I just spoke on the phone with my mother about this project. She gave me some of the history, which I knew, but never seem to be able to retain. Now I'll have it in a place where I can keep track of it.
Dubrow's was created by Benjamin Dubrow, my great-grandfather. The original was in Brooklyn, and eventually there were three in Brooklyn. One on Eastern Parkway, one on King's Highway, and one of which my mother couldn't remember the location. Irving Kaplan, Benjamin's son-in-law, took over the business and expanded it. There was a Dubrow's on 7th avenue in Manhattan - this is the one I remember - and one on Lincoln Road in Miami, where my grandparents eventually moved. George Dubrow, Benjamin's only son, ran the Manhattan restaurant for awhile, and then when he died young in a car accident his sons Irwin and Leonard managed it.
My mother also told me a personal story: When I was a little girl I went out to eat at Dubrow's with my parents and my grandparents. My grandmother, Sylvia Kaplan, was very pleased that I liked to eat because "her other grandchildren were such neurotic eaters," in my mother's words. She was particularly "ecstatic" that I chose to eat a bowl of broccoli, or "brocci" as I apparently used to call it.
