Second Avenue Deli

The Second Avenue Deli is a certified-kosher delicatessen in Manhattan, New York City. In December 2007, the deli relocated to 162 East 33rd Street in Murray Hill. In August 2011, it opened a second branch at 1442 First Avenue on the Upper East Side.HistoryThe delicatessen originally opened in 1954 on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and East 10th Street in the Yiddish Theater District in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. By that time, most of the Yiddish theaters of the prior half-century had disappeared. The Yiddish Walk of Fame is on the sidewalk outside of its original location, honoring stars of the Yiddish era such as Molly Picon, actor Menasha Skulnik, singer and actor Boris Thomashevsky (grandfather of conductor, pianist, and composer Michael Tilson Thomas), and Fyvush Finkel (born Philip Finkel).It closed briefly following the murder of its founder Abe Lebewohl, a survivor of The Holocaust, during a robbery on March 4, 1996. The crime remains unsolved.On January 1, 2006, new owner Jack Lebewohl closed the delicatessen at its original location in the East Village after a rent increase and a dispute over back rent that the landlord had said was due. (The East Village location later became a Chase Bank branch.) On July 31, 2007, Lebewohl announced that the delicatessen would reopen at a new location in the fall of 2007. It reopened on December 17, 2007, at the Murray Hill location with Jeremy Lebewohl, the nephew of its founder, as its new proprietor.