Jason Stahl, 47, of Hank Schwartz’s Delicatessen and Appetizing in Jersey City, N.J., launched a Rosh Hashanah-inspired sandwich this year called “sweet new year.”
The $18 hand-held item, which consists of slow-cooked brisket, horseradish mayonnaise and caramelized onions on challah, is available for preorder. Customers can pick it up on Sept. 21 at Riverview Farmers Market in Jersey City.
“It makes most sense to put on challah bread, but it depends on how much liquid comes from the meat, because you don’t want to make it soggy,” Stahl told JNS. “The caramelized onions bring in the sweetness aspect of the sandwich. That’s why it’s called the sweet new year.”
A Staten Island native, Stahl grew up in a Jewish household. He launched the deli project after nearly two decades in publishing, including as a travel editor for Google.
After his contract ended in 2019, he and his wife, Theresa Gambacorta, began developing a plan for a Jewish deli in Jersey City. They put the idea on hold during the pandemic, but in 2021, Stahl began selling food for holidays, starting with hamantaschen for Purim.
“I never made them before, but fortunately I was able to hire a pastry chef in the neighborhood who made 30 boxes with nine cookies each,” he told JNS. “We sold out.”
The couple has since built a following with nontraditional takes on Jewish foods, including chopped liver with anchovies, capers, duck fat and red wine.
In 2021, Stahl also began producing pickles with local produce, which developed what he called a “cult following.”
By 2023, he had secured his own table at the Riverview Farmers Market, where his offerings expanded to include sandwiches, pickles, black-and-white cookies and homemade challah.
“Every week, people asked where I was located, and I told them I wasn’t,” Stahl said. “I operate out of a ghost kitchen. I want to open a storefront, but I need partners and investors.” (A ghost kitchen operates only as takeout and delivery.)
He sells his creations at two farmers markets in Jersey City. “It’s been an amazing experience to meet so many people from the neighborhood, whether Jewish or not,” he told JNS. “Some grew up with the food. Some don’t know what it is, but they all want more.”
For Rosh Hashanah, Stahl is also reviving a family recipe—his mother’s recipe for what he calls “mammy’s sweet potato pie,” which he describes as “more of a pudding.” It includes grated sweet potatoes, milk, sugar and butter, baked in a 9-by-6 pan.
“This thing is so dense and heavy,” he said.
None of Stahl’s products is kosher. He told JNS that the deli concept he envisions isn’t compatible with kosher restrictions.
“There are too many restrictions on the dishes I’m trying to make if I were to make them kosher,” he said.
Hank Schwartz’s Delicatessen and Appetizing was inspired by fictional characters that he and his wife created years ago. “My alter ego is Hank Schwartz, and she is Margaret Schwartz. We are two rolled-up herrings that live in a deli and escape to go on adventures around Manhattan,” he said. “When it came time to name the deli, we decided to call it Hank Schwartz.”
Stahl, who also works as a food editor for a gifting company, said he enjoys bringing wordplay into the naming of sandwiches. “It’s my fortress of solitude,” he said.
The Oct. 7 terror attacks and the ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza inform the meaning of Stahl’s work, he told JNS.
“Food brings people together, and we need people to get together now more than ever,” he said. “My table is open and we have free samples. Let’s talk about what you want to talk about.”
He acknowledged a “small fear factor” in advertising as a Jewish deli but said that the Jersey City community has been supportive.
“For a split second every week, I think, ‘Is someone going to do something?’” he said. “But then the market starts, and it leaves my mind, because I have people here who want to eat my food.”
Stahl’s clientele is roughly one-third Jewish and one-third people familiar with New York-style food. “People are also trying to define what is Jewish cuisine, and I think New York cuisine is tied to that,” he said.
He added that he is not trying to replicate traditional institutions such as Katz’s Deli, a New York staple.
“I don’t want to be a traditional Jewish deli,” he said. “People are now looking for places that modernize and elevate traditional dishes.”
“We have carrot lox and vegan chopped liver,” he said. “Food does that. It brings people together, no matter who you are and your beliefs.”
