(Image: Dingfelder’s)

(Image: Dingfelder’s)

By Cormac Wolf — CHS Reporting Intern

Inside Capitol Hill’s Dingfelder’s Jewish Delicatessen, it feels like you have stepped through a portal across the country with a chalkboard menu and a view straight into the kitchen, and the walls decorated with the New York skyline. One picture features the Brooklyn Bridge with Vance Dingfelder’s likeness superimposed over it.

It is a little too much but you’re talking about pastrami sandwiches stacked high with nearly a pound of meat and an honest to goodness Jewish deli now marking its 5th anniversary on Capitol Hill with a Labor Day hot dog celebration plus plans for adding new breakfast hours and expanding to a second location. The deli has remained small at 14th and Union with a simple buildout of a former commercial kitchen persisting even as a new four-story apartment building rises around it. But inside, Dingfelder’s goes big.

Dingfelder moved here from New York over a decade ago with the aim of bringing “New York flavor” to the West Coast. But it’s not only the deli esthetic that makes it NYC. Dingfelder says he fosters the New York feel by buying his supplies from New York and cooking them in-house.

“We get a lot of our supplies from New York on a regular basis. Like 3,000 pounds of meat a month,” he says. “Because people want that, I want that consistent New York flavor.”

(Image: Dingfelder’s)

While his vibe is uncontestedly New York City, Dingfelder says community is central to the role he sees the deli playing on Capitol Hill.

“Dingfelder’s is a New York Jewish delicatessen,” he says. “And what that means is that we have a responsibility to the community.”

Dingfelder has been cooking on the Hill for much longer than his deli has been open. He started his catering business, Nourish Catering, out of the kitchen of Temple De Hirsch Sinai, his synagogue a few blocks away.

That was 11 years ago, and his tagline,”catering for every body,” he says is carried forward in the several vegan options the deli offers. There might also be a competitive streak. Portland-based vegan deli chain Ben and Esther’s moved into the neighborhood in 2022.

Dingfelder’s opened as a walk-up location in 2018. In the beginning, you couldn’t even sit down. The interior wasn’t open to customers until months later and they didn’t even have a website. Not much has changed since though you can order online now. While he is proud of the progress made, Dingfelder acknowledged the bumpy road it took to get there.

“85% of food service establishments fail in the first five years,” he says . “And I now know why.”

Like all restaurants, Dingfelder’s was affected by the pandemic. He was also down the street from the Capitol Hill protest zone, which stretched right up to his block.

“I was fortunate because of the fire department. The fire department is next door,” says Dingfelder. “That’s what protected me.”

But the biggest challenge, he says, has been paying a living wage to his employees in such an expensive city. He says he does this by providing every employee with benefits and a salary, and a shared tip pool equal to 30% of their pay.

After five years the deli has finally become profitable, and Dingfelder says he’s looking to expand.

“I’m going to open another location,” he says. “I’d like to open up another location in the north end, and then one south, one east.”

He says he’s looking at Everett and Bellevue, and hopefully SeaTac too.

Dingfelder’s is celebrating their five-year anniversary on Monday, Labor Day, with $2 kosher hot dogs.

“The deli is going to have its five year anniversary. Right? Which is so fucking cool,” says Dingfelder. “We’re gonna do a promo with hotdogs. They’re called ‘balaboosta,’ you’ll want to write that down. We’re gonna do a $2 hot dog, which is a real deal.”

The hot dog is one of many menu additions Dingfelder is excited about. Soon the deli will offer breakfast, and he wants an “espresso window” where people can walk by and pick up food they ordered online.

In the meantime, a four-story apartment building is rising behind Dingfelder’s, overshadowing the single story deli and closing its sidewalk for construction. But Dingfelder says his customers haven’t had any trouble coming in as much as they always do.

As for his own building’s future, Dingfelder says he hopes to keep his lease as long as he can.

“I love the building, and if they do develop the building, they’re probably going to build retail in the bottom,” he says. “And if that happens, that’s where I’m going to be.”

“I want this to be the original. This is where we started.”

Dingfelder’s is located at 1318 E Pine. Learn more at dingfelders.com.

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