Real Jewish soul food comes to Asheville just one day a year.

by Joanne O’Sullivan . photos by Matt Rose

Asheville has accumulated impressive accolades in national polls for everything from arts to beer. And in food and beverages, we’re now on par with much bigger cities. We have Indian street food and plenty of Thai. There’s even a kava bar downtown. But behind all our culinary progress, there’s still a nagging question: can a city be truly great without a great Jewish deli?

For most of the year, transplants from other cities that have beloved deli institutions (think Katz’s in New York City or Canter’s in L.A.) have only their memories to bite into. But for the past eight years, they’ve had a chance to taste the real thing during the annual HardLox Jewish Food and Heritage Festival, to be held this year on October 17 in Pack Square Park. “We’re the best deli in town,” says Barbara Jaslow, a festival organizer. “But we’re only open one day a year.”

It’s a mystery (and a disappointment) to all why a community like Asheville with so many big-city transplants hasn’t been able to support a real Jewish deli. Jaslow says there was once a good one in Hendersonville, but it closed. A deli at the Grove Arcade failed a few years back. Perhaps the timing wasn’t right. And Asheville old-timers remember the Schandler family’s Pickle Barrel on Oak Street downtown, which fell victim to urban renewal and the expansion of Interstate 240 in the 1970s. “The old wooden floor, the smell of pickles and corned beef, the old bottles of soda pop still remain alive in my little girl memories, “ says Asheville native Susan Fein. She remembers Old Man Schandler as a “warm grandpa type.” Now, it’s left to the women of the Congregation of Beth HaTephila, Asheville’s reform temple, to make sure that everyone in town gets a little meat on their bones.

Congregant Pam Gretz says that when HardLox started, the intention was to raise money for temple community projects. But eight years later, HardLox stretches far beyond the temple: Manna FoodBank provides freezer storage space and a local bakery, Carolina Mountain, lets the organizers use their space for packaging. It takes more than 150 volunteers from all parts of the community to pull it off. But don’t fret: it’s still the Jewish women doing the cooking.

Forty gallons of homemade chicken soup, 1,200 matzo balls. If you know anything about Jewish food, you know the only thing you can do wrong is not have enough. There’s a whole team devoted to making noodle kugels. Pastrami and corned beef sandwiches made to order. Whitefish salad, chopped liver. Hot dogs and Dr. Brown’s soda. And then there are the baked goods: macaroons, rugelah, bialys, challah, and mandel bread. The knishes and blintzes come from New York and the meat from Atlanta, but most everything else is made in the kitchen at the temple.

It wouldn’t be much of a party if there weren’t music (provided by local group Bandana Klezmer) and dancing, too, so if you can still move after all that food, try Israeli dancing.

This year for the first time, Hard Lox is offering take-away service, and you can order in advance online. Almost (but not quite) like an actual year-round Jewish deli. If only Asheville could be so lucky.

The eighth annual HardLox Asheville’s Jewish Food and Heritage Festival will be held October 17 in Pack Square Park from 11am–4pm. For more details, check out www.hardloxjewishfestival.org or call Marty Gillen at 828-253-2282.