Dinner At Sammy's

Have you ever had an ethnic experience? It can be both different and delightful.

On Wednesday we were taken to the most Jewish restaurant in New York. Located on the Lower East Side, the restaurant -- Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse -- opened 50 years ago and has been serving traditional Jewish cuisine to happy crowds ever since. 

Sammy's offers chopped liver, stuffed cabbage, potato latkes, fried Kreplach, skirt steak, rugalach, and condiment jars filled with schmaltz (chicken fat). We ate "family-style" with giant platters shared among the nine of us. Jewish food is naturally heavy; it's been said that Sammy’s "helped put more than a few cardiologists’ kids through college." Comedian Alan King joked, "Whenever I go to Sammy's Roumanian restaurant, I make two reservations: one at Sammy's and one at Lenox Hill Hospital."

The atmosphere here is bursting with life. Never have I been to such a boisterous place. Festive diners jumped up several times and danced in a circle holding hands. "A night at Sammy’s feels like a Lynchian bar mitzvah."

Creating that atmosphere is Dani Luv (Lubnitski), a Borscht-Belt style lounge singer and comedian. Born and raised in Israel, Dani whirls like Don Rickles, insulting patrons to their faces. He sings bawdy songs and tells off-color jokes, all with a Jewish twist. A sign on stage reads, "The Mohel and I both work on tips." (Mohels perform religious circumcisions.)

Dani performed Jewish versions of popular songs like the famous Beatles tune, "Hey, Jew." At one point Dani asked if there were any Gentiles in the house. A few hands went up. "This is for you" and he sang: "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jesus was a Jew!" 

Later in the evening Dani picked me out and made fun of my glasses: he called me "a Jewish Harry Potter." For the rest of the night my relatives kept referring to me as "Uncle Harry."

Facilitating raucous fun is the restaurant's bottle-service: you order bottles of vodka or tequila and they arrive encased in solid blocks of ice. We got both liquors and, for the first time in a long time, I got plastered. The celebratory mood encouraged me to follow each cold shot with another until finally my inhibitions took a train to New Jersey.

Lenny Bruce once said "It doesn’t matter if you’re a Christian; if you live in New York, you’re Jewish.” I certainly felt that way at Sammy's.