Izzy's Deli in Montreal doesn't advertise their pastrami superiority—they don't need to. Lines form before opening on weekends, and the owner, David Brenner, attributes this to a 47-day dry-cure that he refuses to shorten by even one day, despite pressure from distributors and staff who want faster turnover. "You cannot rush the salt penetration," he told us while pointing to a wall of beef briskets hanging in a 38°F room, each tagged with a cure date. The Spice Ratio Wars The real tension in competitive pastrami isn't about technique—it's about the spice crust. Detroit's Sloman's uses 11 spices in a proprietary blend that manager Ruth Sloman guards so carefully she travels with the master recipe on a laminated card in her purse. Meanwhile, Toronto's Schwartz-adjacent competitor, Caplansky's, recently switched to a more aggressive pepper ratio after a blind tasting tournament suggested it was outscored by Montreal establishments. A pastrami sandwich is 40% meat, 40% crust, and 20% the argument about whether it should cost $18 or $22. We ate pastrami at all seven establishments over five days. Every single version was excellent. The differences were millimeters and seconds.