With Katz’s future hanging by a thread, the time is right for a full-out documentary effort. And only one man is stepping up: the Uzbek-born filmmaker Yura Dashevsky, a Brooklyn resident who is trying to complete Katz’s: That’s All! A Documentary Project, a film record of the place and what it means to people.

Some people are against the film, Dashevsky tells us. “I keep running into anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, vegetarianism — I’m surrounded by a sea of isms.” And to make matters worse, he can’t get the money together to complete the film. Donations are accepted on the film’s Website; prospective pockets can expect to be thanked in the credits and get a free copy. Dashevsky’s previous films are on weightier topics like the Tajik civil war, so expect a lighter approach. Unless, of course, Katz's closes. In which case it could quickly become the Zapruder reel for New York feinshmeckers.

Related: Mother of Mercy! Is This the End of Katz’s?