Obama Lunch Visit Can't Save South Florida Deli
The bad economy dooms the popular Deli Den
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As a Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle ate a cheesesteak and fries during a campaign stop at Pat's King of Steaks.
Usually, a lunch visit by the President of the United States is enough to send a sandwich shop's business through the roof.
But for the Deli Den, the then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's 2008 lunch was just the final highlight before it closed its doors.
The Hollywood deli and mainstay of the South Florida sandwich scene has served its last bowl of matzah ball soup and shuttered its doors Sunday, said owner Bernie Emano. The shop has to be out by Tuesday.
Owners claim Obama's stimulus cash -- his $53.77 lunch tab for potato latkes, Nova, cream cheese and bagels, black and white cookies and oatmeal-raisin cookies -- wasn't enough to stymie the effects of the bad economy or a hike in rent. Deli Den had been at 2881 Stirling Road for the past two decades.
The popular lunch spot's unexpected and sudden closure stunned customers who showed up for a sandwich on Monday. They found a "closed for business" sign.
Looks like Obama, who will be in Miami on April 15, and the rest of South Florida will have to find a new place to answer that lunch time hunger.
