The restaurant business—and especially kosher delis—are not for the faint of heart. It’s a tough industry with very slim profit margins. That’s the perception of Steve Rosenblum, 2020 Jewish Light Unsung Hero and a longtime restaurant owner.
“In general, delis are sort of disappearing over the country,” Rosenblum said, when discussing the sudden closing of Kohn’s Kosher Meat and Deli. “New York used to have a ton of delis, and they don’t anymore. The business has changed. Now with Costco, and you can order products online that they ship them to you, so the ability to get kosher food is a lot greater and easier.”
A check of Costco in University City this week showed kosher Glatt Angus ground beef for $6.99 per pound and Glatt Kosher beef brisket for $13.49 per pound.
Rosenblum said profit margins in the restaurant business make it particularly difficult to remain viable, especially with higher food costs and the additional expense of maintaining a completely kosher commercial kitchen.
“It’s not a high margin business,” he said. “And you have a limited population of customers. I think there’s a twofold situation: probably a victim of the changing times, and then also a victim of it being a very personal business. Times are changing, the margins are changing, and to a large degree with absentee owners when you hire somebody to run it, It’s a different relationship.
“It just eats away at some of your business, and it hurts your volume. And if your revenues go down, your other expenses are bigger costs relative to the revenue. There’s an old restaurant axiom: ‘Volume cures a lot of ills.’ If you do enough business, the sheer amount of business overwhelms all your costs because you’re just so busy that the other costs kind of work out.
“It’s a shame to think that our community, which is a pretty vibrant, organized community, can’t support it. There have been other kosher restaurants that have opened, and they all closed for lack of support.”
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