Wednesday was a bad day for Toronto’s community delis.

Two staples in the downtown core — Mutual Street Deli and Caplansky’s College Street Deli — have closed their doors after years of selling smoked meats and cheeses to Torontonians.

Mutual Street Deli, which has served up hearty, cheap eats since 1957, shut down shortly before Christmas. A green notice taped to its front window on Dundas St. E. suggests a variance request has been issued for the building, with a seven-storey addition proposed behind the original storefront.

Nicholas Boulieris, one of Mutual Street Deli’s co-owners, confirmed the restaurant had closed, but remained tight-lipped about exactly why — or whether it will reopen in future.

“Lots of restaurants close,” Boulieris said.

Zane Caplansky, owner of Caplansky’s College Street Deli, also announced the closure of his first deli operation. It had been open since 2009, and later expanded into a series of four other delis and a food truck.

Two of them — in Yorkville and Pearson International Airport’s Terminal 3 — are to remain open, he wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.

“I am making this decision with tremendous sadness and reluctance,” it read in part. He blamed a dispute with the College St. location’s landlord over repairs in 2016 that saw him close for a week. It later ended amicably, the Star reported at the time.

Twitter users lamented the closure of both delis.

“I’m devastated about this,” wrote Hannah Van Dyk in a tweet about Mutual Street Deli. “Some of my favourite memories from university are around eating good food + having heart to hearts with people at this place. What a staple. I am so so sad.”

“That’s very sad. Love the deli — ever since I first tried it in your original location at the tavern,” added another commenter, Gabriel Sekaly, about the closure of Caplansky’s.