Main content starts here, tab to start navigating

Our Heritage

Sy Ginsberg has always been a deli man.

It started in 1960, when the teenaged Sy started working at Lou’s Delicatessen in Detroit. By 1968, he had opened his own Detroit eatery, Mister Deli. That success pushed him to follow the populace to the suburbs, where he started another iconic restaurant - Pickle Barrel Deli.

But Sy was restless and discouraged that no commercial meat brands available at the time offered the authentic flavors and quality he remembered from his youth. He also thought the old-world deli traditions - including sandwiches piled high with corned beef, pastrami, brisket, and turkey - were dying.

Sy Ginsberg standing in a kitchen

graphical user interface

So, in 1981, Sy decided to follow the old saying “if you want something done right, do it yourself”. Leaving the restaurant business behind, he began curing meat in the back room of a butcher shop in Pontiac, Michigan. The Sy Ginsberg’s brand of deli meats was born.

As business grew, Sy teamed up with business partner Scott Mendelsohn. They moved into several facilities through the years, mostly operating out of a location on Hubbard Street in Detroit. Today, Sy Ginsberg’s deli meats are being produced in a modern, food-safety-focused facility in Detroit’s Historic Eastern Market.   Because of the hard work and dedication to the craft, Sy Ginsberg’s brand products can now be found in deli restaurants from Anchorage to Miami.

Dedication to the deli flavors of yesterday, and to providing exemplary customer service is what sets us apart from other purveyors. At Sy Ginsberg’s, we are truly Deli Done Right!

a close up of a logo