Quantcast
Channel: Dubrow's Cafeteria
Viewing all 64 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

JFK at King's Highway Dubrow's (Close up)

August 17, 2016, 7:34 pm
$
0
0



I think that memories of Kennedy campaigning at Dubrow's might win for the memory most commonly reported by people who have contacted me through this blog. It makes sense - it was clearly a big deal, and as these pictures show, hundreds or perhaps thousands of people showed up.

Edit: I found this article in Sheepshead Bites that has a nice description of one person's memory of Kennedy campaigning in front of Dubrow's. It also confirms what my sense was - Kennedy's assassination was one of the most defining event for Baby Boomers, and so many of them have also retained closely their memories of him as president and campaigning to become president.

 "My singular Kennedy experience was when the senator, after winning the Democratic nomination, campaigned in Brooklyn, in the summer of 1960, for New York’s 45 electoral votes. My friend Larry and I went to the rally along Kings Highway that stretched from Ocean Avenue to Coney Island Avenue, and onto several side streets, and waited hours among the jam-packed crowd. As we stood at the East 16th Street intersection, opposite Dubrow’s cafeteria, we were constantly pushed and shoved by others impatiently awaiting the candidate’s motorcade."

(Neil Friedman, Nov 23, 2013, retrieved from http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2013/11/jfk-assassination-remains-a-defining-moment-for-baby-boomers/)
↧
Search

Letter from the daughter of a Miami Beach Dubrow's employee

January 9, 2017, 11:01 am
$
0
0
I received an email from Carole Chapman, who had this to say about her father Carl Kobitz:

"Hi
After my dad was discharged from the navy he moved to Miami Beach. The next day he got a job at dubrows in 1946. He worked the season and managed to save $3000! He started as a bus boy and moved up to be a server.
My dad is still alive and he is 91!"

Nice to hear from someone outside the family who worked at the Dubrow's in Miami Beach.  Anyone out there remember Carl?
↧
↧

Request for Dubrow's tuna salad recipe

April 3, 2017, 6:31 pm
$
0
0
Reader Andrew Suser asks for it. Now, tuna salad seems easy enough to make so if the Dubrow's recipe was unique or special it's got to be in the seasonings or the add-ins. Anyone recall it want to help Andrew out?
↧

Dubrow's in the NY Times again

May 3, 2017, 8:34 am
$
0
0
Marcia Bricker Halperin has taken many photos of Dubrow's - as well as many other landmarks of NYC - and her work is featured in the New York Times. Dubrow's referenced, as well as many other great NYC eateries. Check it out!
↧

More photos from Elaine Norman

June 8, 2017, 7:02 pm
$
0
0
Back in February I posted how I randomly stumbled across this photo of the Manhattan Dubrow's in a Google search. It was credited to Elaine Norman.

This evening, Elaine Norman contacted me and sent me MORE amazing photos of the Manhattan Dubrow's. Here's three of them. More to come over the next few days. Here's what Elaine had to say:

 "I came across your blog after reading the New York Times page with Marcia Bricker Halperin’s wonderful photos of Dubrow’s. It brought back a lot of memories for me when I worked as a textile designer in the Garment Center. Occasionally, I would eat at Dubrow’s (when not bringing my lunch) and loved the appealing, old-world vibe of the place. I’m sending along some of my photographs that were taken shortly before the auction in 1985 (you currently have one of my photos on your blog). Sadly, even the once-vibrant and bustling Garment Center, like so much of New York City’s noteworthy neighborhoods, is becoming a thing of the past. It’s good that you have this homage to such a distinctive place in the history of this city."


 
↧
↧

More photos from Elaine Norman

June 10, 2017, 6:43 pm
$
0
0
Here's the second of three posts with Elaine Norman's photos of the Manhattan Dubrow's location.  All photos were taken on the last day in 1985.




