Mike Answers…”Why Did Merino’s Close?”
Yesterday I received the following e-mail from Mike Merino:
Randy,
Would you do me the honor of making the announcement of the demise of Merinos on the blog along with perhaps your personal prospective on the reasons.
I have been getting e-mails regarding the closing and I think its time to let everyone know the truth.
I am asking you personally because you have been there from the start and your prospective may be a bit more open minded and realistic and besides you write much better than I.
Be sure to mention that It was a very painful decision on my part but, just couldn’t be helped.
Needless to say, if so many people miss us that much I can always be open to partners in a more appropriate location.
Hey!, you never know who may be interested?
My Best Regards,
Your friend
Mike
Let me first say that announcing the demise of Merino’s Deli is no honor. This closing is not only a loss for Mike, and his customers, it is a loss for the entire neighborhood.
I have known Mike for close to five years and can honestly say that he is one of the truly good guys. I got to know Mike when, prior to opening the deli, he was looking at several locations in Seminole Heights. His ultimate goal was always to open a full service Italian restaurant. When he finally decided on the open space on the south side of what was then Larry’s Auto Repair, some of us were surprised. But Mikes vision was to get the deli open and then purchase the rest of the building, expand to a full restaurant and lease out the remaining space as retail. I saw the plans and, had they come to fruition, it would have been a magnet location along the commercial corridor.
We weren’t the only ones having trouble seeing Mike’s vision. The city seemed to have a hard time also. It took Mike over 9 months to get all of his approvals, even with the full support of the neighborhood association and the many phone calls we made on his behalf. Applying codes designed for a suburban Walgreens is difficult for any business owner in Seminole Heights, but converting just under 700 sq ft of an auto repair to a deli presented special challenges. Stormwater, parking; at one point Parks even wanted him to remove the huge tree on the northwest corner of the property. And every time the building inspector showed up, after Mike had fixed everything from the previous inspection, new items - stuff that was existing at the LAST inspection - were added. (To anyone from Construction Services reading this, this is a common complaint throughout the city and something that really needs to be addressed.)
However, Mike did everything by the book. While there have been some who would rather ask for forgiveness, Mike always followed the rules and asked for permission. He also worked his tail off preparing that space. I remember watching the metamorphosis, watching him build the side space and the front deck. Chatting with him as he was painting fixtures. Seeing the cases and other equipment arrive. And finally the day that he opened his doors.
We all had a favorite at Merino’s. Mine was the Big Daddy. Damn, that was a good sub! A close second was his cuban, (for me, pressed with no pickle). The best $5 you could spend in Seminole Heights. Merino’s was the afternoon Starbucks - a place where friends could grab a bite and hang out for a while out on the front deck. And Mike was always there, with a smile on his face and a good word for his customers. He was the consummate schmoozer. His food was good, his prices were good and his service was good. What more could you ask for?
So what went wrong? Well, as the old saying goes, location, location, location. The space that he worked so hard on ultimately lacked both the size and, especially, the parking to support the necessary revenue stream. When Larry decided to sell his business, he and Mike, for various reasons, could not work out a deal. The new owner assumed Mike’s lease, but, by all accounts, was a reluctant landlord. Any further expansion at that location was out of the question. Mike looked in vain for a larger space in Seminole Heights and elsewhere. At one point he thought he could work out a deal to move into the “SemHi” building (west side of Florida Ave between Wilder and Haya). However, nothing panned out. The souring economy was the final nail in the coffin. As Mike mentioned in his email, the decision to close was a hard and very painful one. But, for him, it was the right one.
Hopefully, someone will take Mike up on his offer to partner with him in a more appropriate location (preferably in Seminole Heights). He is a first class gentleman and he ran a first class business.
As for me, I, like his many customers, am very sorry to see him go and wish him the best in all of his future endeavors.
