On the surface, it appeared to be the anthesis of a successful delicatessen. Located in a narrow West Philadelphia storefront in neighborhood that had its share of ups and downs, Koch’s take-out deli—where customers waited in line, on average, for an hour to place their orders—made a huge impression. So did its legendary sandwiches.
Parents Sidney and Frances Koch and their sons Lou and Bobby dispensed sides of jokes, advice and genuine hospitality with their six-inch-high corned beef specials. According to Philadelphia Magazine, Zagat’s and legions of University of Pennsylvania students and alumni whose testimonials decorated the walls, the deli served the best sandwiches in the city.
With Bobby Koch’s sudden death of heart failure at age 58 on Aug. 8, the future of a much-beloved institution is in jeopardy. The second-generation professional (on any given day, he would admit to having an M.D., as in “meat dealer,” P.H.D., as in “Philly hoagie dealer,” or D.M.D., as in “deli and meat dealer”) had manned the meat slicer by himself since his brother Lou’s fatal heart attack in 1995.
The legend began on June 25, 1966, when Sidney and Frances Koch opened Koch’s Take Out Shop on their 28th wedding anniversary. “My parents always wanted a place around a campus,” Bobby reminisced in a January interview with Family Business. “They loved being around students.” Bobby remembered his mother delivering homemade chicken soup to anyone who was sick. “She was the quintessential Jewish mother,” he said. Family members handed out sliced meat to customers waiting in line, most of whom they greeted by name. Bobby and Lou gradually took over for their parents in the ’80s and renamed the business Koch’s Deli.
Bobby treated all customers the same, from politicians and movie stars to the 18-year-old business student who wanted to show him how to maximize his profits (“I created a sandwich just for him—tongue and baloney,” Bobby quipped.) “I love the diversity of this community,” he told Family Business. “And I love the fact that I can talk to my customers over the counter. I like coming to work.”
But there were dark days. After each death in his family (his father’s in 1990, his brother’s in 1995 and his mother’s in 2002), the deli closed indefinitely. The loss of his mother was compounded by serious injuries Bobby sustained in an automobile accident a month before she died. He received more than 1,500 sympathy and get-well cards.
It’s not clear what will happen to Koch’s Deli. Bobby left a wife of nearly four years, three stepsons and four step-grandchildren. He also is survived by his younger brother Barry, a physician, who told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he could not devote the time to the deli that his brothers had.
After his mother died, Bobby had placed the business with a broker but later decided to forgo retirement. Regarding the future of the deli, he said in January, “All good things come to an end.”
Kathryn Levy Feldman is a writer based in Bryn Mawr, Pa.