How New York deli descendant Willie Zabar is spicing up the comedy scene

Zabar during a comedy gig in New York. He is the first in the family to use the deli as material for his work as a comedian. Photo: Stephanie Guedalia/Willie Zabar/dpa

There are some New Yorkers who don't know Willie Zabar but they know his great-grandparents' deli, at least.

In the early 20th century, they emigrated from what is now Ukraine to the United States and opened up a delicatessen in Manhattan's Upper West Side, laying the foundations for Zabar's small empire.