Zabar's
A Family Story, with Recipes
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The fascinating, mouthwatering story (with ten recipes!) of the immigrant family that created a New York gastronomic legend: “The most rambunctious and chaotic of all delicatessens, with one foot in the Old World and the other in the vanguard of every fast-breaking food move in the city" (Nora Ephron, best-selling author and award-winning screenwriter).
When Louis and Lilly Zabar rented a counter in a dairy store on 80th Street and Broadway in 1934 to sell smoked fish, they could not have imagined that their store would eventually occupy half a city block and become a beloved mecca for quality food of all kinds. A passion for perfection, a keen business sense, cutthroat competitive instincts, and devotion to their customers led four generations of Zabars to create the Upper West Side shrine to the cheese, fish, meat, produce, baked goods, and prepared products that heralded the twentieth-century revolution in food production and consumption.
Lori Zabar—Louis’s granddaughter—begins with her grandfather’s escape from Ukraine in 1921, following a pogrom in which several family members were killed. She describes Zabar’s gradual expansion, Louis’s untimely death in 1950, and the passing of the torch to Saul, Stanley, and partner Murray Klein, who raised competitive pricing to an art form and added top-tier houseware and appliances. She paints a delectable portrait of Zabar’s as it is today—the intoxicating aromas, the crowds, the devoted staff—and shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes of the long-time employees, family members, eccentric customers, and celebrity fans who have created a uniquely American institution that honors its immigrant roots, revels in its New York history, and is relentless in its devotion to the art and science of selling gourmet food.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Zabar, granddaughter of the eponymous New York City landmark's founder, provides a fascinating history of "one of the most famous delicatessens in the world." Drawing from family archives and interviews, she traces the remarkable story that took off in 1934 with the rental of a counter in Manhattan's Crystal Pure Food Market dairy store on 80th Street and Broadway. Her fascinating tale follows her grandfather, Louis—who died in 1950, before Zabar was born—from his tumultuous childhood in Czarist Russia, where anti-Semitism ran amok, to his immigration to the U.S. and, later, his decision to sell fish in New York's Upper West Side, where "German Jews, fleeing Hitler's Third Reich, could be found having coffee or tea." Louis's discriminating taste for smoked salmon resonated with the masses, growing the business into a pop culture icon. After Louis's death at 49 from lung cancer, the author's father and uncle took over, and turned Zabar's into a foodie mecca. It's a delicious story, however, the organization doesn't always taste right. Oftentimes the placement of family recipes, included throughout, is puzzling; for example, instructions for making Lilly Zabar's meat borscht and flanken soup are served directly after a harrowing description of a pogrom in Ostropolia. Nonetheless, the many devoted patrons of this legendary food purveyor will find themselves sated.
