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Famous 4th Street Deli’s owner will take over a shuttered New Jersey deli

The new deli-restaurant, to be called Radin’s, will open sometime in 2023.

A corned beef special is ready for a table at Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village.
A corned beef special is ready for a table at Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village.Read moreMichael Klein / Staff

Jewish deli maven Russ Cowan, who owns Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village, has signed a lease for the former Short Hills Restaurant & Deli in Cherry Hill’s Short Hills Shopping Center.

His new deli-restaurant, to be called Radin’s, will open sometime in 2023, said Cowan, who will get the keys to the lox on Jan. 1. He said he would keep Famous open, although it’s on the market.

Classic Cake Co. operates out of a portion of the shuttered deli, and will move to a new location after the first of the year.

Short Hills closed in November 2021. Jerry Kaplan, its owner of nearly 25 years, said that the business never recovered from the pandemic. In August, Kaplan’s son, Michael, opened Short Hills to Go in Marlton.

The opening of Radin’s will mark a Cherry Hill homecoming for Cowan. A fourth-generation Brooklyn deli lifer, Cowan opened the Kibitz Room, about a mile away in Holly Ravine Plaza, in February 2001. Cowan later sold the Kibitz Room to onetime manager Neil Parish, whose son Brandon now operates it.

At 67, “I’m not the kind of guy looking for retirement,” said Cowan, who said he could walk to the new deli from his house. “I need another store. That’s my life.”

Cowan, who makes his own corned beef and pastrami from scratch, has opened and sold more than two dozen delis over the years, including Pastrami & Things and the Bread & Bagel in Center City, Bread & Bagels near Cherry Hill Mall, and a Kibitz location near Philadelphia’s Jeweler’s Row. He also briefly operated the former Mr. Bill’s, a landmark in Hammonton, N.J.

Cowan’s most auspicious opening was Famous, which he bought from the founder’s son, David Auspitz, in 2005. Auspitz later sold off the Famous 4th Street Cookie brand.

Famous has been on and off the market. “If I can get my price, I’ll sell,” Cowan said. But he said he had no intentions of closing it.

Radin is a family name — shortened from Smoradinsky — and Cowan’s relatives operated a chain of Radin’s Delis all over Brooklyn.