Jack Lebewohl priced himself out of the market. What a retard.

Diagonally across the street from the deli is the tiny Abe Lebewohl Park. Following is the inscription from the monument there:

Over a period of forty years, Abe Lebewohl (1931-1996) transformed his Second Avenue Deli into a New York institution, drawing loyal customers from celebrities, tourists and locals alike with his Jewish culinary delicacies and generous and magnetic spirit.

Lebewohl was born in Kulykiv, Ukraine, in 1931. When the Soviets occupied western Ukraine, Abe’s father was arrested and exiled to Siberia, and Abe and his mother were banished to Kazakhstan. The family was reunited and traveled to western Ukraine and then to Poland. They illegally escaped Poland, and made their way through Austria to a refugee camp in Italy, where they spent five years before immigrating to America in 1950.

For a few years, Lebewohl worked as a waiter at a twelve-seat coffee shop on Second Avenue and E. 10th Street. In 1954 the family purchased the property, and gradually expanded it into a 250-seat restaurant, the Second Avenue Deli. The deli became famous for its extensive menu of Ukrainian and Jewish delicacies and its stupendous sandwiches. Customers included such luminaries as Joe DiMaggio, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Mason, Bob Hope, Joan Rivers, Raoul Felder, and Milton Berle.

Abe (also known as Abie) endeared himself to the East Village community with his deep humanity and unflagging generosity, and he often provided free food to homeless people, striking workers, and neighborhood events. In tribute to the Yiddish theaters clustered on and around Second Avenue, Lebewohl created a “Walkway of Yiddish Actors” at the restaurant’s entrance. Proud of his Ukrainian-Jewish roots, he traveled back to the Ukraine in the 1970s. He patronized Ukrainian businesses in the neighborhood and was among the few businessmen who attended a private meeting with Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of independent Ukraine, during a visit to New York.

On March 4, 1996, Abe Lebewohl was fatally shot while depositing his daily receipts at a nearby bank. More than 1,500 mourners attended his funeral at the Community Synagogue on East 6th Street. In tribute to his memory this park was named Abe Lebewohl Park, at the initiative of Council Member Antonio Pagan and the 10th and Stuyvesant Streets Block Association.

This triangular space in front of the St. Mark’s-in-the-Bowery Church dates to 1799. It was originally acquired, along with the triangle at East 10th and Stuyvesant Streets, for street purposes and was developed as a sitting area in 1938. The park is host to a greenmarket and a summer concert series. It contains a memorial flagpole that was dedicated in 1944 by the Ukrainian American Society.

Maybe instead of charging $12.50 for soup and half a sandwich Abe should have upped that to $20. Karma's a real bitch.

Let's assume that the deli made a respectable margin to stay in business for the past 15 years. The $3000 saved per month works out to $540,000 before interest, which would support a a $9000 rent increase for the next 5 years.

Assuming a very conservative monthly interest rate of 1%, the invested savings should be closer to about $1.5 million, which would support a $9000 rent increase for the next 13 years and 10 months.

I don't know anything about retail space rents, but $33,000 a month seems like an amount that no business can sustain. 24K seems more than reasonable. Landlord is an A-hole.

That's right. Only an a-hole would seek to have contractual obligations lived up to (and even still knocking off 3 grand).

a) Yossi is right. What you are wittnissing is karma in action. (For an example of good neighborhood business karma see the recently renewed Love Saves The Day lease). Remember kids: This is New York City, Things Change Here.

b) Chain-stores are everywhere. Don't like 'em? Don't shop at 'em. But try and "educate" a pack of hungry midwestern heifers as they stuff themselves into the St. Mark's Quizno's clutching their Starbucks cups and you are just going to look like an fool. Not even a noble one. Don't worry though, the chains will leave when the time is right. Remember kids: This is New York City, Things Change Here.

c) And finally, to "dude", a Circuit City near 8th Street on Broadway? Am I having a premature eldery moment or do you mean the Nobody Beats the Wiz (later just The Wiz) which closed due to bankruptcy? Because that closing had nothing to do with foot traffic. As for your desire to send totaly acceptable businesses like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel, businesses which bring boatloads of money into New York and pay many reasonable salaries to many people, "packing" out of New York: Would you mind leading them on their way?

I lament the loss as much as anyone else, but the numbers don't play out to make this such a David and Goliath story. The Times article notes they have 250 seats (which seems impossible to me). But if it's true, and they turn each seat 3 times a day (seems reasonable for a deli) and gross $12 per turn (again, reasonable for a place that charges $18 for a sandwich), the gross is $216,000/mo. Making $24K 11% of gross revenues, and $33K 15%, both in line with restaurants, or any small business.

If the costs of updating equipment makes you go under, that's just bad management. Shifting the blame to the landlord maybe because you simply want to retire is cheap too.

Did any of you actually read the damn article instead of blaming the landlord???????

From NYTIMES

"The rent increase is actually built into the lease that Mr. Lebewohl negotiated with the previous owners 15 years ago. The new owners have volunteered to come down $3,000 in the new rent, but no further."

