Pastrami on why? Perplexed Bronx deli owners facing possible shutdown after 60 years over ongoing gas line flap with city
Sisters Pamela Loeser Halpern (left) and Lisa Loeser Weiss (right) help their father Freddy run Loeser's Kosher Deli on W. 231st St. in Kingsbridge, the Bronx. (Greg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
For the last 59 years, when the Bronx burned or the politicians left in handcuffs or the football Giants fled for New Jersey, comfort food was always on the menu at Loeser’s Kosher Deli.
The venerable eatery, renowned for its homemade knishes and overstuffed pastrami sandwiches, now teeters on the edge of culinary oblivion after city buildings inspectors closed the old-school deli following the fluky mid-November discovery of non-code compliant plumbing.
“We had Thanksgiving dinner and everyone just sat and cried,” said co-owner Linda Loeser Weiss, 52, who helps run the deli with her sister Pamela. “We’re just hoping for a holiday miracle.”
The local fixture with the homey wood paneling, cited by the Daily News in 2011 for the best pastrami in the city, now faces a $100,000 tab and a possible three-month shutdown to meet current standards.
“One plumber said, 'Did you ever see the movie ‘The Money Pit’?” recounted Pamela Loeser Halpern, 50.
A notice of closure and a handwritten note were taped to the door of Loeser's Kosher Deli, on W. 231st St. in the Bronx. (Gregg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
Family patriarch Fredy Loeser, 76, was still showing up each day to place orders and do paperwork up until the Nov. 20 closing. Family lore has it that Fredy only met Elayne, his wife of 55 years, through the deli: While looking out the front window, he noticed a neighborhood woman walking past on several occasions.
“Finally one day dad said, ‘You look like you’re hungry. You want to come in for a hot dog?’” recounted Pamela.
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In a particularly cruel twist, the shutdown comes just two months after the corner at W. 231st St. and Godwin Terrace in Kingsbridge was renamed in honor of the nearby deli that opened its doors when Mayor Robert F. Wagner still ruled in City Hall and Mickey Mantle still roamed in Yankee Stadium.
Locals like Patricia Windley, 71, were stunned to see the business shuttered in recent days.
This gas pipe, which is a city building inspector said has been the wrong place for 60 years, has led to the closure of Loeser's Deli in Kingsbridge, the Bronx. (Gregg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
“It’s a landmark,” she said. “What are they going to put there instead?”
The problem arose when city buildings officials received a 311 call about gas piping installed in a deli without permits at 212 W. 231st St., a building that houses both Loeser’s and the Bunny Deli II. The latter business was hit with four violations, and Loeser’s became collateral damage when they were inspected as well — and cited for one violation.
“Our inspectors found illegal, unpermitted and potentially dangerous gas work at this location, which poses a fire hazard to the building occupants and their neighbors,” said Department of Buildings spokeswoman Abigail Kunitz.
Initially, the gas was shut off to the deli. Six days later, Loeser’s was shuttered after a Health Department check found no hot water to rinse and sanitize utensils. The sisters, after operating with a limited menu and using multiple coffee urns with boiling water to keep things clean, were out of business.
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