Joseph Leonard

Like so many New York restaurants these days, Joseph Leonard emphasizes casual, rough-hewn charm over formality or slickness. Unlike its contemporaries, however, Joseph Leonard taps into another, deeper strain of New York culture --- secular Jewishness. There's a mezuzah by the door, pickles on the table, and pastrami on the menu, but you can also get oysters, a crab sandwich or, on Sundays, a share of a whole pig. It's Jewish in the same way that Seinfeld was, the same way that the city itself is. And that may go some way toward explaining its popularity: it feels haimish.


But affect, however appealing, isn't enough to keep a restaurant crowded in this economic climate, so it helps that they serve very good food. One of our dishes was the lump crab sarnie, an open-faced sandwich whose flavor was slightly marred by being somewhat difficult to eat. But the house-cured pastrami sandwich may well have been the best we've ever had --- simple, but spicy, snappy, and smoky, with just enough taste of brine to round it out. It's a great nosh.