It was created in 1888 by the Lithuanian immigrant Sussman Volk, who served it at his deli on Delancey Street in Manhattan.

Sussman Volk emigrated from Lithuania in the late 1800s and opened a small butchershop on New York's Lower East Side.

It proved so popular that, in 1888, Volk opened a delicatessen at 88 Delancey Street, one of the first delis in New York City, where he served the pastrami on rye bread.

[13] The classic, which the Wall Street Journal called New York's "signature sandwich", consists simply of sliced pastrami, placed on rye bread, and topped with spicy brown mustard.

[24] Delicatessen establishments in Montreal offer a similar sandwich with rye bread and mustard, although with Montreal-style smoked meat instead of pastrami.