Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Beloved Deli Braves Harvey — Stays Open Throughout The Storm

It seems nothing short of miraculous, but Kenny & Ziggy’s, the beloved Houston deli immortalized in the 2015 film “Deli Man,” has emerged from Hurricane Harvey unscathed.

“I’m one of the lucky and fortunate ones,” Ziggy Gruber, the deli’s indefatigable owner, told the Forward from his Houston home. “Both of our restaurants are in dry areas.”

Gruber’s residence in Upper Kirby, which is near the Jewish enclave of Meyerland, was also spared. “Even though there was flooding around me, my area did not flood at all. I camped out at home with my daughters, Isabella and Maxine, and rode out the storm.”

Meyerland itself, which Gruber called “the Jewish epicenter of Houston,” was “totally devastated,” he said. “So many of my friends whose homes have never flooded got flooded this time. Not a little water, a lot of water. Their houses are ravaged.”

With many of his regular customers braving enormous tragedy, Gruber did what a deli owner does: He comforted them with haimish Jewish food.

“We opened both stores,” he said. “There were no restaurants open anywhere. We were lucky in that respect. I got my staff together, which was not easy. People were relieved. People lost their kitchens. There was no food anywhere, and supermarkets were closed. So for them to come in and have nourishing matzo ball soup, or Hungarian goulash, was very comforting to them.”

The deli has been functioning as a de facto community hub, Gruber said. “We’ve become a home away from home for so many of them. We’re an integral part of the Jewish community, a meeting place, and where they celebrate life-cycle events,” he said. “They know my staff and my staff knows them. Even through all of this tragedy, they felt at home here.”

How did he get supplies in a city where everything seemed paralyzed? “I’m very lucky,” he said. “I have purveyors who are Yiddishe people. They went out of their way to send me a truck. We made it happen.”

But even Gruber couldn’t get Houston’s airport to accommodate his deliveries of smoked fish from Acme Smoked Fish, the Brooklyn-based purveyor. “Only emergency supplies are coming into the airport,” he said. “You have to have a sense of humor. I told Acme, for Jewish people, this is an emergency, not having Nova with their bagel. But I always have about 30 sides of Nova in the freezer, because you never know. It’ll last a few days. But people will understand.”

Gruber turned serious. “One thing I can urge is that all of us Yidlach have to stick together. No one takes care of us besides us. Anyone can help. If people around the world can contribute whatever they can, this community is really, really devastated.”

Recovery, he added, has already started. “One thing about Houston’s community is that we’re very resilient. We’re strong. And we’re very cohesive. Everyone sticks together. I’ve lived in L.A., New York and London — it’s every man for himself. Houston’s not small, but it’s small enough that everyone knows each other. We have each other’s back.”

Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.