Max’s Delicatessen & Restaurant

Max’s is not an authentic New York Deli. Not. Even. Close.
However, the bagels here are excellent. You can tell they boil them before baking which leaves a chewy texture on the outside. I like the everything bagel… It has a little more salt than I expected but overall it is pretty good.
I am a big fan of a BEC — but they are super expensive here…$ 7 for bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel. In not puddle, that is like $ 4. Huge markup for not being in the second most expensive city in the country.
Service is fine. Interior is fine. Coffee is good. Will return.

Ok, the stars are ONLY for the «establishment and employees» not the present owner/​manager.
Here is the thing, the food is good (4star), the service is good (4star) but that is likely because of the past owner and the quality of the long term employees.
So what’s the problem? The problem is the current owner. This is a man who has a personality I have seen too often before.
So I am going to start a rant about the person who is either the «manager or owner» — a guy in his mid-​forties with grayish brown hair (more likely this guy is original owner’s son who has taken over from people who started this establishment).
The thing is, my wife just returned from this place and told me a story about him that was dead-​bang the exact same experience I had witnessed a month earlier happen to someone else.
The difference is that I just never wrote about it.
So today my wife goes to the place to get my daughters favorite snack when she is feeling in need of comfort– hard salami sliced paper thin (yes I know it’s a weird snack, but she loves it.)
So my wife asks the guy behind the counter to cut it super thin, he is going along fine and then out of the blue the manager/​owner starts off telling the guy –what are you doing? If you do it like this you will be here forever –and he changes the blade.
My wife says no that’s how I ordered it, the manager says «no that’s good enough» and starts arguing with her about it. Then when she says well then, I don’t need to buy it, he starts backs off but than he says something insulting about the employee.
Even after, and unrelated to my wife he starts going off on another employee loudly enough for everyone to hear calling him a liar about something absurd.
It’s this last encounter that was identical to how I saw him treating his customers and employees myself. I was in previously and saw this guy yelling at his employees and being one of the rudest disrespectful human beings I could imagine in the service industry.
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January 10, 2016
Wow in response to the odd quasi political rant of the owner I update my review???
I didn’t engage in a debate, I wrote a review comment — in a non-​political forum designed to review exactly what I reviewed and in response the small business service writes a rant about world affairs??! Really?!?
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January 11, 2016
I only update this review yet again, in response to two things:
1) having my email flamed by one of the two brother owners.
2) seeing that one of the two brothers decided to respond to my review with references to lured sexual commentary?
Sir, I would say you and your brother have much in common given 1) the behavior that my wife conveyed to me, 2) the way I personally observed your employees treated publicly (and of course you can expect them to be candid with you about how they feel, especially in light of you and your brothers gracious response to moderate criticism on a food forum by a customer) and finally 3) your juvenile and offensive commentary — while I was not the personal subject of your or your brothers conduct and I was not «angry» about how you chose to conduct yourselves in your own place of business — I am angry about the way you have responded on a public forum.
THIS IS A FORUM WITH CHILDREN ON IT!!!
CONDUCT YOURSELF AS A RESPONSIBLE ADULT WHO IS PART OF THE COMMUNITY!
Now that being said, you don’t like the review?
Just like television — turn the channel.
You appear to not like freedom of expression? You would prefer perhaps no one gave you any feedback? Fine, turn off the channel.
However, other people like to hear other people’s opinions who DON’T get paid to make those opinions and don’t have any reason to make thighs up.
THIS is America and unlike television commercials YOU get to pay for to say what you want to be said about you– thank god I have the freedom to report my observations and opinions publicly.
OH AND BY THE WAY, as offensive as your and your brothers emails to me and comments have been, I have not changed your rating downward from where it was when I first wrote it.
But I will not be bullied by you or your brother into giving up the freedom of speech my family and others have fought for in this country to appease you.

Max’s is one of the relatively few remaining authentic Jewish delis in the Chicago area.
Back in the 1950s, when I was a little boy, there were more than a dozen delis like Max’s just along Chicago’s Devon Avenue between about Sacramento and Western Avenues. These were bustling, noisy, and busy places that catered to the working to middle class Jews who then lived in the neighborhood. They had carry-​out foods with salamis hanging from hooks behind the serving counter, delicacies like tongue, knishes, and pastries. They sold cigars, and the men smoked them. They offered borscht, cabbage soup, matzo ball soup, smoked fish, and the like. If you sat down for a meal, they would provide you with a basket of rolls and breads, pickles, and perhaps a few other goodies at no extra cost. Advice and surliness by the server were also offered for free!
There were dozens more scattered throughout the city in the north suburbs, Albany Park, Rogers Park, and even in the West Side before the Jewish population left the area.
But times and demographics change. As Jews moved to the upper middle and upper socioeconomic classes, they lost connection with these places. Lots of reasons: assimilation, health concerns, interest in different cuisines, different expectations, decline of the old Ashkenazic tradition, affluence, etc. There are probably no more than twenty places like Max’s left in Chicagoland today. If there are any more, they are owned/​operated by goyim [not Golem].
Even in New York City, these restaurants are not nearly as commonplace as they were a generation ago. The New York Times wrote that NYC had 1500 places like this in the 1930s; and it had dropped down to a couple dozen.
I don’t go to these places very often, but I happened to have a Groupon, and I wanted to see what an old-​line deli looks like. Mrs. B wanted to see what food is like.
Well, Max’s is much like what I recalled from literally 60+ years ago. The place is a bit more subdued, the clientele more refined, and the dining room more elegantly furnished than the old places — but it reminded me of my childhood. We were greeted by our server, provided a basket of rolls and a plate of pickles, and given their thorough menu. I did not experience any disrespect nor surliness that others have reported.
We each ordered a corned beef sandwich, french fries, and soda. The sandwich was huge and very lean; in fact, I could only eat half of it, and had to bring the rest home. The one order of fries can probably feed three, and the waitress promptly refilled our glasses faster than one could say «gefilte fish.» In my opinion, it was everything I would have expected.
My only beef (get the pun?) was that the entrees are a bit on the costly side. This could be attributed to the quality and quantity of food provided, or that Max’s is located smack dab in the middle of Chicago’s wealthiest suburbs — and they raised prices to whatever the local market could bear.
One other observation is that most of the clientele was relatively old: we are ancient, and it seemed that most of their diners were also kind of creaky like us. I wonder whether that reflects the decline of deli restaurants or local demographics (older rich people).
It was a nice trip to visit a type of place that I don’t patronize too much, and it nostalgically reminded me of my childhood experiences.
Talking about nostalgia, see my review of Hackney’s on Lake Avenue in Glenview.
Go to Max’s. Try it, you’ll like it.

We were in the Highland Park area last night so we looked on Groupon to see what we could find. We ended up finding a deal on Groupon $ 20 of food for $ 12 @ Max’s Delicatessen.
We ended up splitting a bowl of chili and a lean pastrami sandwich on rye with mustard. The pastrami meat was good. You try to eat healthy by getting the lean meat, but let’s face it certain foods are meant to be eaten with marbling with fat on it and pastrami is one of them. The meat was good quality, nice and lean, but it was too dry for my taste. The chili was better then average, but nothing that’s going to make you scream WOW, but it was tasty.