Nick’s Roast Beef’s Cottman Avenue location will close after 54 years

Nick’s Roast Beef’s 54-year run on Cottman Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia will end Sunday, March 5, not with a whimper but with a wake.

It wasn’t slow business that forced the hand of owner Matt Rossi, who has owned the sports bar since 2018 after managing for the previous owner for four years. It is not affiliated with the original location, still operating in South Philadelphia.

The Northeast Philadelphia Nick’s, which spreads across four storefronts on a commercial strip near Roosevelt Mall, was sold in January, and Rossi said he could not come to terms with the new landlord. The proposed rent, he said, was nearly double.

Rossi said all of his employees have been guaranteed jobs at his second Nick’s location, which he opened in late 2018 near the Philadelphia Mills mall on Woodhaven Road in the Far Northeast. Rossi also owns catering and food-truck businesses. “Nobody is going to miss a beat,” he said.

That’s not to say that the longtime customers are happy. Linda Wolf, 62, of Olney, who thought nothing of hopping on the Route 70 bus to enjoy a visit to Nick’s on Sunday, called it “upsetting. This is where we did my daughter’s 18th birthday.” She said she would not be too eager to take a second bus to get to the Woodhaven Road location.

On Sunday, as the gravy-smothered, hand-carved roast beef sandwiches on kaiser rolls were coming out of the kitchen, Robert Kallaur, 41, was making his last visit with friends. The bar was the site of his parents’ first date, “and they’re still together,” he said. “This place has a lot of memories.”

“That’s the hardest part of this whole thing,” Rossi said.

Nick’s opened in 1969 at the corner of Oakland Street and Cottman Avenue, directly across from Northeast Regional Library. In 1992, it moved a few doors west into the current location, 2210 Cottman Ave.

Rossi credited the Cottman location’s longevity to “keeping up with the times as much as possible.” The pandemic did not help business because there was no outside dining. “Unfortunately, we just hit some insurmountable odds,” he said. “I think that’s where we got to now.”

The finale on Sunday will run from 4 to 7 p.m. with a free buffet. There will be a Champagne toast at 6 p.m.

Nick’s traces its roots to Nicholas DeSipio’s beef-and-ale house at 20th and Jackson Streets in South Philadelphia, which opened in 1938 and sold sandwiches for a nickel.

After DeSipio died in 1961, the business passed to his sons, Eugene (who died in 1989) and John, known as both “Johnny Beef” and “Nick” (who died in 2006).

Nick’s opened new locations over the years, and most changed ownership and later closed. One that opened in 1969 on Second Street in Old City has been sold several times. It has operated since 2016 as Nick’s Bar & Grille.

Nick’s daughter, Lili McKinney, and her husband, Jeff, still own the South Philadelphia location — which has a much smaller menu — and trade as Old Original Nick’s Roast Beef. They also have locations in Springfield, Delaware County, and West Chester. Ordering tips: “overboard” means very wet with gravy, “on the out” is the spicy outside cut of the beef; and you ask for a “combo” if you want sharp provolone.