↧

Last Elaine Norman photos

June 12, 2017, 3:00 pm
↧

IKEA is bringing back the cafeteria

January 5, 2018, 1:27 pm
$
0
0
I missed this article last fall. The author suggests that IKEA is bringing back cafeterias - both in terms of the food, the style of dining, and the sense of community they create. They even namedrop Dubrow's:

 "Cafeterias as public restaurants found hungry customers everywhere they opened for business. While chains like Luby’s, Morrison’s, and Dubrow’s would turn most of America into cafeteria country by mid-century, Los Angeles was the first cafeteria capital. Inspired by the Chicago girls’ clubs, a restaurateur named Helen S. Mosher opened the first one on the West Coast in 1905, on Hill Street in Los Angeles. She called it the Cafeteria, and women weren’t just the clientele: They were working in the kitchens, too. Soon after opening, the Pacific Coast Record reported that the Cafeteria made bank as “women cooks and see-and-select one’s food drew the crowds.” Mosher opened two more and soon had a slew of others, also run by women, to compete with in the days when L.A. ranked in size between Omaha and Memphis. 

 To women, the spaces were sold as an opportunity to skip the patriarchally enforced obligation to cook at home. The option didn’t exactly break the chains of domestic servitude, but pointed toward a new intersection between eating, money, and gender. “We want to say to every housewife in Phoenix,” read a 1914 ad in the Arizona Republican, “that the time has come when you can come to the New Palace Cafeteria and get the very best meal cheaper than you can prepare it at home.” 

Cafeterias became places where just about anyone could get a meal, from bohemians to business executives, in a model that operated on the assumption of equality — with the exception of places like the segregated South."
↧
Search

Dubrow's in Miami Beach

January 17, 2018, 9:51 am
$
0
0

Jeff sends a link for a 1952 home video of Miami Beach. It is uploaded to Youtube by a user who goes by the moniker ReelNostalgia.  The photo above is a screen shot from the video, which is why it's so blurry. 

Amazing to see how things change. When I was growing up and visiting Miami Beach and Lincoln Road, the area was deserted of nightlife and shops. Now it's hip and bustling - as it was back in 1952, when this video was shot. Things come full circle.

(Re-posting this entry with new links)
↧
↧

Dubrow's in Miami

January 17, 2018, 9:59 am
$
0
0
Dubrow's in Miami has been a little neglected by this blog.  A Google search today reveals some more information - such as this great article in the Miami Herald which describes Miami in the 1950's as a leader in the South in desegregation, and the part Dubrow's Cafeteria played in making it a comfortable home for Jewish families as well. 

And FYI, I have heard much about Rabbi Kronish over the years. He was the rabbi my family grew up talking about for many many decades.

"I really had never seen anything like Miami Beach. It was mostly desegregated for Jews by 1947, except for Bal Harbour. That unforgettable smell of fresh tobacco in the air was gone. Once our family checked into the rooms we reserved at The Georgian Hotel on Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue, I took one look out of the window at the ocean and knew that one day I would make the Miami Beach area my home.


The Georgian was at the heart of everything we did for fun that summer. It was a short distance to some of the Beach’s legendary eateries: the Crossroads, DuBrow’s Cafeteria, Huey’s Cathay House, Wolfie’s, Joe Hart’s Pickin’ Chicken and the Noshery at the Saxony Hotel. Between the hotel pool, the beach, miniature golf next door, and breakfast at the Liggett’s Drug Store counter, what’s not to like for a 9-year-old? I can still taste the fried chicken from Joe Hart’s and the corned beef sandwiches from DuBrow’s, sliced thin and piled high for a dollar." 
↧

"Chain Migration"

January 31, 2018, 6:10 am
$
0
0
When the current president refers to "chain migration" he's referring to the immigrant story in America.  He's certainly referring to the Dubrow and Kaplan story.

