90 years of Oscar’s Family-run deli celebrates milestone with corned beef, pastrami and, yes, chopped liver By: Nadya Pankiw  Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Aug. 30, 2019

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2019 (2203 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At Oscar’s Delicatessen over on Hargrave Street, Larry Brown sat with his daughter Rachel sifting through a cardboard box full of newspaper clippings divided and preserved with pink deli meat wrapping paper. Between the clippings and the waxy wrap lies the story of a legacy — an institution celebrating 90 years of business in Winnipeg.

Gently, Larry removed a small yellowing newspaper clipping and slid it across the table.

“That’s Oscar Berman, the original owner,” said Larry.

It was early October 1929 when Berman opened Oscar’s Deli at 1238 Main Street, eventually becoming known for corned beef, pastrami and salami sandwiches that sold for just a couple of cents.

“On Main street, they really had nothing. The only thing hot was coffee,” said Larry.

Berman eventually sold the deli around 1945 but it passed through a few hands before being sold around 1947 to the Ludwig brothers — George, Sammy, Asher and Myer.

In the early 1950s, Myer Ludwig believed there wasn’t enough business for the brothers to share a fair profit, leading to the opening of Myer’s Deli on Grant Avenue in the South End. However, the Ludwigs continued to operate Oscar’s Deli in the North End until 1971 when they sold it to their nephew, Jimmy Shukster.

Shukster, a good friend of Larry’s, invited him to join the deli in 1971. At the time, Larry declined, only to change his mind eight years later.

“Time moved on and then in 1979, I said (to Shukster), ‘are you still interested?’ and he said ‘yeah,’ so I joined Oscar’s in 1979 on Main Street and we opened Hargrave up in 1982. And here we are… ,” said Larry, with a smile.

Although the Main Street location closed in the late 90s, business at the Hargrave Street location has remained steady. Larry said he enhanced the menu by incorporating soups, salads, sandwiches, and other deli standards with the investment in an oven, grill, and a fryer.

“I tried staying away from fries but we put in a fryer and people just rave about the fries, they compare them to Kelekis — better than Kelekis, as good as Kelekis — and we started doing burgers and hotdogs,” explained Larry, referencing the iconic North End Winnipeg eatery that shut its doors in 2013, after 81 years of business.

Since the return of the Winnipeg Jets and the Manitoba Moose, the Oscar’s Deli extends its hours on game days for crowds looking for pre-game snacks and drinks. But Larry says hungry fans aren’t the only ones looking for a bite, with some regular customers coming for sandwiches since the 80s.

“I had two guys come in and tell me they remembered when they could get two corned beef sandwiches for 50 cents,” said Larry. “But now, we are seeing a new generation… the younger people.”

Now over lunch hour, it takes about seven or eight “pairs of hands” to operate the business.

“(The business) is part of me,” says Larry. “Seven days a week. And you meet so many different people and you learn so much from these people. I mean, just working with Rachel for 20 years, it’s special,” he said, looking over to his daughter and added, in a whisper “I’m not going to cry.”

“It’s just amazing to be able to spend time with your kids and work with them,” said Larry. “Not many fathers can say this.”

Starting off as a dishwasher when she was eight-years-old, Rachel says her duties eventually changed but her heart stayed in one place.

“I always said to him, I wouldn’t get the time back and that working with him was more important than other things. So I got a degree, and I’ve stayed and I’m married and I have kids now and they come here and it’s just like another cycle,” said Rachel.

From the Bermans to the Browns, Oscar’s Delicatessen has remained a family business after 90 years and that milestone will be formally celebrated in mid-October. The Browns say they are still in the process of finalizing the details of the anniversary which will be shared on their social media.

“Obviously we are doing something right,” said Larry. “I would never put out anything that I wouldn’t eat myself. It’s got to be perfect. It’s got to look good. And you have to care, you have to love what you do. It’s all mixed in there.”

nadya.pankiw@freepress.mb.ca

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Nadya Pankiw
Multimedia producer

Nadya Pankiw is a multimedia producer at the Free Press. Nadya holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University and a Master of Publishing from Simon Fraser University.  She joined the paper in 2020. Read more about Nadya.

Nadya is part of a team that curates and publishes journalism on our websites, apps and social media. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.