Jim’s Steaks: Tragedy strikes twice

Jim’s Steaks has been on South Street since 1976 when the Proetto brothers expanded.

It has been a tough couple weeks for Jim’s Steaks on South Street, compounded by Sunday evening’s robbery of hundreds of cheesesteaks’ worth of profit stolen from an assistant manager as he left the well-known eatery.

Tragedy first stuck Jim’s last Tuesday, with the passing of one of their longtime owners, William Proetto. A memorial is scheduled tomorrow for Proetto, who first bought the shop in 1966 with his brother.

Then came the robbery Sunday evening around 5:30 p.m. as one of Jim’s managers was approached by an unarmed man while walking to his car. As he left Jim’s and headed toward Fourth and Bainbridge streets, he turned down the narrow Leithgow Street.

That’s when he was pushed down and his bag snatched, which contained about $30,000 of the day’s proceeds. The unidentified manager was not injured and the attacker remained at large last night.

Although Jim’s Steaks remained open yesterday, another manager Maxine Harley said, “This has been a really tragic week, and a really stressful time for all of us.”