JULY 29 • 2021 | 61

While the JN’s premier columnist, Danny 
Raskin, has been convalescing, we’ve been 
offering highlights from Danny’s prior 
columns. Danny has appreciated the 
greetings sent to him by readers. 

Here is Part 2 of Danny’s column 
from Aug. 31, 2001, where he celebrated 
the 90th birthday of longtime deli man 
Hy Horenstein. Sadly, less than three 
months later, Hy passed away on Nov. 
23, 2001. Part 1 of the column appeared 
last week.
T

hat name of Hy Horenstein 
Deli seemed to come into its 
own big-time when Hy hit 
Livernois … Norman Cottler had 
built the Dexter Davison Market on 
Coolidge and 10 Mile Road in Oak 
Park … and his wife used 
to be a customer of Hy’s 
on Livernois … “Why 
don’t you come to Oak 
Park and my husband’s 
shopping center?” she 
suggested … At the 
time there was only the 
market, Mertz Bakery and 
Dexter-Davison Kosher Meats.
The most prominent of all his 
delicatessen-restaurants was the Hy 
Horenstein’s that opened on 10 Mile 
and Coolidge in 1963 … and didn’t 

close until he retired … 23 years later.
It had just 55 seats … and was in the 
tradition that Hy remembered so well 
… a delicatessen the way it used to 
be, he says.
The only reason Hy finally 
broke down and bought 
a slicing machine to cut 
corned beef was because, he 
tells, women used to come 
in insisting on their corned 
beef or pastrami being very lean and 
thin … “Actually,” relates Hy, “this 
is probably the reason the machines 
came into being in the first place. 
Years ago, the fatter the corned beef, 
the more people loved it.”
He had never before owned a slicing 
machine at any of his delicatessens 
… But even after finally getting one, 
Hy never would use a machine to cut 
his Jewish rye bread … preferring to 
always slice it by hand.
He was noted for his french fries … 
Never frozen like at so many places 
today … The potatoes were peeled 
and cut by hand … and fried until a 
golden brown … never ever soggy … 
“Heaven forbid they shouldn’t be crisp 
on the outside and soft on the inside!” 
exclaims Hy.
Back in 1949, Hy remembers, there 
were eight delicatessens within 10 
blocks … “And everybody made a 

good living,” he says … Leinoff’s off 
Waverly, Ben & George’s between 
Tyler and Buena Vista, Lefkofsky’s at 
Tuxedo, Nate’s at Burlingame, Wilson’s 
at Richton, Liberman’s (formerly 
Perlman’s) between Cortland and 
Sturtevant, Hy Horenstein’s off Boston 
and Bill Boesky’s at Collingwood 
… “Around 1945,” recalls Hy, “a few 
of my favorites on Linwood were 
Flashenberg’s, formerly London’s; Lou’s 
owned by Lou Loewe on Pingree; and 
Abe Boesky’s Blaine Restaurant off 
Blaine.”
They gave him a 90th birthday party 
… and Hy, always the dapper, well-
dressed gent, looked at the family and 
friends who came to pay him homage 
and said, “Clothes may make the man, 
but the delicatessen business made 
men out of boys.” 

Danny’s email is dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.

RASKIN
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

Danny 
Raskin
Senior Columnist

The Hy Life (part 2)

Hy 
Horenstein

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