Mort’s Deli Is in the Spotlight

Bobbie Farberow, owner of Mort’s Deli, helped Councilman Bill Rosendahl keep a campaign promise Tuesday. Running for office last spring, Rosendahl vowed that if he were elected, he would treat the City Council to Mort’s famous chicken matzoball soup. “He loves the soup,” Faberow said, “and it brings him good luck”‘he had a bowl for lunch the day of primary (which he won) and the day of the general election two months later. On Tuesday this week, Faberow and two employees, Esperanza Caulderon and Abelino Martinez, loaded up Mort’s van with an oversized thermos that contained enough soup to feed 20 people, and drove downtown. They brought along crackers, bowls and spoons and carried a chafing dish to keep the soup hot. Bobbie had two concerns before leaving. She wanted to make sure she had directions on how to get past security, but more importantly, she hoped the council members would like the soup. “I want to tell you,” Bobbie said upon her return to the Palisades, “they were so nice and so gracious. They loved the soup, and one of them said, ‘When we come to your area, we’re going to eat at your place.'” In addition to catering to politicians on Tuesday, Mort’s Deli was the backdrop for an HBO television show last Sunday night. Fans of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the comedy show starring Palisadian Larry David, may have recognized Mort’s in the opening episode of the new season. Although the deli was called Leo’s, the show was actually filmed in the Palisades at Mort’s. In the story line, the deli owner has decided to name a sandwich after Larry David. But the sandwich consists of white fish, sable, capers, onions and cream cheese’everything that David hates. He tells the deli owner that no one is going to buy “his” sandwich, and he asks Leo to switch and name his sandwich after actor Ted Danson, whose sandwich has everything in it that people love like turkey, tomato, swiss and Russian dressing. The deli owner refuses to switch sandwiches, even after Shelly Berman, playing David’s father, orders the “Larry David” sandwich and then has a stroke, which could possibly be blamed on the sandwich. Ultimately, Leo tires of David’s whinning and cajoling, takes David’s name off the sandwich board and names the sandwich after another comedian, Richard Lewis. Arnie Wishnik, executive director of the Palisades Chamber of Commerce, and his wife Cathie thought the episode was funny but that the actor playing the deli owner was “over the top.” “If Mort was alive, he should have played this role,” Cathie said. “He would have been more believable and more fun.” Mort Farberow died three years ago tomorrow, on September 30.