Benjamin Kaplan came here from one small village outside of Minsk. So did Rebecca Friendland.  They met each other and had three kids, one of whom was Irving Kaplan, my grandfather, who went on to manage the Manhattan and Miami Dubrow's for many years, along with his sons-in-laws.  He came from a poor village in pre-World War I Russia and went on to college, graduate school, and became a successful business owner.

Benjamin Dubrow came with his wife Rose, and three oldest children, from another small, poor village outside of Minsk.  My grandmother Sylvia was in utero, so I guess she was what anti-immigration politicians today would call an "anchor baby." His youngest daughter was the first person in his family born here.  He went on to be the founder of the chain of cafeterias so many people still mourn and recall fondly today.

This is what our current leadership refers to when they refer to "chain migration".  It's just a way of demonizing the American dream as my family and thousands of others have lived it.

In case you're wondering, my grandfather may be shouting from his grave at the current state of this country, which was so good to him, a proud second generation immigrant from a "shithole country." 
↧

Letter from a reader

January 31, 2018, 6:26 pm
$
0
0
Received an email from a reader this week:

"Hello, Eve -
My name is Susan Pernick, and in some fashion I think we're cousins.  My grandmother Annie and Raizal Dubrow were sisters.  (Their maiden name was Soloveichik, which became Solowey.)  Lila, Minnie, George, Irwin and  Ruthie were my mother's first cousins.  We lived on East 18th between O and P, so the store on Kings Highway was only a couple of blocks away.


I only heard Benjamin called Barney. NeeNee (I've never known how to spell it) and I were friends.  Of course, I knew Sheila and Paul, but they were older.

Although I was very young, I remember hearing that George had been killed in a car crash in Florida.  I remember that my parents were very upset at the news.


My father, Max Goldenkranz, was the family's doctor.  He took care of Max and Minnie and their kids. He also became the doctor for a number of the employees at Dubrow's.


Max got my parents, my brother and me into the store to see JFK.  Although I was only 10, it's one of my strongest memories of my youth.


Ruthie dated a man named Seymour Gruber, who was a psychiatrist.  Before they were married, Barney and Raizal invited Seymour's (Sy's) family over to dinner.  Barney started to tell a story about Galicia, in Poland, and made clear that the people there were useless.  Sy's father started to protest that he was from Galicia when Barney, without breaking stride, said that there was one small shtetl there where the people were wonderful, and he asked what part of Galicia Mr. Gruber was from.  Mr. Gruber mentioned the name, and Barney said, "That's it!  That's the place!"  Ruthie and Sy had a long and wonderful marriage." 
 
I love hearing from long lost relatives via the blog!   Keep it coming.  
↧

Toby's Cafeteria in Miami Beach

April 2, 2018, 7:59 pm
$
0
0
I only recently learned that after the last Dubrow's Cafeteria closed, my grandfather Irving Kaplan continued to run three Miami Beach cafeterias called Toby's.


Phillip Pessar on Flickr uploaded this picture and writes: "Anyone remember Toby's Cafeteria? They were a childhood favorite. I always chose turkey and stuffing or fried shrimp and always a side of macaroni and cheese. There were 3 locations. 2695 SW 8 St, 99 SW 12 Ave, and 674 NW 54 St."
↧
↧

Letter from Sammy in Brooklyn

May 2, 2018, 7:41 am
$
0
0
I received an email from Sam Chodosh who writes:

"I remember thinking I was all grown up when they gave me my own little card. 

Before that, I just got stuff on my parent’s card.

I loved the water fountain. Even if I wasn’t thirsty, I’d get 4 or 5 glasses of water. 

My friends and I used to go late at night and joke about “where is the next generation of derelicts hanging out at Dubrow’s coming from?” 

Then my cousin walked in with his friends. I was really sad when it closed. My mom took me to see JFK talk, it was really exciting. I was 8, didn’t understand, but it was exciting.

