Closings

The 75-Year-Old Stage Deli Is Closed

We'll miss the blintzes.
We’ll miss the blintzes. Photo: Shanna Ravindra

What a bad week it has been for New York’s old-time delicatessens: On Sunday, a three-alarm fire nearly destroyed Sarge’s Delicatessen in Murray Hill, and today, Diner’s Journal reports that the 75-year-old Stage Deli closed for good at midnight. The restaurant was known for cheese blintzes and behemoth sandwiches; its countermen built cathedrals out of salami and pastrami and named them after celebrities. Paul Zolenge, who co-owned the restaurant with Steve Auerbach for the last 26 years, told Florence Fabricant that a scaffolding erected around the restaurant’s telltale neon wrap killed a lot of business during the last year. “We just couldn’t afford to keep it going any more,” he says, noting that it had also been difficult to keep up with the escalating rent. [Diner’s Journal/NYT, Earlier]

The 75-Year-Old Stage Deli Is Closed