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Eric Greenspan Opens Mish, a New-School Jewish-Diaspora Deli in L.A.

Eric Greenspan’s new La Brea deli looks beyond pure nostalgia, building a menu around pastrami, Montreal bagels, Sephardic chicken salad and the wider Jewish diaspora.

The journey from what chef Eric Greenspan calls “dystopia to diaspora” will culminate on Tuesday, June 2, when he opens new-school Jewish deli Mish in Los Angeles.

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“Opening Mish is a public service,” Greenspan tells Observer. “People want to build the library so that little kids can read. It’s the same thing with Mish, but it’s pastrami.”

Greenspan has had a storied career that’s spanned fine dining, ghost kitchens and most recently the Tesla Diner, but Mish feels very different from everything he’s done before.

“What I did reflected my creativity and my training, but it never reflected my heritage,” Greenspan says. “This is an opportunity to do something with my heritage.”

It’s an opportunity to reflect, honor, pay tribute, riff, expand and create something new.

“This place is not going to feel like the Epcot Center version of the Lower East Side,” Greenspan says. “This is not an homage. This is a progression. It’s an evolution. What was really important is that I wanted to talk about the entire culinary diaspora. Mish is not just an Ashkenazi Jewish deli. Jewish food is not just pastrami sandwiches. Jewish food is not just the Lower East Side of New York. Jewish food is not just Poland. Jewish food is not just Montreal. Jewish food is not just Israel. Jewish food is not just Iran. Jewish food is not just North Africa. Jewish food is not just the Sephardic tradition of how we were before we got kicked out of Spain. Jewish food is all of those things.”

Greenspan is, on one hand, a supremely confident chef. But he’s quick to admit that there are many things he doesn’t know, so he’s asked a lot of friends for help. 

“If a Jewish grandmother comes into Mish and calls me out on my matzo brei,........

© Observer