(Image: Ben and Esther’s)
Portland-born vegan Jewish deli chain Ben and Esther’s has aspirations of someday bringing its plant-based corned beef reubens to the East Coast. First, it will add a location on Capitol HIll.
With three delis already in motion — two in Portland, and one in San Diego — the company has announced its next expansion will be to Seattle.
But Ben and Esther’s isn’t saying where it will land in the already bagel-rich neighborhood, describing it in a social media post only as “the heart of Capitol Hill.”
While you’re noodling on where exactly a new vegan Jewish deli might best fit around Pike/Pine or Broadway, CHS is perusing Ben and Esther’s no-meat menu running from vegan lox made of roasted carrots to whitefish made of hearts of palm has developed from its 2019 start in Portland’s Roseway neighborhood.
“I’ve been plant-based for a long time,” owner Justin King told Eater PDX. “When I opened Ben & Esther’s, I was very business-minded, and I thought that opening a traditional Jewish deli would be good for business. After a year, I couldn’t reconcile that with my principles.”
King also says he has hopes of eventual East Coast expansion for the company.
But first, King will join Capitol Hill’s relatively robust Jewish food and drink scene amid the golden age of Capitol Hill bagels ushered in by the opening of Rubinstein Bagels on 15th Ave E last year. A new bagel bakery from Sea Wolf will extend the age to Montlake. The neighborhood also has its own homegrown Jewish deli. Dingfelder’s Delicatessen opened at E Pine and 14th in 2018 with stacked-high corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, kosher hot dogs, knishes, smoked fish, and bagels.
Where will Ben and Esther’s fit in? Stay tuned — or check the CHS comments — to find out.
You can learn more at benandesthers.com.
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OMG I am extra excited about this!!! YAY
this sounds fucking disgusting
Then don’t eat there… just… stick to your McDonald’s diet because that’s SO not disgusting.
Im just making a statement pal, this is a public comment section after all…who says I eat at mac dray’s? The idea of eating nut based cream cheese substiute along with whatever they plan to make the lox out of (liquid smoke and tempeh?) does not seem appetizing. Its the textures man. pardon my take.
“…whatever they plan to make the lox out of (liquid smoke and tempeh?)”
It’s “…whitefish made of hearts of palm…” which is right there in the article (which I’m sure you read thoroughly before commenting, right?). You are welcome to have your own opinion but please be sure to educate yourself before expressing it to the general public.
No difference between McDonald’s and this place, both serving ultra-processed ‘food’ creations. To each their own.
Dingfelder’s Delicatessen is not a jewish Delicatessen. with just a few sndwiches and a few deserts., I guess you never went to Brenner’s brother deli when it was at MLK and cherry Dingfelds sandwiches are good, expensive but that does not make it a deli
D’s menu has pastrami, corned beef, salami, turkey breast, smoked whitefish salad, egg salad, tuna salad, smoked salmon, bagels, lox, latkes, knishes, pickles, coleslaw, potato salad, chopped liver, greek salad, kugel, and more. Served by the sandwich and by the pound. It is a deli.
I could not be happier.
I can’t wait! I grew up in New York and I miss delis, and having something vegan will be wonderful. I hope they can make vegan smoked whitefish salad. At almost 40 years vegetarian (and now vegan) it’s the only thing I really miss.
The Golden Age of Capitol Hill Jewish Delis was when Pip and Miriam had Matzoh Mama’s on 15th. But you weren’t there then.
I hope they have a vegan matzoh ball soup!
I checked out their Portland location. As someone who eats meat but leans plant based when possible, it was amazing. All the food was great. They had creative takes on all the classics. Between the three of us we had a round of bagels and took sandwiches to go for lunch, and everything was excellent. Can’t wait to see where this is popping up!
Major website issues the Capitol Hill location is not (as of now) online as a website, so OK then I pretended to be ordering from the Portland locations, I could not get online ordering or any kind of menu with prices of any kind to come up. I only spent 10 minutes but that’s 10 minutes I could’ve used on something else. I hope they get their websites working. And knowing the price of something before you have to order it is actually a convenient thing.