A typical German deli carried staples like bread and milk and imported goods like preserves and mustards, German cookies and crackers, cold cuts, cheese, salads and prepared foods. A loophole in the blue laws meant that delis were about the only place to buy food on a Sunday, helping their bottom line considerably. They were widespread in New York through the 1960s. While there are a number of places that call themselves delis today, few of them are German run. A real deli, Schwartz insists, would not sell Cheez Doodles or potato chips. The very name comes from the German word for delicacy.
Among the foods you could find at a typical German deli were roast turkeys, glazed hams, baked beans, fried meat cakes, salmon croquettes and fish cakes on Friday, baked spaghetti that could be cut into squares in un-Italian tomato sauce, mayo salads of tuna, egg, chicken, salmon and ham, coleslaw, macaroni salad, potato salad with dressings of mayo or sweet and sour with oil and vinegar and sandwiches. Creamy rice and tapioca pudding were favorite desserts of New Yorkers.
Schwartz writes that the store front window often had black mirrored panels advertising the brand of coldcuts carried inside and neon beer signs. This was where you went to vote for Miss Rheingold back in 1946. The floors had mosaic tiles, sometimes covered with sawdust. A refrigerated case along the wall carried the hams, sausages and cheeses while the opposite wall had shelves of canned and jarred good. The prepared foods were made in a small kitchen in the back of the store. In many neighborhoods the German deli served as the corner grocery store.