Delta Air Lines New York
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.

How Delta Air Lines Forced Me to Eat at a Kosher Delicatessen (<--- WARNING: Extreme “Click-Bait” Title Alert)

“CLICK BAIT” ALERT!!! “CLICK BAIT” ALERT!!!

You are actually still here reading this?!? Well, all right — but I put a clear warning about the title of this article in the title of this article; so if you are still reading this, you only have yourself to blame. Besides, I have always enjoyed having fun with words long before “click-bait” was even a popular term — and people who know me know that all too well.

All right, all right — you can blame me as well. I can take it; but please allow me to continue pertaining to how Delta Air Lines forced me to eat at a Kosher delicatessen, because what happened was actually a good and somewhat serendipitous experience.


t all started when I wanted to travel from Atlanta to New York to catch an international flight on which I had a reservation; and that flight was scheduled to depart from John F. Kennedy International Airport…

…but Delta Air Lines wanted to charge at least $150.00 more for a round-trip ticket to that airport versus traveling to LaGuardia Airport — so I booked a domestic flight between Atlanta and LaGuardia Airport and looked into options of transiting between the two airports.

I was that close — imagine my fingers almost touching to illustrate this — to considering a ride service such as Uber as an option; but then I thought to myself that because I will be in New York for at least five hours — much of that time during the evening rush hour on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend — perhaps I will take the subway to Katz’ Delicatessen in Manhattan…

…but as much as I enjoy their food — I truly enjoy the pastrami sandwich on rye bread with spicy delicatessen mustard accompanied by an assortment of sour and half-sour pickles — I really was not in the mood to schlep all the way into Manhattan and then back out to a different part of Queens.

Still wanting my fix of Kosher delicatessen — Katz’s Deli is not Kosher, I know, I know — I remembered in the back of my mind that there was a Kosher delicatessen located in Queens which I have heard was one of the best…

…if not the best.

Originally a born-and-bred Brooklynite, I never really had the opportunity to patronize Kosher delicatessens in Queens. After all, there were plenty of them which were located in Brooklyn — many of them gone forever, alas — plus I went to the ones in Manhattan when I commuted to high school, college and to a job at which I was employed. Why would I go out of my way to Queens solely to indulge in Kosher delicatessen?

I then searched for Kosher delicatessens in Queens and found Ben’s Best Kosher Delicatessen — not to be confused with the chain known as Ben’s Deli, which I patronized for lunch in Manhattan with fellow FlyerTalk members and which reportedly has plans to expand despite the general and gradual decline in Kosher-style and Kosher delicatessens around the United States. Ben’s Best Kosher Delicatessen is located in a neighborhood in Queens known as Rego Park; which itself is located approximately halfway between LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport. Perfect, I thought — and I decided to try it for the first time.

Please read this review of my experience at Ben’s Best Kosher Delicatessen.

Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!