Canter's Deli
Restauranteur and New Jersey transplant Ben Canter along with his brothers opened Canter’s Deli (originally called Canter Brother’s Delicatessen) in 1931 on Brooklyn Avenue in Boyle Heights. By the late 1940s, the demographic migration of Jews from Boyle Heights to the Beverly-Fairfax was gaining full steam. Following its clientele and other Boyle Heights commercial establishments such as Solomon’s Bookstore and Leader Beauty Shop that moved westward, Ben Canter opened a second location in 1948 at 439 North Fairfax Avenue.
With the move west came a series of innovations. More than offering lox, smoked white fish, cod, pastrami, corned beef, and other classic deli fares, the Canter’s on Fairfax also included a homemade bakery. In 1953, Canter's moved into a larger location at 419 North Fairfax Avenue,previously home to the Esquire Theater; Canter’s soon decided to open its doors for a 24 hours a day, one of the first eateries in the city to do so. Perhaps to attract Hollywood entertainment industry types, Canter’s established a cocktail lounge, the Kibitz Room, in 1961. In the process of expanding and innovating, Canter’s not only bought out a competing deli, the already established Cohen’s, but also became a prime culinary destination along the Fairfax Avenue commercial strip. As one new arrival to the Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood recalled, “ the big draw, exactly one block from our house, was Canter’s Delicatessen. …[It]served as an all-day and late night gathering place for the neighborhood, for Jewish show business people, and for Jews from all over the Los Angeles area."