 It was a really fun fun place to eat. Sam (Sammy in Brooklyn)" 

Thanks for sharing, Sammy! I love hearing from people who remember Dubrow's.
↧

Request from a reader

June 9, 2019, 6:01 pm
$
0
0
Larry Paul writes with a request for anyone who remembers Dubrow's using china:

"Can you help me with a series of articles I am writing on cafeterias for a facebook page geared to people who appreciate and collect  restaurant china.

I am working on a post about Dubrow’s, based mostly on your blog spot information. The cafeterias I am writing about used china that was crested for them with ,usually , their trademarks. I went through your blog and found a couple of photos showing china (1940 crew photo &  A. Harriman in 1950’s). The 40’s photo has design border on the cups, and the 50’s photo seems to just have a dark line band. One of the posts on your blog mentions silver flatware that is crested, and I found a tray on WorthPoint with “Dubrow”s” marking. So far I have found no “Dubrow’s” crested china.

My question is - do you know of any china that was crested for Dubrow’s?" 

Anyone able to help Larry Paul out?  Comment on this post!
↧
Search

Another Dubrow's reference

June 9, 2019, 6:29 pm
$
0
0
My cousin Steven Green sent me this screenshot he found of a reference to Dubrow's in the novel Revolutionaries by Joshua Furst.    While being sold as fiction, it has a character named Abby Hoffman, and it is that character's wife who apparently scrounged for food at Dubrow's.  Who knows whether that really happened or not, but it makes a good story... 


↧

Former employee reaches out

August 13, 2019, 12:23 pm
$
0
0
A former Dubrow's employee named Louis Adorno reached out via email, having stumbled upon this blog.  He used to work at the Dubrow's in Manhattan in the 60's,  where he says he "washed dishes I got lucky and got asked to work the counter."  He recalled both Max Tobin and Paul Tobin.  He says Max "would get mad when I ate the watermelon and took to many olives" and he recalled taking food to an apartment in Brooklyn after Max died.

Drop a line in the comments if you remember Louis!
↧
↧

Soliciting Dubrow's oral history participants!

December 8, 2020, 10:51 am
$
0
0

 Hello Dubrow's cafeteria fans!  I've recently joined the website Megilla which makes it easy to record oral history.  I would love to use it to collect stories from people who enjoyed Dubrow's as a customer or who worked there!  

If you're willing, drop me an email and I'll send you a question to answer.  The website should then prompt you on how to record your story. 



↧

Photo postcard from 1985

January 19, 2021, 10:20 am
$
0
0
I purchased this off of eBay. What a great photo and also lovely little slice of oral history. The text of the postcard reads: 

"Dear Ethyl and Bill, 
I hope, Ethyl, that you've fully recovered from your accident. Too bad we won't be meeting in the old Dubrow's anymore but a new, smaller version is supposedly coming at the same location. When I walk by, I often get a nostalgic thought about the good old days. 
 Best, Dave"

The Manhattan Dubrow's closed in 1985.  I am not aware of any plans to open a smaller version in the same location, but this definitely did not happen.  

↧

A query from Michael C

May 25, 2021, 6:50 am
$
0
0
I received an email with an inquiry about someone' own family history:

"My name is Michael C---,and I have been doing family research and have come to learn my grand-uncle was somewhat of a fixture at your family's restaurant (Kings Hwy). His name was Louis (or Lloyd) but was known to everyone around as "The Goose". What I have heard from multiple sources is that he was always at your family's restaurant and people would come there to meet him, seeking favors and/or money. This side of my family has been a blackhole to me, and while I have made some strides, there is still so much about some of these people I don't know. With The Goose in particular, given his "occupation", I have to get creative in trying to gather information. I was wondering if there was any chance you may have heard any family stories or anything else about him. There was a Mel L. who was an associate of his that also hung around there. Anything you may be willing to share would be greatly helpful and immensely appreciated! Thank you for your time.Respectfully, Michael Cohen" 

Can anyone help Mr. Cohen out?  Anyone heard about "The Goose" - a regular at the King's Highway Dubrow's?

↧
Viewing all 64 articles
Browse latest View live
Search