A pair of scuba divers were dramatically rescued from the Gulf of Mexico. They knew what their first stop after the ordeal would be.
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Who knew that the harrowing, near-death tale of the scuba divers Nathan and Kim Maker would end in the embrace of a good Jewish deli?
The Oklahoma couple, who spent nearly two days floating lost in the Gulf of Mexico last week, had planned to hit Kenny & Ziggy’s Delicatessen Restaurant & Bakery, in Houston, once they finished a day on the water with a group of other divers.
The Makers are the kind of people who plan trips around meals. They even booked a hotel half a mile from the deli.
“Where we’re from, we just don’t have that kind of food,” Mr. Maker said.
Ziggy Gruber is a third-generation deli man. His grandfather Max opened the Rialto Deli, likely the first Jewish delicatessen on Broadway in Manhattan, in 1927. Mr. Gruber, the breakout star of the 2014 documentary “Deli Man,” opened his restaurant in Houston 25 years ago with Kenny Friedman.
The Makers, who live in Edmond, Okla., a suburb north of Oklahoma City, didn’t know about Mr. Gruber’s outsize reputation when they found the place last year. They didn’t even know much about Jewish deli food.
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