Robert "Bob" Koch, owner of Koch's Deli at 43rd and Locust streets, died of heart failure Monday. Koch was 58.
Patrons said they saw Bob Koch on Saturday and he seemed in good health.
A message on the answering machine at the deli announced his passing, and said that the fate of the deli has "yet to be determined."
The deli has been a West Philadelphia mainstay for decades, and Koch was widely known for for his good humor while waiting on the notoriously long lines that frequently spilled out into the street.
Koch's Take Out Shop, located at 4309 Locust St., opened 39 years ago under the ownership of Koch's parents Sid and Frances. Their sons Bob and Louis also worked in the deli and continued to run it, almost unchanged, after their parents died. Lou died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 50.
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