Meet Jeff Meyer of Element 29 Deli in Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Meyer.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jeff. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
Well, my story as a chef actually began with my father’s death as I left my music video casting business behind in LA to take care of my mom back in Michigan. I always wanted to open a restaurant, and when I was home, she suggested culinary school. So I enrolled in Schoolcraft College. Two years later I got a job in New York, Lower East Side at a little Pan Asian place called Koca Lounge. Two weeks in I was put in charge and the kitchen was mine. Going shopping for produce and proteins in china town, I was able to work with many different products.

After that, I was back in Detroit and worked as the sous chef, then head chef at Chen Chow Brasserie. I was looking for something different, so I went to Florida where I worked in a Mediterranean fast food restaurant in Boca Raton, where they trained me for two weeks on how to make the perfect Turkish coffee. From there, I took an adventure down to the Caribbean Islands, St Thomas to be exact. In the three years, I was there I was kitchen manager at Havana Blue. A beautiful Oceanside open-air restaurant.

While I was there, I befriended the owners of Enkai Sushi. Katie and Jason were great teachers. Since I was the only trained hot cook, I had free rain of what I wanted to make for appetizers. I would go to the fishmonger and ask for the most unusual product they had so I could create something interestingly amazing. Having the freedom to create anything was amazing and so much fun. I finished my time in ST. Thomas at Iggie’s beach bar as the head chef. The Caribbean islands can be a great experience for learning.

After coming back to the upper states, I ended up back in Cali as I wanted to open my own place. A few years went by looking, and no one said yes. I kept plugging away seeing many spaces from the valley to orange county, from downtown to Venice. I was given a shot in Culver City to take over a convenience store that the previous owner had for 45 years. I started to do what I do in my own place.

Element 29 deli is my long-time dream realized. We believe in creating amazing food with a great product for our customers. As of right now, We smoke our own Moroccan spiced brisket, Balsamic brined smoked turkey, Amazingly flavorful corned beef, Grav lox, and we are experimenting with cold smoked salmon. Another project is creating cold smoked carrots as vegan laahx, and pastrami.

We work very hard to create a cool space with awesome food. We are a very Detroit/New York kind of joint. We always seem to exceed expectations; just read our reviews. Come on down and try one of our sandwiches and you be the judge.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It definitely has been a bumpy road along the way. Finding an owner to give a first-time restaurateur a chance. People had some bad reasons for not leasing my space. It was a bit discouraging, but the only way to make it happen is to keep on trucking.

After I got a place, remodeling, finding the right products, and letting the people know we’re here was the next challenge. The marketing world of today with social media and word of mouth, and telling everyone was also difficult. Being a bit older and not so familiar, there was a learning curve.

I have come a long way, and people are now finding us regularly. There was always a ray of sunshine to point the way. Happy customers, words of encouragement, and an upward trend that continues today makes the dream stay alive. There are ups and downs, but passion and lots of hard work have gotten me here, and as things get better and smoother, that will bring us into the future.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I consider Element 29 deli as a Detroit style deli.

I grew up going to places just like this. They always had the best tasting food, and a great community feels. A true neighborhood place. I don’t know too many places that do what we do in a shop as I have. We specialize in from scratch cooking. Long brines, long smokes, cures, and sauces. As a good Detroit Jew, I had to make my own corned beef from scratch, because I didn’t really like the corned beef in LA.

As we all know, an amazing brisket, there is no substitute. We use a Moroccan spice blend and smoke them for 18 hours. Our turkey is brined in balsamic vin, lemons, red onion, bay, and some secret spices for four days and then smoked for 8/9 hours. I had a beer supplier wait for an hour and a half for it to finish smoking and cool down before I would cut into it for his sandwich. With our Scandinavian Grav Lox, we use beets on top to give it a red and orange color. When sliced it looks so beautiful and flavorful.

In recent days, we have moved into cold smoked salmon, different from Grav Lox, but both are awesome. Also figuring out the perfect pastrami also. In regards to our vegan customers, we are also working of mimicking smoked salmon with smoked carrots prepared in the same manner and flavor, but they would be called Laahx. I am really most proud of the entire place and how it has organically grown from the start.

What were you like growing up?
Wow, that’s a long time ago. I was always a bit rambunctious, getting into things all the time. Definitely did things my way from the start. My siblings took a more traditional path, but I was on my own trip. I liked to be in the middle of what was going on. I was actually interested in building things and electronics and robotics, but then it became the law, and I considered law school. But, alas my love of food and travel won out in the end.

After college, I backpacked across Europe, and I realized there was too much to discover around the world. That’s what started my living and discovering different places. My father would say “either be an expert in something or know something about everything.” I chose the latter, and have been looking and learning and discovering since.

Contact Info:

• Address: 8636 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA, 90232
• Website: Element29deli.com
• Phone: 323.325.3906
• Instagram: @element29deli
• Facebook: @element29deli
• Twitter: @element29deli
• Yelp: element 29

Image Credit:
John A

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