Chef Adam Rosenblum, who’s been running Chestnut Street’s favorite burger destination, Causwells, for more than a decade, is no novice. But things have never felt more high-stakes for him than this week, as he prepares to debut his newest project: Super Mensch, a modern take on a classic Jewish deli. 

“There hasn’t been a single concept that I’ve done that’s more personal, so there’s that layer,” he says of the Marina District restaurant, which opens Wednesday, the second day of Rosh Hashanah.  “It resonates with people on a different level.” 

Blame nostalgia or cultural pride or maybe a bit of both — but there’s something about matzo ball soup and bagels that elicit unusually strong opinions. At Super Mensch, Rosenblum and beverage director Elmer Mejicanos are hoping to pay homage to iconic Jewish delis, including Katz’s in New York and Langer’s in Los Angeles. The food, much of it cooked in the restaurant’s tiny hoodless kitchen, blends straightaway classics with modern interpretations. 

As for the drinks? They’re unlike any you’ve had at a deli. 

“Like, tell me, when was the last time you went to a deli and ordered a martini?” Mejicanos says. That goes double for his matzo ball soup margarita.

For the menu, Rosenblum drew inspiration from the New Jersey delis he visited as a child and from family dinners, when his grandmother pushed plates of pickled herring. He’s long had a fascination with smoking and curing meats, so the recipe for the pastrami — which stars in, among other dishes, a $36 eponymous sandwich that’s so big it feeds two — has been years in the making. Rye bread, pita, bagels, and showstopping slices of decadent chocolate cake will all be baked, not quite on-site but just one door down at Causwells.  

But the latkes, he admits, might get pushback. Though the crispy potato pancakes are usually fried, the Super Mensch kitchen doesn’t accommodate that cooking method. Instead, it will offer rectangular planks of thinly sliced potato that are compressed and baked to a crisp before being garnished with crème fraîche, apple butter, and wild salmon roe — it hits all the usual flavor notes, but in a nontraditional package. In a similar vein, for the matzo ball soup, he has opted to swap a single, large ball for a trio of smaller ones, which he says are easier to share and more likely to cook evenly.

 “We’re definitely setting ourselves up for criticism, but what we’re putting out there, we’re proud of,” he says. “But if I get second-best after Bubbe’s, then we’re in good shape.” 

The beverage list gets even more experimental, in keeping with Mejicanos’ reputation for “concept cocktail menus.” Case in point: the aforementioned matzo ball soup margarita, which sees tequila infused with the herbs and spices you’d typically find in the soup: parsley, star anise, black pepper, and dill. He adds a Mexican orange liqueur and lime, plus a schmaltz cracker in the shape of a chicken. “It just made sense for me, because I’ve been leaning on very savory cocktails lately,” Mejicanos says. “And I still wanted to give the visual of a matzo ball, so we decided to infuse a clear sphere of ice with all the herbs that you would see inside a matzo ball.” 

He also riffs on a classic celery soda with the Cel-Ray, a tequila-and-mezcal concoction that uses “every single part” of the celery plant, from the seeds to the leaves, plus the Dutch herbal liqueur Cloosterbitter. Even the egg cream gets a boozy update: Mejicanos merges the deli beverage with a gin fizz, layering cacao liqueur and corn-flake-infused milk with gin, seltzer, and a touch of kosher salt. There are three varieties of martinis, a clarified bloody mary, five classic cocktails, plus beer and wine. Three nonalcoholic cocktails round out the menu, alongside a booze-free celery soda, pickle lemonade, and a creamy strawberry matcha. 

The shoebox-sized space, which previously housed the duo’s short-lived low-ABV cocktail bar Lilah, has been rejiggered to squeeze in 32 seats, up from Lilah’s 28. That meant constructing a communal table in the center of the room, plus three tall-backed wooden booths, all of which the partners built themselves — “unfortunately for our mental health,” Rosenblum says. Jewish delis have often sprung up around theater districts — think Carnegie Deli in New York — so the pair leaned into the fact that Super Mensch and Causwells sandwich the Presidio movie theater and built a towering, illuminated marquee menu sign. On the east wall, they’ll project classic Jewish-themed films and TV shows. 

Rosenblum is hesitant to put Super Mensch in any single box, be it “deli” or “cocktail bar” or “neighborhood lunch spot.” It’ll open at 11 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends for brunch, when the menu includes challah French toast, matzo brei quiche, and a pastrami bagel sandwich. Rosenblum says he mostly hopes Super Mensch feels like a place to celebrate Jewish American culture. “For me, this is not a place about religion; this is a place about connecting with the traditions I grew up with.”