Crossroads restaurant closing after less than two years. Owners blame lack of parking

Bill Fromm dreamed of owning a Jewish deli for nearly 55 years.

He made that dream a reality with the opening of the Broadway Deli at 2101 Broadway in May 2018.

Fromm teamed up with Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen in Chicago on the new fast-casual operation, putting together a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu that included bagels and cream cheese, corned beef sandwiches, matzo ball soup and Eli’s cheesecake. And he added a tagline under the logo: “Thought about since 1964.”

The restaurant is scheduled to close Oct. 26.

“I said ‘thought about since 1964’ but I should have thought about it a little longer,” he said. “It was never profitable.”

Manny’s officials, who came to town to personally train employees before the opening, said it was “unfortunate it didn’t work out.”

“We had a great time of working together with the team that we had put together there,” said Dan Raskin, owner of Manny’s.

Fromm said customer surveys consistently rated the deli tops for food, but parking was often given the lowest rating.

Broadway Deli only has a handful of parking spaces on the street, but customers could use a parking garage a couple of blocks away. Still, that was too far for some customers in poorer weather, Fromm said. And while area residents and office workers were loyal, even the most loyal customers typically don’t come to a deli more than once or twice a month, he said.

“You can’t live off people who live within walking distance,” he said. “You have to have a big market to draw from. I think if we had been in Johnson County we would have had a better chance.”

While parking was the main issue, Fromm said some customers had “sticker shock” when the restaurant first opened.

“People aren’t used to a $12 sandwich. But in New York and Chicago they are $15,” he said. “We are using the highest quality pastrami and corned beef you can have, the most expensive lox you can buy. If you are doing that quality you have to pay the price.”

In September, Broadway Deli tried lowering prices on many of the sandwiches and added some new items, including a Kale Panzanella salad.

Fromm said the landlord also offered some rent concessions earlier this year and then again a few months later, “but there’s just not enough traffic.”

Instead of keeping the deli open until after the holidays, Fromm said he wanted to use the restaurant’s “cash on hand” to pay vendors and provide severance for the restaurant’s staff of about a dozen.

Pezzettino Italian Deli & Market previously operated in the space but closed after less than three years of operations.

This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 11:18 AM.