere gets described as "New York chic meets ski chalet comfort"—rustic-chic with painted wooden chairs, roughly hewn plank wainscoting, and crisscrossing beams across the open ceiling.

Planning Your Visit to Feldman's Deli in Canyon Rim

Location: 2005 E 2700 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84109 (Canyon Rim neighborhood, about 12 minutes south of downtown)

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 8am-8pm | Closed Sunday-Monday

What to Order:

• First-timers: Get the Sloppy Joe ($12.50) with a side of french fries—people genuinely describe these fries as addictive
• The Reuben (pastrami or corned beef versions, both exceptional)
• Matzo ball soup if it's cold or you need comfort
• Fresh bagels in the morning (get there early—they sell out)
• Latkes as a side if they're available

Insider Tips:

• Arrive after the lunch rush (around 1:30pm) for your choice of seating—this place gets packed
• Order "not grilled" if you want to taste the bread quality
• Plan to take half your sandwich home unless you're genuinely starving
• The pickles are brined Brooklyn-style (no vinegar), imported from New York—they taste different from what you're used to
• Free parking in the strip mall lot

Follow: Check their website for live music schedules and daily specials

---

Michael and Janet Feldman opened Feldman's in 2012 to fill a void—Salt Lake City had no authentic Jewish deli serving traditional sandwiches and Old World specialties. Thirteen years later, with John Feldman carrying the family legacy forward, the deli remains what it's always been: a place where pastrami gets sliced daily, bagels are hand-rolled every morning, and the kind of sandwich that changes how you think about sandwiches costs about $12 and comes with a side of cultural heritage.

As one visiting deli expert wrote after his first visit: "I found myself in the midst of a 21st century incarnation of a classic New York Jewish deli—a warm, bustling, inviting ambiance with painted wooden chairs and tables occupied by patrons engaged in scintillating conversation while enjoying classic deli food." That's Feldman's. That's why it matters. And that's why it's the only real Jewish deli Salt Lake City needs.