It’s the “wurst” of instances for iconic Queens German butchery Zum Stammtisch Pork Retailer.
The beloved deli, which for 14 years catered to Glendale’s dwindling German diaspora, will shut its doorways on March 1.
“For us, it’s sad,” Hans Lehner, Zum Stammtisch’s co-owner, advised The Publish. “We’d like to preserve it going, nevertheless it simply turns into a matter of numbers.
“Costs have been going up and up. … It’s hard to pass these prices on to customers.”
Lehner, 51, and his brother Werner have additionally run the adjoining Zum Stammtisch restaurant since 1993. Their father, John, a coppersmith, opened the Bavarian eatery in 1972 after emigrating from Germany within the Fifties.
In 2010, the brothers seized the chance to open the pork retailer subsequent door after legendary neighborhood butcher Karl Ehmer shut his doorways.
Zum Stammtisch, one of many Huge Apple’s few surviving Bavarian beer halls and butchers, has lengthy been a watering gap for each blue-collar Germans and Queens transplants. The shop usually attracted foot visitors from restaurant diners, who handled it like an “exit through the gift shop.”
However its buyer base has thinned over time.
“Honestly, since the pandemic, the base — the old Germans in the neighborhood — just aren’t as plentiful,” Lehner stated. “We’re a niche market … but with price increases and everything else, it doesn’t work anymore.”
The pandemic was the ultimate nail within the coffin, Lehner stated.
“The pandemic helped us out tremendously because we were an essential business. But once the smoke cleared, there was just less of a customer base,” he added.
Celebrated German-Polish butcher Morscher’s Pork Retailer additionally closed final 12 months, after many years in enterprise because of skyrocketing lease.
In 2024, retail retailer closures hit a document 7,325 nationwide, based on Coresight Analysis. And that quantity is predicted to double this 12 months.
Like many eating places throughout the town combating hovering prices, the pork retailer confronted an unsustainable enterprise mannequin, closely depending on imported items from Germany and Europe.
The pork retailer’s closure has alarmed Zum’s eating regulars, who fear the restaurant will comply with go well with.
“I want to preface everything with the fact that we’re doing great, we’re fine, we’re strong, and we’ll be here for many, many years to come,” Lehner stated concerning the restaurant.
“But it’s like the old German saying, ‘everything has an end except the wurst — it has two.’ And this, unfortunately, is the end of the pork store.”
Contained in the store, clients browsed cabinets lined with German beer, sweet, salami, sauerkraut, pink cabbage, German leisure magazines and people music CDs. The deli counter displayed an array of wursts.
“We make a wurst of the week — everything from mango habanero bratwurst to teriyaki bratwurst, Korean barbecue bratwurst,” Lehner boasted.
One of many pork retailer’s specialties, leberkäse — a German meatloaf comprised of floor pork, beef and bacon — then emerged from the oven, its savory aroma filling the store. A deli employee sliced off a steaming hunk and provided it up.
Above the counter, a cheeky signal proclaimed its cult standing: “Sex, drugs, and leberkäs!”
“It’s almost mandatory — everybody walks out with some leberkäse,” Lehner stated.
Quite a few longtime clients, some who lined as much as go to the shop for the final time, waxed nostalgia about it final week.
“I’m very disappointed,” Vicki Breton, 69, advised The Publish. “This is one of the reasons we come here all the way from Brooklyn.”
Breton and her husband, Antonio, regulars for practically 30 years, stocked up on his favourite dish.
“Schnitzel, what else?” Antonio Breton, 70, stated, proudly holding a jar of German mustard formed like a mini beer stein. “It’s excellent.”
The couple, who met whereas serving within the US Military in Germany in 1976, as soon as lived in Glendale however moved to Brooklyn seven years in the past.
It was “sad” to see the place go, retired firefighter Kenny Kresse stated, after buying potato salad and bratwursts.
“I grew up in Ridgewood with the Germans, and there used to be more of these places,” Kresse, 57, advised The Publish. “I don’t know where to go after this.”
Kew Gardens resident John Metzler, a pink cabbage devotee, was equally disheartened.
“When it comes to Christmas or special holidays, this store was amongst the best,” he stated. “The neighborhood, which was once very German, Austrian, and even Italian, isn’t anymore. It’s a turning of a page.”
With that in thoughts, clients have been touring tons of of miles to pay homage.
“[We] had people drive up from South Carolina last week just to pick up a couple hundred dollars’ worth of stuff,” he stated. “It’s humorous. “Some ask, ‘what can we do?’
“It’s the new way of the world with brick-and-mortar stores. Stuff like this, you can’t get on Amazon.”
