LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Canter’s Deli, the Fairfax institution famed for its corned beef and pastrami, has updated its time-tested menu, offering new selections such as panini-style sandwiches, breakfast quesadillas and designer cocktails — and the eatery plans to celebrate the change today with a menu- release party.

“We still have all the items that our customers have come to expect and love,” according to Terri Bloomgarden, co-owner of the famed 82-year old Jewish deli. “It’s just a little different format … a different way of eating the same things.”

For instance, she said, a customer may want to try a panini-style corned beef sandwich, rather than one made with rye bread.

“We are proud to introduce our new menu additions, taking classic deli items into the 21st century,” said Alex Canter, one of a fourth generation of owners.

The deli now offers cocktails, including a chocolate martini made with vodka, cream soda and creme de cocoa, and a Sapphire Collins made with Bombay Sapphire gin, lemon-lime and soda, which Bloomgarden said “goes great with a pastrami sandwich.”

The Kibitz Raspberry Fusion, made with raspberry vodka, orange juice, pineapple, cranberry juice and splash of soda, goes great with a turkey sandwich or “what we call the everyday Thanksgiving dinner,” she said.

The menu additions were selected based on customer requests, Bloomgarden said, adding that the deli began serving them in advance of today’s party to get feedback from customers and train the staff.

The menu-release party is set to start about 10 a.m. and run until noon. Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz is among fans of the restaurant who plan to be there.

Canter’s opened in Boyle Heights in 1931. Ben Canter and his brothers had lost a deli in Jersey City, N.J., after the 1929 stock market crash and moved to Los Angeles to start a new life.

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