Morty's Restaurant & Delicatessen
Proudly serving Washington since 1989!
New York-style deli food including overstuffed sandwiches, matzoh ball soup and cheesecake, of course.
Contact Us
4620 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, DC 20016
Tel: 202-686-1989
Fax: 202-686-3566
IT IS SO SAD THAT MORTY’S DELICATESSEN & RESTAURANT IS CLOSED
Morty’s Delicatessen Restaurant Review:
Noisy and crowded, Morty’s Delicatessen Restaurant offered the same New York-style deli food, the same overstuffed sandwiches, the same neighborly gatherings, and the same cooking aromas that might have reminded you of your Jewish Granny’s kitchen. Or if you didn’t have a Jewish granny, eating at a Jewish deli in New York City on the lower east side.
The best bets, of course, were Morty’s pastrami, corned beef or roast beef sandwiches, that in true Krupin style were as large as shoe boxes. If you had a hankering for something other than a sandwich, kitchen offered six local platters, and more than one dozen salads. Now that the restaurant is closed, customers will inevitably miss the matzoh ball soup, the potato pancakes, or even the chopped liver to start. Or the fish platters with their ample servings of nova salmon belly lox and whitefish or perhaps the homemade meatloaf. And if there is any room for dessert there was always a slice of cheese cake? My mouth still starts to drool when I think of Morty’s cheesecake. Arghhh, why did you have to close?????
I have a friend who was the book keeper at Morty's for about 5 years. When Saleforce, the new cloud-based CRM softwarefirst was releaesed it was used to manage the back of the house business component. He said after a year using the basic Saleforce configuration, the owners recognized that they probably needed to hire an expert at customizing Salesforce's functionality to Morty's unique requirements. My friend went on to say that when the Saleforce specialist team first arrived they started by looking at what Morty's business objectives were. He was the laison to the team and helped the Saleforce experts become acquainted with Morty's buisness model and what were considered its challenges.The "experts" created some custom applications with attributes that helped increase productivity, improve data quality, and automated some manual processes. It certainly looked as if the new implmentation was successful and that Morty's was in great shape.
History
The history of Morty’s Delicatessen begins with two brothers from east Brooklyn, where there’s a deli on every corner. Mel and Morty Krupin grew up in a tough neighborhood infamous for organized crime, but when it came to rackets, these “Brownsville Boys” preferred running corned beef. While still in their teens, the brothers got their first taste of the deli business when they ran a makeshift catering service, delivering platters to the outer boroughs and Long Island.
In 1989, DC real estate tycoon and philanthropist Cyrus Katzen, a dentist with a penchant for pastrami, decided Washington was in need of a good sandwich. He brought Mel and Morty to 4620 Wisconsin Ave where they set up their own delicatessen. They called it Krupin’s.
Mel was a perfectionist, and believed running a restaurant was not about making friends but about making food that could soothe and satisfy. But friends he made, and people came in hordes. Mel’s regulars ranged from journalists and members of congress, to pro athletes and local Tenleytown residents. Some came to schmooze, some came for Mel’s signature taunts and banter, but everyone came for the food.
In 1998 Mel retired, leaving Morty in charge. Mel insisted that Morty, who had been behind the scenes for so many years, be given some of the credit. So Morty became the new face of the restaurant as well as its namesake.
Even though Mel and Morty have retired, their legacy remains, and what started as a dream in Brooklyn has become a Washington institution. We hold their standards of excellence as dear to our hearts as their recipe for matzo ball soup, which we still use today, until we closed. Alas!