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On Monday, Lincoln Square’s once-great Delicatessen Meyer closed its doors, and I was tempted to declare it a sad day for sausage. The truth is Meyer had been in a downward spiral for months, something I’d failed to notice until I visited recently after a long absence. What was once a bustling, old-world-style German deli, shelves and cases packed with specialty meats, dark breads, European butter, German spirits and wines, and imported chocolates and candies, staffed by a disciplined platoon of starchly efficient, white-clad Eastern European ladies, looked like it had been looted by starving cossacks. I’d been in a few times since 2004 after new owner Hans Liebl took over from the Koetke family, who’d run it it since 1956 (according to the Sun-Times). What the hell happened? No more pretzelwurst, no more kaiserfleisch, no more holiday marzipan.
