My favorite local deli — Canter's, over on Fairfax — has announced they're discontinuing table service between the hours of 3 AM and 8 AM except on Friday and Saturday nights. The deli, which has been one of L.A.'s great "we never close" hangouts, will still be open 24 hours but only the deli counter and bakery counter will be selling food during the late weeknight hours.
What is it with classic delicatessens closing down? In a short space of time, New York lost both the Carnegie Deli and the Stage Deli, which were one block from each other on one of the most heavily-trafficked streets in the world. Now we have Canter's here cutting back along with the aforementioned rumors about the Nate 'n Al Deli deli going away.
Some of the closures seem to be matters of real estate deals. I'm told the 24-hour Du-Par's non-deli restaurant in Studio City (which we wrote about here) closed because even if they'd doubled their prices and their business, they could not have afforded what another business was willing to pay to lease their space. Rumor has it that if Nate 'n Al's vanishes, it will because of a mega-deal to redevelop much of that block. It's profitable, a friend told me, but not so profitable it can be allowed to stand in the way of what some developer wants to do on that street.
So that explains some of it. I'm wondering how much it matters that some people want to eat healthier than they think they can in a place that specializes in pastrami sandwiches so thick you can't wrap your mouth around one. Then again, pizza places keep trying to up the cheese and bacon content of their products so I'm not sure what's going on here. It's hard to believe any kind of business in today's America would flounder because too many people are counting calories.