Late last month, one day after the Loudonville deli Genoa Importing abruptly announced it was closed for good following a run of more than 35 years, the owner of the 71-year-old Gershon’s Deli & Caterers in Schenectady decided her business had also come to an end, though the news was not made public until two days later.
While apparently coincidental, the timing, in addition to the businesses’ longevity and their similarities, combined to resonate across the Capital Region as a powerful one-two punch, a communal loss felt more keenly because of the amplifying effects of nostalgia and taste-memory. To be suddenly without not one, but two beloved sandwich shops within days — whether for an Italian-mix sub called the Siena Fat Guy, in a nod to Genoa’s academic neighbors, or pastrami and beef tongue on rye, representing Gershon’s Jewish heritage — evoked a reaction far larger than what greets many of the scores of local restaurant closings each year. On the two businesses’ Facebook posts, total comments and reactions exceeded 2,800, with news viraling outward as the posts were shared a combined 660 times from the original pages alone, and then reshared hundreds of more times.
With the owners of neither Genoa nor Gershon’s so far willing to discuss the specifics of their respective closure decisions, clues and informed speculation point toward unsustainable financial pressure.
Antonia “Toni” Nelson has owned Gershon’s since 2016, following the death of her father, Tony Lauria, who started working for the company in 1978 and later took over, running it with partner Lou Gregory until Gregory’s 2009 retirement. On Feb. 1, Nelson announced the closure on Facebook and the Gershon’s website, citing concerns common across the hospitality industry in recent years including “rising food costs, ongoing economic challenges (and) the lasting effects of COVID.” She also alluded to but did not explain the possibility of a last-minute loan, investor, sale or other rescue, writing that “the loss of my final opportunity this week (has) left me with no other choice.”…