Thursday, January 12, 2006
Sal Anthony’s, Second Ave Deli are closing - who’s next?
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The news in the January 5, NYTimes about the closing of the Second Avenue Deli was depressing, to say the least. Next day’s update, about Jack Lebewohl looking for a resolution in "x days" before vacating was bracing. But the doors remain closed, and the daily kosher food seekers are deprived of their fare. There are alternatives – I hasten to note the two kosher delis on First Ave north of 14th Street, not that far from the 156 Second Avenue and 10th Street haven – but who can match the pickles, and the sauerkraut appetizers that miraculously appear even before your order is taken, and the intimidatingly large sandwiches of corned beef and pastrami piled high on rye? You can make two lunches of the leftovers alone.
This closing is not a unique event – Sal Anthony’s at 55 Irving Place (between 17th &18th Streets) is also closing in January, victim of a tripling of the rent. Tony Macagnone opened it 40 years ago, and it has served the neighborhood faithfully with good food at reasonable prices, giving the neighbors a street party at the last brownout, and providing trays and trays of dinners in the fateful days of 9/11/2001, when volunteers spent their days clearing the Ground Zero site, and coming back to the 13th Precinct for meals organized by Arlene Harrison ( many other restaurants of the T&V Country also contributed). Tony will not leave the neighborhood, he has the SPQR Restaurant in Little Italy and the Gyrotonic and Pilates Movement Salon in the landmarked historic former Fat Tuesday’s and Joe King’s Rathskeller, aka Scheffel Hall building at 190 Third Avenue, but we the clients will be the losers.
This is not the beginning and not the end. Adiana, the good Italian restaurant on Third Ave at 19th Street, closed in 2004, and remains shuttered. CGBG, an immensely popular entertainment place on Third Avenue, closed last year, when the landlord, a charity, of all things, claiming the needs of its homeless clients, forced it to shut down – or was it to make real estate profits? Even the Mayor, forever looking for restaurants to fill the leaks in his budget, has raised the sidewalk café taxes, and the inspectors have tightened their requirements and fines. A 17th Street restaurant, currently worrying about a tripled rent two years from now, had to accommodate a t ax increase f from $3,000 to $11,000 plus for its ten outside tables.
The landlords who overpaid for real estate and are now trying to cash in by tripling the rents must realize that the ordinary New Yorker’s food budget is not a forever-stretchable affair. At some point people give up on restaurant food, and go to the premade dinners now so readily available – not only TV dinners but also readymade frozen vegetables and pre-roasted chicken in the supermarket, or Whole Foods huge selection of hot buffet and cold takeout varieties. Only the celebrity restaurants on Park Avenue and Union Square, specializing in boy-meet-girl, business lunches and birthday celebrations can stretch their prices to accommodate huge rent increases, and the owners (the names of Mario Batali, Danny Meyer, Steve Hansen, Todd English and Eric Pettersen come to mind) leverage their businesses by having a bunch of venues, not just one or two.
Ordinary businesses that will take the space once occupied by a restaurant just cannot afford the humongous rents that the realtors now want. The real estate boom is shutting down. The places that two-income families frequented do not reopen once closed. There is a blog that runs a regular Plywood Report, listing all the food and drink facilities that have been shuttered. The implications are not pleasant to consider.
Going back to Second Avenue Deli, the rent increase is not that frightening in percentage terms –$24,000 a month up to $31,000 in five years, for 2,800 square feet. The actual increase number, $9,000 a month, represents major boost per unit of food sold, particularly when Jack Lebewohl forecasts a need to spend several hundred thousand dollars to upgrade the storage, refrigeration and general restaurant facilities, satisfactory last year but now requiring work to pass the upcoming tighter Board of Health inspection requirements. He cannot take the risk of the investment without a long-term lease at reasonable terms, and is closing now. The new landlord, Martin Newman of Jonis Realty of Great Neck who bought the property from Sterling Equities, shrugs his shoulders, calls it fair and points at the $17.50 tongue-on-rye sandwich, presumably as representing a considerable profit margin.
Let us hope that the Second Avenue Deli dispute gets settled, in the interests of the people who depend on its kosher facilities, the charities that receive its free food, the employees who make a living there, and us, the neighbors and once in a while visitors who enjoy the food and atmosphere, and like to check out the stars in the sidewalk representing the greats of the Yiddish Theatre, and visit the little triangle park across from St. Mark’s in the Bouwerie, named for his late brother Abe, whose murder nearly ten years ago remains a mystery.