Apparently Jack Lebewohl priced himself out of the market!!

"Everyone seems to complain about them yet they must keep going, because they keep popping up."

Actually, the problem with chain stores is that they do not necessarily rely on the revenue of one specific location to help them stay alive.

Profit in chains is based on the average of sales across the chain and the specific outlets stay open unless they become a drain on resources.

Starbucks is much more nefarious as they happily open multiple locations in one area to elbow out the competition. Sometimes these clustered outlets loose money. But that's okay. After 2-3 years of having sales squeezed away the competition folds and Starbucks is the only game in the neighborhood.

And more to the point, there is no chain of Kosher delis out there so the argument is ridiculous.

Daniel,

While I agree that the pastrami was overpriced, there is a vast difference between that deli's pastrami and the homemade stuff at 2nd ave. If you can't admit that, you know nothing of pastrami. That said, it has often been the consensus that the pastrami at Katz's was superior to 2nd Ave's version, although 2nd ave's corned beef was the better of the two. For the record, a pastrami sandwich at Katz's is about 12 bucks, which seems about 6 dollars more reasonable than 18.

Jack

Bloomberg isn't working on saving 2nd Ave Deli because the OWNER negotiated the rent hike into the contract!!

READ THE DAMN ARTICLE

This is a gimmick and you have fallen for it.

"quizno's closed on st. mark's months ago. "rugged sole," the shoe store on west 8th by fifth ave is opening a new spot there."

Isn't another Quizno also opening up right across the street from the "Strand" on 12th and B'way, too?

You might want to also recall that the price on the 2nd avenue deli food is also higher because it is kosher. Katz's (surprisingly) is not. Anyone who has looked at the price difference at the supermarket knows that kosher meat is excessively more expensive. And, moreover, those of us who do keep kosher don't have too many (meat) options aside from the 2nd avenue deli (short of making trips to Kings Highway, Midtown, or Flushing).

Let's also mourn Ratner's and Rappaport's while we're at it too.

The closing of the Orchidia, a Ukrainian-Italian restaurant on the NW corner of Second Avenue and 9th Street, more than 18 years ago, was another beginnings of the demise of the East Village.

Mr. Lebewohl may indeed be playing for media attention, but that does not mean the landlord is not greedy, impolitic, and heartless, and the tremendous contribution of the Lebewohl family to the community has to be taken into account. For people of Jewish heritage, and those who value Jewish heritage, in NYC, the deli is a great source of culinary/spiritual sustenance. Even if the pastrami sandwich goes as high as $25, it's worth it!

A reply to the few comments above re: 2nd Ave Deli's prices: Like it or not, obtaining (and retaining) a recognized kashrut (kosher) certification is a VERY expensive proposition which is inexorably reflected in menu prices. So, yes, 2nd Ave's prices were high(er), but that becomes a non-factor for those who follow kashrut.

It seems from an article I just read online that 2nd Avenue Deli was already owing back-rent in excess of $100K. The new landlord had already filed an eviction proceeding. When a building owner buys and finances a property, they need to rely on the current leases in place (if for nothing else than to pay their mortgage). Why shouldn't they? That's what real estate companies do. The only check and balance against this type of situation is community support. But I believe that there is good reason for the total lack of public outcry and support...

If Jack Lebewohl knew that he was in dire financial trouble, why didn't he try to seek help from the community, government, media, etc? There are certainly enough powerful and passionate people in the city who would have rallied and helped to support the deli in some way. The rich and famous eat there all the time. With adequate warning, there could have been a huge PR blitz that could have helped.

Jack's brother Abe had a reputation for loving the community. The business was more than a balance sheet to him. The manner in which Jack L. simply closed the restaurant without notice to his staff or customers shows the kind of guy he is. Why not give people a chance to say "good-bye"? His sudden closing of the deli has a punitive feel to it. But who is he punishing? At a minimum, where was the press release thanking customers that were loyal to his restaurant for decades (and agreed to pay $7 for a knish)?

This place was literally a second dining room to many people in the city (including my wife and me). We LOVED the place. We had our favorite waitress and would only sit in the back room. When I first heard about the closing, I was devastated and sure that it was a negotiating tactic. But now that the true story is out, it seems more a case of, at best, an incompetant owner with a poor understanding of PR and, at worst, a greedy business owner. Maybe living in the shadow of a legendary, loved and martyred older brother was the culprit. Maybe the thought of destroying Abe's legacy is somehow consciously or subconsciously behind this (the images I've seen online of the workers taking down the 2nd Avenue Deli sign with Abe's name signify this perfectly) . In any event, Abe will always be remembered by those of us who ate his wonderful food. Abe Lebewohl Park (across the street) will exist for a long time. Sitting in that park and remembering the corned beef will have to be enough.

I for one will miss the Pastrami Sandwiches... and Jews already control the world, haven't you been to Hollywood?

(where to these wackos come from?)