Former Famous 4th Street owner Russ Cowan opens a Cherry Hill deli. Is it his last, or is that a load of boloney?

Russ Cowan figures that he has built (and sold) 25 Jewish delicatessens over the years. Corned beef is in his blood. Both sets of grandparents operated delis and luncheonettes in New York for more than a century.

Now, he said with a sweep of his hand, “this is my retirement deli.”

On Thursday, Cowan, 68, opened Radin’s Delicatessen in Cherry Hill’s Short Hills Shopping Center. It is named after Radin Brothers, the deli that started it all in 1905 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Best of all to Cowan, it’s five minutes from his house.

To open Radin’s, Cowan felt that he had to sell his flagship — Famous 4th Street Deli — after 18 years. The sale closed in January, and Cowan stayed on for a month to help the transition under new owner Al Gamble.

Cowan is no stranger to the Cherry Hill food scene — or to flipping delis. In 1989, he took over a bakery near Cherry Hill Mall and called it Bread & Bagels. In 2001, Cowan opened the Kibitz Room (a mile down the road from Radin’s), opening offshoots in Center City and the Jersey Shore and selling in 2003 to the Parish family, who still own it. Shortly after selling the Kibitz Room, Cowan bought Famous, the landmark in Philadelphia’s Queen Village neighborhood.

Radin’s, the product of a floor to ceiling renovation, was Short Hills Deli, which closed during the pandemic. Cowan has retained Famous’ big-portion philosophy. A corned beef sandwich sells for $21.75, and that’s the regular size, which has at least 14 ounces of house-made beef. The “zaftig,” with an extra 4 ounces, is $25.50.

The bakery case is lined with enormous hunks of multilayered cakes and black-and-white cookies. Alongside smoked fish, roasted meats, and salads, the refrigerator case offers knishes the size of dinner plates and square pieces of kugel (a baked sweet noodle pudding) six inches high.

“Huge amounts of food,” Sharon Dombro said after breakfast Friday. Her friend Karen Batterman nodded approvingly and said, “We’ll be back.”

To anyone kvetching about the prices, Cowan replies: “If you’re going to serve quality and you’re going to give people large portions, that is value for their money. Some people will think that’s expensive, but they’ll go into some white-tablecloth [restaurant] and get nothing for their money for $70, and it’s OK.”

(It must take a certain rye sense of humor to succeed in the deli business.)

Cowan, working with his daughter, Emily, went with a Midcentury look: bentwood chairs with tangerine seat bottoms and aqua banquettes. He found the same laminate pattern that his father used for the tables. The deli seats about 110, similar to Famous’ but nearly half of Short Hills Deli’s capacity. Cowan extended the deli cases at the expense of seating.

Six Famous workers followed Cowan to Cherry Hill, a boon to those who had lived in South Jersey but not a big deal for Michael Williams, who lives in Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood.

“Twenty minutes on PATCO,” he said, shrugging.

Cowan signed the lease in late 2022 and — while running Famous — served as the project’s general contractor, overseeing design and construction.

“No more after this,” Cowan said. “I’ve done enough.”