Photos: Victor’s Square Restaurant closes in Hollywood

Bill Gotti, owner of Victor’s Square Restaurant on Bronson Avenue in Hollywood, greets customer Gene LePere. LePere, 88, a former New Yorker, said she was “heartbroken, just heartbroken” to be losing her favorite deli.

Bill Gotti, owner of Victor’s Square Restaruant in Hollywood, makes his way into the deli a few days before its closure. He’s Italian American, born in the Bronx, raised in Brooklyn. He’s also the younger brother of the late Mafia boss John Gotti, a fact he’s neither shied away from nor flaunted.

Kit Kollen, left, and friend Susan Romo enjoy each other’s company and a bowl of soup while Coco Carson, 5, and her brother Nicolas, 8, have macaroni and cheese and a bacon cheeseburger at Victor’s Square Restaurant. For years, it served as a community clubhouse, where people could walk in and count on catching up with neighbors and friends.

Mark Horwitz, left, takes a photo of his friend Lynn Lederman posing with Bill Gotti, owner of Victor’s Square Restaurant. In left background is Horwitz’s wife, Aida. In the deli’s final days, longtime customers came in for meal after meal.

Allan Rich, a Victor’s Square customer for 30 years, makes his way past an old photo of the original Hollywood post office. “Before the economy collapsed, some people used to come here three times a day. Then they started coming maybe once a day, every other day, a couple times a week, less,” said Gus Guijarro, a Victor’s waiter for 21 years.

Baldemar Donis, a cook at Victor’s Square Restaurant, prepares to place matzo balls into a pot of hot water. Diners loved the deli’s go-to matzo ball soup, with its golden broth, its big chunks of carrot, celery and chicken, its bagel chips hanging off the spoon.

Owner Bill Gotti shares a bottle of wine behind the bar at Victor’s Square Restaurant. Former East Coasters living in the nearby canyons and hills felt instantly at home at the deli on Bronson Avenue.

Lucy Gotti, right, who runs Victor’s Square Restaurant with her husband Bill, greets customers Kelley Quinn, left, and her sister Coco Quinn on the patio near the front entrance. On the final day, some patrons asked for souvenir menus. Some asked to buy the photos on the walls. Some fretted about what sort of trendy place would move in next.