Worman's Closes this Saturday

[hanjin1]

Looks like Worman's is closing Saturday. This is sad, because I love eating lunch here, but I guess the bad economy and the courthouse not being built took this place to the ground. I would also add that this being one of the only buildings left in the area didn't help much either.


http://www.jacksonville.com/business/2009-08-07/story/wormans_bakery_and_deli_in_downtown_jacksonville_closing

Worman’s bakery and deli, a downtown fixture decades, will close Saturday, after its owners waited for years for a new courthouse to be built across the street from its Broad Street location.

Long popular for its bakery offerings, as a breakfast destination and as a business luncheon spot, the restaurant endured street construction and other difficulties in recent years.

Across the street from where the new courthouse is under construction, the restaurant took its name from Sam and Rosa Worman, who established the New York Star Bakery in Jacksonville in 1923. They moved to Daytona Beach in 1935 and returned to Jacksonville to open a Worman's bakery at 204 Broad Street in 1938 or 1939.

In recent years it has been operated by Pearl Worman Leibowitz-Sederbaum, daughter of the Wormans  along with her brother, Morris, and nephew, Scott Worman.

In recent years Worman’s owners and employees had looked forward to the new courthouse being constructed, and more than a few courthouse employees had looked forward to being situated closer to Worman’s.

“We’re just waiting for it to happen,” Leibowitz-Sederbaum told a Times-Union reporter five years ago, about the planned courthouse construction.

A second Worman’s location in San Marco closed nine years ago, in part because of street construction.

[thelakelander]

This sucks but they mentioned a while back that they were not going to keep the place open long term.   It seemed like they were waiting to cash in by selling the property, once the courthouse project increased its value.

[fsujax]

Dang it....I love that place. Thats where I would take lots of out of towners for breakfast and fresh pastries.

[zoo]

While not totally unexpected, this is a major bummer. Scott and his aunt, Pearl, ran a great pastry shop and deli, and they told great stories of old Jax. I never did learn exactly who made the pastry creations, tho. If not Morris, I wonder if they'd consider opening pastry shop somewhere else?

[BridgeTroll]

I would think this is an excellent opportunity for someone.  At some point the courthouse will be completed... teeming with hungry lawyers, clerks, secretaries with nothing else to eat for blocks around except a few hot dog vendors.

[Deuce]

Sad to see them go. I used to get lunch from them a lot when I worked at Beaver Street Fisheries. They were always friendly and would put in the order for my usual when I walked in the door (I didn't even need to step up to order eventually). Loved their pastries and baked goods! That's a gaping hole in the urban core market almost immediately.

[Dog Walker]

Pearl had a stroke not too long ago and cannot work anymore.  This had to be part of the decision.

[stjr]

This is really sad.  I ate at the downtown store regularly for the last 30 years and before that at the San Marco store since I was a child.  They even made the pastries, etc. at the clubs my parents and grandparents belonged to when I was born.

I think a number of reasons have been offered for their demise and some of all of them are probably true:  Pearl's illness, the economy, failure to update and modernize operations, sanitation and furnishings, value of the land with the new courthouse, isolation up until now awaiting the courthouse ....

There is no question that this concept should be successful in another reincarnation and hopefully, as they indicated, it comes to be.  Jax used to have several Jewish-style deli's and now they are down to a couple of wannabees.  The closest similar style deli is probably now Strathmores in Palm Coast, a franchise of a New York deli by the same name.

[tufsu1]

Very sad indeed....I'll be there in the morning if they are still open....Scott Worman has told me he had no desire to run the place once his parent's couldn't do it anymore.

As for other Jewish delis, there is a new place in Mandarin called Nosh...its pretty good.

[Omarvelous09]

Dammit!! I basically grew up in that place, my family has been eating there since i was a child. Ive had so many birthday cakes made there...this is truly saddening.

[Seraphs]

Too bad they couldn't hang on for another 18 months.

[JeffreyS]

I hope we can get to where we do not see so many of these threads.

[tufsu1]

This one was purely a family decision....as noted above, Mom had a stroke last year and apperntly Dad is ill....Scott, the son, never intended to take over for his parents...instead, he's looking forward to taking a vacation for the first time in 10 years.

[JeffreyS]

Hope they enjoy what ever comes next.

[shanshan1218]

wow. this one completely flew passed me. I'm sad to see this, however, I can understand it.