A woman walked up to the door of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli & Restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia Aug. 26. After reading a sign, she walked away.

“They’re closed,” she said.

A few minutes later, a man knocked on the door and got a response from Steve Stein, the (locally) Famous owner.

“I’m sorry,” Stein told the man. “We don’t have anything left.”

Inside the food market section, the shelves and pickle barrels were mostly empty. Over on the restaurant side, the tables were also vacant. Only Stein and some movers milled about.

But a sign with the deli’s name, Steve Stein Famous, and slogan, Where Family and Friends Meet Dine Enjoy, still hung above the dining area.

Famous had only closed one day earlier.

“It upsets you. It gets to you. It’s my life, and it’s gone. But I guess I wanted it gone because otherwise I would have stayed,” Stein said.

The reasons for Famous’ closure were manifold.

Stein is 83 and has trouble standing for 10 to 12 hours. His son is looking for “something smaller,” Stein said. The Orthodox community that remains in Northeast Philadelphia is not the typical clientele for a Jewish deli that’s open on Shabbat and serves nonkosher foods.

But the biggest reason was clear: The non-Orthodox Jewish community in this section of Philadelphia had long since moved out. There were once 15 non-Orthodox synagogues in Northeast Philly. Now, there are two — Temple Beth Ami and Temple Menorah-Keneseth Chai — both of which have fewer than 150 members, none of them young families.

Stein also estimated that there used to be more than 40 Jewish delis up and down Castor and Bustleton avenues. But now, there are none, as Famous was the last one standing.

“Jack’s was the first. They left 10 years ago,” Stein said.

It’s now a familiar story. Jewish delis across the country are closing and declining in number. To the extent that they still survive, they have to move out of the city enclaves in which they once thrived.

As the New York Historical Society noted in a 2023 report by NPR’s WWNO in New Orleans, New York City alone supported 1,500 Jewish delis in the 1930s. Fast forward to the present day, and barely 300 survive nationwide.

In the first half of the 20th century, East Baltimore, particularly the area around Lombard Street, had a group of prominent delis that included Nate’s & Leon’s, Sussman and Lev’s, Mandell-Ballow’s, Awrach and Perl’s, Weiss Deli and Attman’s. Today, only Weiss Deli and Attman’s remain in that area.

“We had a fabulous run, an unbelievable run, a lot of years,” said Stein of his Famous location.

Stein has been in the deli business for 63 years. Two of his Northeast Philadelphia delis, both on Krewstown Road, lasted for two decades.

He moved his operation to the Grant Plaza Shopping Center on Grant Avenue in 2012. It lasted in that spot for 14 years despite the Jewish exodus from Northeast Philadelphia.

“They come from Montgomery County, Bucks County. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here this long. But it just gets thinner and thinner every day,” Stein said.

Suburban Jewish enclaves can still support Jewish delis, according to Stein. Montgomery County has Pumpernick’s, Hymie’s and Ben & Irv’s. Bucks County has Moish & Itzy’s. Cherry Hill has Kibitz Room, which recently reopened, and Radin’s, which launched in 2023.

But even in those areas, the business model is not as profitable as it used to be. The Famous owner explained that moving his operation to the suburbs would have cost “$45 per square foot.” The high cost would then force Stein to charge “$25 a pound for corned beef.”

“There’s more money in Cherry Hill. Now in Montgomery County there’s money, Bucks County,” he said. “But there aren’t many in Montgomery County because of the cost of doing business.”

In recent years, Stein raised his own prices in Northeast Philly to $16.99 a pound for corned beef. It hurt his bottom line.

“I had a problem doing that,” he said.

Stein lives in the suburbs.

“Where I live, there are no Jewish delis,” he said. “There is a place called Manny’s; it’s half the size of this restaurant. How much business are you going to do in half the size of this restaurant?”

Stein used to run Famous with his father, brother and cousin, but all three of them have since passed away.

“We were doing well. And they all passed, unfortunately, and I’m the next to pass. I’m 83 … how long …you know,” he said.

While Stein is retiring, he’s probably not done yet. He said he may work as a buyer for wholesalers because it’s a strength of his.

“I may consider that,” he said.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com