The news in the January 5, NYTimes about the closing of the Second Avenue Deli was depressing, to say the least. Next day’s update, about Jack Lebewohl looking for a resolution in "x days" before vacating was bracing. But the doors remain closed, and the daily kosher food seekers are deprived of their fare. There are alternatives – I hasten to note the two kosher delis on First Ave north of 14th Street, not that far from the 156 Second Avenue and 10th Street haven – but who can match the pickles, and the sauerkraut appetizers that miraculously appear even before your order is taken, and the intimidatingly large sandwiches of corned beef and pastrami piled high on rye? You can make two lunches of the leftovers alone.
This closing is not a unique event – Sal Anthony’s at 55 Irving Place (between 17th &18th Streets) is also closing in January, victim of a tripling of the rent. Tony Macagnone opened it 40 years ago, and it has served the neighborhood faithfully with good food at reasonable prices, giving the neighbors a street party at the last brownout, and providing trays and trays of dinners in the fateful days of 9/11/2001, when volunteers spent their days clearing the Ground Zero site, and coming back to the 13th Precinct for meals organized by Arlene Harrison ( many other restaurants of the T&V Country also contributed). Tony will not leave the neighborhood, he has the SPQR Restaurant in Little Italy and the Gyrotonic and Pilates Movement Salon in the landmarked historic former Fat Tuesday’s and Joe King’s Rathskeller, aka Scheffel Hall building at 190 Third Avenue, but we the clients will be the losers.
This is not the beginning and not the end. Adiana, the good Italian restaurant on Third Ave at 19th Street, closed in 2004, and remains shuttered. CGBG, an immensely popular entertainment place on Third Avenue, closed last year, when the landlord, a charity, of all things, claiming the needs of its homeless clients, forced it to shut down – or was it to make real estate profits? Even the Mayor, forever looking for restaurants to fill the leaks in his budget, has raised the sidewalk café taxes, and the inspectors have tightened their requirements and fines. A 17th Street restaurant, currently worrying about a tripled rent two years from now, had to accommodate a t ax increase f from $3,000 to $11,000 plus for its ten outside tables.
The landlords who overpaid for real estate and are now trying to cash in by tripling the rents must realize that the ordinary New Yorker’s food budget is not a forever-stretchable affair. At some point people give up on restaurant food, and go to the premade dinners now so readily available – not only TV dinners but also readymade frozen vegetables and pre-roasted chicken in the supermarket, or Whole Foods huge selection of hot buffet and cold takeout varieties. Only the celebrity restaurants on Park Avenue and Union Square, specializing in boy-meet-girl, business lunches and birthday celebrations can stretch their prices to accommodate huge rent increases, and the owners (the names of Mario Batali, Danny Meyer, Steve Hansen, Todd English and Eric Pettersen come to mind) leverage their businesses by having a bunch of venues, not just one or two.
Ordinary businesses that will take the space once occupied by a restaurant just cannot afford the humongous rents that the realtors now want. The real estate boom is shutting down. The places that two-income families frequented do not reopen once closed. There is a blog that runs a regular Plywood Report, listing all the food and drink facilities that have been shuttered. The implications are not pleasant to consider.
Going back to Second Avenue Deli, the rent increase is not that frightening in percentage terms –$24,000 a month up to $31,000 in five years, for 2,800 square feet. The actual increase number, $9,000 a month, represents major boost per unit of food sold, particularly when Jack Lebewohl forecasts a need to spend several hundred thousand dollars to upgrade the storage, refrigeration and general restaurant facilities, satisfactory last year but now requiring work to pass the upcoming tighter Board of Health inspection requirements. He cannot take the risk of the investment without a long-term lease at reasonable terms, and is closing now. The new landlord, Martin Newman of Jonis Realty of Great Neck who bought the property from Sterling Equities, shrugs his shoulders, calls it fair and points at the $17.50 tongue-on-rye sandwich, presumably as representing a considerable profit margin.
Let us hope that the Second Avenue Deli dispute gets settled, in the interests of the people who depend on its kosher facilities, the charities that receive its free food, the employees who make a living there, and us, the neighbors and once in a while visitors who enjoy the food and atmosphere, and like to check out the stars in the sidewalk representing the greats of the Yiddish Theatre, and visit the little triangle park across from St. Mark’s in the Bouwerie, named for his late brother Abe, whose murder nearly ten years ago remains a mystery.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 9:07 AM 
