Reuben sandwich
The Reuben sandwich is a North American grilled sandwich composed of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing, grilled between slices of rye bread. It is associated with kosher-style delicatessens, but not kosher because it combines meat and cheese.
Reuben Kulakofsky and Bernie Schimmel, Blackstone Hotel: Omaha, Nebraska
Reuben Kulakofsky (his first name is often written Reuben; his last name is commonly shortened to Kay), a Jewish Lithuanian-born grocer in Omaha, Nebraska, is said to have requested a corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich at his weekly poker game at the Blackstone Hotel from roughly 1920 to 1935. Charles Schimmel, the hotel’s proprietor, was among the participants, who dubbed themselves “the committee.” The first Reuben was cooked for Schimmel by his son, who worked in the kitchen, who added Swiss cheese and thousand islands dressing to his order and served it on rye toast. After Schimmel put the sandwich on the Blackstone’s lunch menu, it garnered a local reputation, and it went further when a former hotel employee won a national sandwich idea contest with the recipe.
The 14th of March has been designated as Reuben Sandwich Day in Omaha. [4] This sandwich is mentioned in a scene from the film Quiz Show, in which Richard N. Goodwin (a.k.a. Dick) orders and eats one in a restaurant with Charles van Doren, and the two examine the sandwich’s origins.
Reuben’s Delicatessen: New York City, New York
According to another source, Arnold Reuben, the German-Jewish owner of New York City’s Reuben’s Delicatessen (1908–2001), was Reuben’s originator. Accord ing to a Craig Claiborne interview, Arnold Reuben invented the “Reuben Special” in 1914. According to Bernard Sobel’s book Broadway Heartbeat: Memoirs of a Press Agent, the sandwich was invented on the spur of the moment for Marjorie Rambeau when she visited Reuben’s Delicatessen one night when the cupboards were particularly barren.
Other accounts credit Alfred Scheuing, a cook at Reuben’s Delicatessen, with creating the sandwich in the 1930s for Reuben’s son, Arnold Jr.