I came to New York City in 1967 with the dream of becoming an award-winning advertising photographer. I had worked as an assistant in 1964 London in the studio of David Bailey, a famous photographer of the period. Plus, I had started doing some “semi-professional” work in Athens in ’65 and ’66.
I knew I didn’t have enough insight into the techniques, and I wanted to do much more sophisticated work, such as fashion or advertising. Unfortunately, there were no real opportunities to learn in Greece at the time.
Then, I saw an ad for the New York Institute of Photography that was promising to train individuals as “professional photographers,” and I thought that would be a place to get the experience I needed. Little did I know that it was, in reality, a waste of time and money. Working for Bailey, I learned much more about the art, craft, and business of photography than the Institute and its “professionals” could ever teach me.
I stayed in New York and rented an apartment on Mott Street on the Lower East Side and started working as a freelance assistant in top NYC studios to learn firsthand from the best advertising photographers of the period. That was when I fell in love with rye bread.
There were a number of quirky Jewish restaurants on the Lower East Side offering humongous sandwiches piled high with corned beef with coleslaw on rye bread.
For a long time, I thought there was no good New York-style rye bread in any other area than Manhattan’s Lower East Side. So it was with great pleasure that I recently discovered a bakery near me that makes a classic artisanal New York rye loaf with a somewhat dense interior and a crispy crust.
The La Brea bakery, one of the largest sellers of artisan bread in the U.S. with a west coast production plant in Van Nuys, California, started in Los Angeles making handcrafted hearth-baked breads. It opened its first retail store in 1989.
In 2001, it opened a baking facility in Swedesboro, New Jersey, now renamed Aspire Bakery – the new name of the company that purchased the La Brea brand in 2021 – in order to keep up with demand from the east coast for its 35 varieties of artisan breads. It also has a bakery in Queens, and both are now wholesale operations. The brand name is still La Brea and can even be found in a number of supermarkets.
In the past, I’ve had their sourdough baguettes, and in 2024, they introduced their seeded rye loaf. Both extremely good.
I prefer the rye because I can make a humongous corned beef sandwich right in my own kitchen. This hearty rye is crafted from wheat and rye flours, making for a moist, slightly dense interior with a crisp crust. Caraway seeds, the aromatic ingredient of a classic rye, are both baked in the bread and sprinkled on top for a finishing touch.
But you don’t have to be Jewish to make a great corned beef sandwich. As far as I’m concerned, enjoying good food has no real ethnicity. I love the corned beef on rye as much as I enjoy steamed soup buns (Xiao Long Bao) or eggplant Imam Bayildi.
A corned beef sandwich with coleslaw is also an excellent way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Just add potato salad as a side dish!
Additionally, this rye bread can be enjoyed when fresh or just warmed up a little, slathered with fresh butter. I prefer Irish butter for its rich taste along with peach, apricot, or quince preserves for a very enjoyable breakfast or a quick midday pick-me-up.
I still like the sourdough baguette, of course, but not as much as the rye!
Manos Angelakis is one of the founders, the former Managing Editor for 25 years, the current Managing Editor Emeritus, and Senior Food & Wine Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. He is an accomplished travel writer, photographer, and food and wine critic based in Hackensack, New Jersey. As a travel writer, he has written extensively about numerous cities and countries. Manos has also been certified as a Tuscan Wine Master and has traveled to wine-producing areas in order to evaluate firsthand the product of top-rated vineyards. In the past year, he has visited and written multiple articles about Morocco, Turkey, Quebec City, Switzerland, Antarctica, and most recently the South of France. Articles in other publications include Vision Times and Epoch Times.
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