Customers at iconic New York City eatery Katz’s Delicatessen always leave satisfied, but it’s safe to say that Meg Ryan‘s experience at the restaurant in When Harry Met Sally was a particularly passionate one.
Filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner — who was found dead at 78 on Sunday along with wife Michele in their Brentwood home — leaves behind a long list of beloved projects. Near the top of that list, alongside such films as This Is Spinal Tap, Misery and A Few Good Men, is the classic 1989 romantic comedy feature When Harry Met Sally.
That film, which AFI named the No. 6 romantic comedy of all time in 2008, centers on longtime friends Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) as they navigate the eternal question of whether men and women can sustain a platonic relationship. One of the movie’s most enduring moments involves Ryan’s character faking an orgasm over a meal with Crystal at Katz’s, leading a nearby guest — played by Rob Reiner’s mother, Estelle Reiner — to tell her waiter, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
“Rob Reiner really was a friend of Katz’s Deli in so many ways,” owner Jake Dell tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The staff and everyone at Katz’s, we all just remember him very fondly and have all these amazing memories. He was a regular customer who would come in whenever he was in town — a Brooklyn guy who would come and grab a sandwich.”
Billy Crystal (left), Rob Reiner and Meg Ryan on the set of When Harry Met Sally.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Dell recalls that the film’s team of Reiner, Crystal and screenwriter Nora Ephron had evolving conversations about what the scene would like and how it would incorporate Katz’s Deli. The NYC institution opened on the Lower East Side in 1888 and continues to draw long lines of customers for its famous hand-sliced pastrami sandwiches and other deli favorites.
Reiner recently shared that Ryan had initially tried to perform the scene and did not seem to quite be giving it her all. This led the director himself to sit at the table opposite Crystal to fully demonstrate the noisy display that he was hoping to include in the film.
“I’m pounding the table, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’” Reiner told 60 Minutes in October while promoting the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. “And I’m realizing I’m having an orgasm in front of my mother, you know? There’s my mother over there.”
Dell notes that, while Katz’s was well-known in its own right for a century prior to the film, it has felt unique that the restaurant’s scene continues to be remembered all these years later.
“It’s amazing that we’re still talking about it nearly 40 years later,” says Dell, who is a fifth-generation owner and took over the establishment when his dad and uncle retired roughly 15 years ago. “That’s incredible, in and of itself. There aren’t that many movies that stand the test of time like that. So, for this movie and this one particular scene to still be relevant and still hold weight for so many people is special for the creators of the movie. We’re just lucky to be a part of that.”
Dell also appreciates that Reiner always loved Katz’s lively and frenetic environment as customers would wait in line for sliced meats, hot dogs, pickles and other side orders. In fact, the owner recalls a frigid winter night a few years back when Reiner walked in and was able to get his food in about five minutes due to a lack of a crowd — and this wasn’t what the filmmaker was anticipating.
“He was kind of upset about it, and he was joking with me and some of the guys and was like, ‘Where is everyone? Let’s go! Let’s fill the place up. Katz’s needs to be bustling,’” Dell recalls. “He loved that organized chaos that we do in the store. I think fondly about moments like that.”
