Nick's Deli is closed

I made the trip from Maplewood, New Jersey, to Nick's Deli on the corner of 7th Avenue and West 49th Street in Times Square via train and subway. When I got there it was closed ... apparently for good.

I hadn't been there for a couple of months, thinking each week that I would make the trip and then putting it off ... mostly I think because it was (is) summer ... and Nick's has always been best done in the cooler months. Now I regret the delay in going.

But all was (is) not lost!

I immediately set out to find another eatery on this end of Times Square. I checked out the Playwright Tavern across 7th and still on West 49th ... a wee bit too uptown for my tastes. I have to have something quite a bit more scruffy ... not in the sense of unkempt, but in the sense of showing signs of plebian wear and tear, a place for us common folk to sit and eat ... and for me, to think and write.

I think I've found it.


BellyDelly Deli
1625 Broadway
Between 49th & 50th St
New York, New York 10019

Tel: 212-333-5650, 5733, 5750
Fax: 212-333-7464


And guess what, not only do they make an excellent tuna salad sandwich and have good drip coffee, they have a real salad bar AND internet access both via wifi and computer kiosks. (In fact, I am posting this message from one of their NEXTNET public internet access terminals. I purchased a prepaid card at the downstairs register and got on.)

My imagination is running sort of wild at the moment ... having a deli as THE end terminus of this particular journey where I come to the north end of Times Square on the N or R Trains, have my standard fare of a tuna salad sand with a pickle on the side and coffee, sit and comntemplate my navel while making some entries in my journal ... then wander on foot back down through Times Square before either returning directly home via the Midtown Direct commuter train from Penn Station or continuing further south to Greenwich Village and catching the Path from the 9th Street station to Hoboken and then taking NJ Transit to Maplewood ... has always been a the big attraction of the trip. And now to also have internet access in the deli ... well, can we get any closer to heaven on earth?

Plus, this gives me some incentive to clean up my www.aheadinnyc.com website ...

One negative, they were out of pickles.

Note: If you click on the thumbnails below, you can view a larger version of the photo.



Nick's Gourmet Deli before it closed.


Nick's Gourmet Deli after it closed,
from across 7th Avenue.


Nick's Gourmet Deli after it closed,
from across West 49th Street.


The BellyDelly Deli
looking up Broadway


The BellyDelly Deli
looking down Broadway.


The BellyDelly Deli.

Cheers!