“You Mean, We’re Done? Really?”: Popular Paddington American Restaurant Reuben’s Deli & Bar Has Closed Permanently

Popular Paddington American restaurant Reuben’s Deli & Bar has shut its doors permanently. Husband-and-wife owners Manny and Peggy Rosenberg took to Facebook on Monday evening to announce the closure.

“To all our customers, friends and fans,” the post read. “It is a bittersweet moment for us as we relay the news that we’ve permanently closed Reuben’s Deli & Bar. We settled with the new buyer today, who will develop their own concept and not trade as Reuben’s.

“It’s been an absolute honour to get to know the best damn customers in the world. We’ve met amazing people during our three years, and have many new friends. We will also miss our neighbours: shop owners of Paddington who were very supportive.

“We are happy you liked our favourite American foods as much as we do. But the pleasure was all ours. Love you all.”

Speaking to Broadsheet on Tuesday night, an emotional Manny Rosenberg said the decision to close the restaurant hadn’t come easily; but Reuben’s was faced with two years of debt accumulated during the pandemic. The final straw was a recent shoulder operation for Manny that will likely take six months to fully heal. Thankfully, in a stroke of good timing, a potential buyer recently approached the couple about taking over the space, with the deal being finalised on Monday.

“What I got done was what they call a ‘reverse total shoulder replacement’,” Rosenberg says. “It’s my right shoulder. If it was my left shoulder, I could probably get through it, but because it’s my right shoulder I can’t get through any of the chopping of the cheesesteaks or anything like that – although I actually tested myself and I can smoke a brisket with one hand,” he says, laughing.

Rosenberg says recovering from the pandemic was potentially going to take years, with or without a good shoulder.

“We never had a straight shot at developing and building the restaurant,” he says. “It was like trying to climb out of a sand dune, and you’re making a little progress, but you just keep slipping back again. So with me potentially being out for six months, maybe the timing was right.

“The community has been great … I actually don’t want to look at it too much – I just started to – with our Facebook page and our Instagram page. The private messages and people sharing things on their pages and in their stories, I’m like, ‘Wow, we really made an impact.’

“This year we’ve had week after week of really good trade, but we were still carrying forward a lot of headaches. And not being able to be there day-to-day would’ve made things a lot worse. Still, it’s emotional in a lot of ways.”

Rosenberg won’t rule out Reuben’s being revived in the future, or a similar New York deli-sandwich and burger concept under a different name, but says for now the focus is on his health.

“We haven’t sold the business name and the recipes and who we are,” he says. “But I don’t want to allude to anything else. I need to take time out to get healthy.”

Reuben’s Deli & Bar opened mid-2019 and was an immediate hit with Paddington locals. It was part of a new wave of quality venues in the suburb that now includes Europe-inspired bistro Nota, wine bar Noir, pizza spot Elementi and Vietnamese restaurant Ngon. But it barely had seven months of solid trade under its belt before the coronavirus came calling in March of 2020 and triggered the first shutdown of Brisbane food and beverage venues. Numerous snap lockdowns followed, putting enormous pressure on venues’ bottom lines.

Brisbane has had a fortunate run through the pandemic compared to the southern capitals, but Rosenberg suspects there are many businesses around town like Reuben’s who have managed their way through two tough years, only to now face many more clawing their way out of debt-laden financial positions.

“A lot of people are like us and they understand what the issues are,” he says. “And with the government helping out with some payments and this and that, maybe it allowed for extra time but it didn’t really solve the problem. It’s nobody’s fault. You can’t blame anything. It’s just, ‘Holy shit, bad timing.’

“In a lot of ways, it’s a bit of a blessing that the settlement just happened [when it did] … But then it hits you. You’re like, ‘Really? Wow, okay. You mean, we’re done? Really?’ I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything. It still feels part of us.

“We really did it on our terms. We didn’t just close the doors because of other reasons or getting locked out. We closed because it made sense and someone bought it because it made sense to them. Things just fell the right way.”