[URBAN NOTE] Mel's Delicatessen is gone: Should I cheer?

[rfmcdonald]

blogTO was the first to let me know that Mel's Delicatessen, a Montreal-style deli in the Annex, was closing down. absinthe_dot_ca links to a National Post article that goes into more detail.

Mel’s Montreal Delicatessen, the smoked-meat mainstay located at the corner of Bloor St. West and Howland Ave., had a chain locked to its door and a ‘Notice of Distress’ posted on its window last week. The notice states that the property within the restaurant will “be sold for the best price that can be got for them towards the satisfaction of rent.”

Mel’s Diner, which boasts the words “We never close” beside its sunny logo, was an Annex fixture for more than 15 years. As the only 24-hour restaurant in the neighbourhood, the diner was the spot where shift workers headed before or after work, and where drunken students emerging from the Brunswick House stumbled into before heading home.

The restaurant was known for its meat-laden poutine, Montreal smoked meat and matzo soup balls. First-time visitors found themselves reading the yellowed newspaper articles glued under the glass tabletops that told the story of the many children the proprietors adopted and in turn employed at the restaurant. Some of the adult children were still working there at the time of the closure. Owner Melanie Simpson did not return e-mail requests for an interview.

The thing is, as the commenters noted, the food was bland at best and the service very bad. (I don't like waiting for minutes and minutes on end while the staff are chatting at the counter.) If it's in fact true that the recession is shaking out sub-par businesses, good.