PHILADELPHIA \u2014 After running the family deli for several decades, Steve Stein says his 83-year-old legs were telling him it was time to call it quits. But it wasn\u2019t only that.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood has totally changed since his dad, Mike, first took over the business more than 60 years ago. Back then Northeast Philadelphia was an epicenter of Jewish life, packed with synagogues and other Jewish establishments. Most of them are gone. And now \u2014 with the close of Steve Stein\u2019s Famous Deli and Restaurant \u2014 the area just lost its last Jewish deli.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But only after an outpouring of affection from longtime customers, who flocked to the place once news spread\u00a0 in the last few weeks. \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming,\u201d Stein said.\u00a0 \u201cThe amount of people that came in here in the last 10 days, two weeks. Their comments are very touching. I knew I was liked. I didn\u2019t know I was loved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be sure, several customers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they\u2019ll miss Stein, but they also bemoaned the fact there aren\u2019t many Jewish food options left. Certainly none with prices as low as Famous.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been going there my whole life, \u201c said Rebecca Asheuer, who grew up a few miles away from Famous\u2019 current location \u2014 its third since the Steins took over the business. \u201cI feel surprise and sadness, because it\u2019s the last one in the Northeast.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Jewish people are moving out of the city and also the businesses used to be passed down in families. Now with the economy and other stuff, people don\u2019t want to take over the family business anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another longtime customer mourned the closing of the deli, but also the disappearance of Jewish life in the area.<\/p>\n
The post Northeast Philadelphia says goodbye to its last Jewish deli<\/a> appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 After running the family deli for several decades, Steve Stein says his 83-year-old legs were telling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[115966,6314,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-276586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-jewish-deli","tag-jews-and-judaism","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}