As mentioned in this week's story about Planker Sandwiches, the downtown area has gone through a period during which most affordable and quick lunch (and dinner, for that matter) options have either gone out of business or relocated, leaving a void of sorts in the culinary landscape, especially for those who work in the area. This has made downtown attractive for businesses like Letzer's, which is currently located in a somewhat hard-to-find strip-mall spot on Division Street just off of Reed Market Road. That store won't be closing, a good thing for south-end residents who have no doubt acquired a taste for the massive creations on which Letzer's has built its reputation.
You won't be grabbing a mountain of pastrami downtown immediately, though. Current plans have the new location opening around the first of November. Until then, you'll have to get your Letzer's fix by heading down to the south end of town.
Common Table's Staff Shuffle
If you're part of the service industry or know people who are, you very well may have heard rumors about Common Table, the downtown nonprofit restaurant known equally for its tasty dishes and its bevy of fundraising and cultural events. Cutting to the chase, we'd like to report that according to the restaurant's new general manager, James Brown, Common Table is not closing and has no plans to close anytime soon.
But there is still some interesting news about the restaurant, which announced last month that it was struggling to generate revenue, in that they laid off much of their staff two weeks ago. Brown said that the change in staff was not wholesale and also denied a rumor that the restaurant was going to operate solely with volunteers.
One former employee, however, told us that all paid staff was given little notice and asked to reapply for their jobs if they wished to remain at the restaurant. We'll be looking more into the happenings at Common Table and will have a more thorough report in next week's issue of the paper. But again, Common Table is very much still open.
