Irving's Pastrami Shop To Open In Farmingdale As Family Affair

FARMINGDALE, NY — Irving's Pastrami is branching out. Andrew Fenton, 54; his daughter, Gianna, 22; and son, A.J., 20, plan to open a Farmingdale location by mid-August.

The sandwich shop is set to open at 180 Merritts Road after its original location was launched in Woodbury in March 2018.

The secrets to the pastrami sandwiches were entrusted with a teenage Andrew in the early 1980s by a man named Irving. Irving was in his 80s and near death when he gifted his grandfather's original pastrami recipe to Andrew, who promised he would one day share the sandwiches with the world.

Andrew said the idea of keeping his promise to Irving was a pretty cool experience for him.

"I was really the last friend that the guy had," Andrew told Patch. "He didn’t really speak to anybody, you know? I felt good about it."

With sandwiches classic and new, with Irving's grandfather's pastrami at the core, a menu was carefully put together by the Fenton family before it opened its first Irving's Pastrami a few years ago. Other than pastrami sandwiches, Irving's menu also features steak sandwiches, a fried chicken sandwich, a Philly cheesesteak, a cheeseburger, hot dog, French fries, onion rings, knishes and shakes.

"You don’t just want all pastrami, because some people want to venture out and try a different thing," A.J. said. "You want to be a little diversified in the way you create the menu."

Half-pound sandwiches at the Farmingdale shop, as well as any future shop, will cost $9.95 each as opposed to the $15 at Woodbury.

"For $15, people go crazy," Andrew said. "For $9.95, they’ll go, ‘Oh my God.’"

The family is not yet sure if it will carry over a three-quarter-pound sandwich option to Farmingdale.

Irving's Pastrami uses a two-step cooking process that the family believes is unique anywhere around the world. When asked what else differentiates Irving's from a traditional Jewish pastrami place, Gianna said, "every possible thing you could imagine."

"We are nothing like anything else," she said. "We have cheese on everything. If you want it plain, that’s fine. But us, if anyone knows what a Jewish pastrami sandwich is like, we’re the total opposite. It’s not even comparable."

Every food item is cooked to order and hit with additional heat before it is served.

"We’re changing the pastrami game," A.J. said. "It’s a whole bunch of different sandwiches. The way it’s cooked. You can’t find it anywhere else in the United States or even around the world."

The pastrami shop will be takeout, though a courtyard will be set up in the back where people can sit at picnic tables and listen to music after ordering their food at one window and picking it up at another.

On the side of the building, a mural was painted to draw in new customers and give fans of the shop a cool visual to admire. The mural, painted by @arlenemurals on Instagram, features a raven-haired woman. To the left of her is the bottom half of a skull, and above that, a sandwich design with "pastrami," "steak" and "chicken" written out.

The secret to the family's pastrami is embedded in the recipe Irving passed onto Andrew — one that allows the Fentons to bring out a different type of flavor in their pastrami other than the standard fatty taste of the meat.

Andrew was 13 when he first met Irving, who lived in Lake Grove — not far from Andrew's childhood home in Lake Ronkonkoma. Andrew's father urged his son that the next time it snowed, he should shovel his driveway. Andrew had been shoveling driveways for money, but his father told him to not accept any from Irving, who was in his 80s at the time. Andrew shoveled Irving's driveway out, and the man went to pay the teenager.

"The guy went to give me money, and I said, ‘No, I can’t take any money,’" Andrew recalled. "He’s like, ‘What do you mean? Let me make you a sandwich.’ So I said, ‘No, I’m not allowed in strangers’ houses.’"

Andrew told his father. His father then spoke with his friend — a neighbor of Irving's — who said that Irving is harmless.

"'Don’t worry, you can go in the house,'" the neighbor told Andrew. "'[Irving] makes this really good homemade pastrami. That’s probably why he said he would give him a sandwich.’"

So the next time Andrew helped Irving, he took him up on the offer and had a sandwich.

"I didn’t even know what pastrami was, because I was an Irish Italian kid," Andrew said. "And the funny thing is, [Irving] made it with the secret sauce and put American cheese on it. People always say to me, ‘Didn’t you think it was weird that he was a Jewish guy putting cheese on his pastrami?' And I was a 13-year-old Irish Italian kid. I put cheese on everything. I didn’t think it was weird at all. That’s how he made it."

That sandwich became known as "Irving's Favorite" on the Fentons's menu.

Andrew became good friends with Irving as time passed.

One day, Irving, who had become frail-looking, told Andrew he received some bad news from the doctor.

"Irving slowly walked back in and handed me a small, timeworn lockbox," Andrew had recounted in a story shared on the Irving's Pastrami website. "'In this box, kid, is all of my grandfather’s original recipes from the old world,'" Irving had told him. "'The secrets are in your hands now. My grandfather always wanted me to open a pastrami shack and share his recipes with others. I was never fortunate enough to do anything other than make it here in my kitchen, but promise me, if you ever get the chance, you will share my pastrami with the world.'"

Andrew promised Irving he would.

"That was the last time I ever saw him alive," he recalled.

The lockbox is sitting near a fireplace at the Fenton family home in Stowe, Vermont.

Andrew would use Irving's grandfather's pastrami recipe to cook for his children, as well as his friends at barbecues. Gianna and A.J. pushed their dad to try his hand at something beyond Irving's Favorite.

They helped design sandwiches currently on the menu. Others also provided ideas for pastrami-based sandwiches. A biker named Zeus came up with a sandwich called Zeus, which features pastrami and homemade cheese sauce on a garlic-grilled ciabatta.

It was Andrew's friend's father who came up with the eatery's signature sandwich: The Angry Irving. The sandwich has Irving's pastrami with provolone, chopped onions, pepperoncini, cracked black pepper, and mayo & horseradish mustard on a grilled ciabatta.

The Angry Irving has attracted customers from Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and even Texas.

Eventually, in 2015, Andrew sold his company and took a couple of years off. It was then that his children suggested they open a shop together and truly share Irving's pastrami with the world. But the eatery had to stand out.

"‘Why don’t we open a pastrami place?'" Gianna recalls telling her father. "Because everyone is so used to the Jewish delis and the Jewish-style pastrami. Us being young, we always go out to these crazy places with our friends to try something different. So we were like, ‘Why don’t we do something different with pastrami that no one has ever seen before,’ so that’s how that molded into this."

A few years after the launch of the Woodbury shop, and the Fentons are ready to take on Farmingdale. The manager of the Woodbury location told Andrew of the potential Farmingdale spot.

"The more I looked at it, I was walking around for 10 minutes and watching all the cars go by. I was like, ‘Wow, this would be a great spot,'" Andrew said.

Soon, Dalers will be able to try a taste of a pastrami secret that has been passed through generations and between families.