What did I know about Katz’s a year ago? For a deli located miles from Queens where I live I knew quite a lot. Just the fact that presidents, politicians, celebrities visited Katz’s taking time out of their busy schedules speaks volumes. However, I did not visit Katz’s myself and did not try their famous sandwiches, simply because I was not interested in visiting a place just because it was frequented by celebrities. But on some day I heard the rumors that someone wants to buy Katz’s building and that there is a risk that it will be the end of the deli. Afraid that we will never see the legendary place, my husband and I rushed to the deli. From the moment we opened the door we were affected by the magic of smell, sound and the motion of the place. I found myself in the middle of very happy crowd, the crowd of all kind of people, speaking different languages. It seemed very natural just to ask a couple next to us for advice about what to order rather than simply read the menu. In response we received not just a piece of advice, but a whole story of Katz’s.

It looked like the couple enjoyed bringing back all their happy memories of the place. Happiness was in the air, I could breathe it, and I have not even tried the sandwiches yet. I‘m not going to write about Katz’s food as tons and tons have already been written and more will be. Katz’s magical recipes combine not only 120 years of cooking tradition preserved and perfected by generations of owners, but 120 years of New York ’s community happy moments. One of them is mine. I believe that Dashevsky’s project carefully collects the moments like mine around the world and time, preserving the most precious ingredient of Katz’s for which we are responsible all together. This responsibility is the main motivation for my family decision to support the project, but also there is also one selfish reason. I believe that this film will be able to document the greatness of the place, so that I could share my first “whoo” moment in Katz’s with my grandchildren.