This is a shande!!!

Hold the Mustard, Maybe Forever By ANDY NEWMAN - NYTimes.com
The Second Avenue Deli has survived turbulence and tragedy in its 51 years. The decline of the Jewish enclave on the Lower East Side did not kill it. The broad-daylight murder of its beloved founder, Abe Lebewohl, in a robbery in 1996 shut it down but briefly. Dietary fashion campaigns against artery-clogging fare like brick-thick pastrami sandwiches and fat-saturated potato latkes seemed only to make the lines of defiant fans longer. But the deli seems to have met its match in that implacable beast, the real estate market.

This is a shande!!! Like many New Yorkers, I can't really believe this is happening. Granted, I don't go to this deli very often but so what? It's where you take friends who've never had really good Jewish deli. I once went out of my way to go there for their delicious matzo ball soup for a sick friend. I've gone with people from out of town who loved it. Like Jackie Mason said, ""It's almost like wiping out Carnegie Hall". I wonder if they can maybe get landmark status. It'll be a really shame if New York loses this piece of it's living history.