Thursday, June 10, 2010

Matzo Ball is Over


This article, sent by Henry and Dorothy Jablonski, is dated by hand "8-3-85."  In tiny print under each of the photos it says "Bill Stahl Jr Daily News", which tells us what publication this article is from and who took the photos.  The top left corner is a picture of co-owner Paul Tobin, and the couple on the right is captioned "Edie and Sammy Bergholz came from Florida for final meal."

Some excerpts from the article:
"'It's the last of the old time cafeterias; they're all gone now,' said photographer Joe Perulli, 74, a photographer who was a fixture at Dubrow's for 25 years. 'I came in 10 to 12 times a day, whenever there's a lull. There's always someone nice to talk to,' Perulli said." 


"It was a sort of meeting place, social club, and retirement home for the cutters, pressers, seamstresses, and salesmen who populated the warehouses and office towers of the Garment District." 


"According to co-owner Irving Kaplan, Dubrow's customer total dropped from 5,000 to 3,500 customers a day. Kaplan's partner, Paul Tobin, Benjamin Dubrow's grandson, said the massive eatery with more than 8,000 square feet of floor space and 380 seats took up too much expensive Manhattan real estate. Tobin and Kaplan agreed to sell their lease so the owner of the property could sell to Philip Pilevsky of Philips International Holding Company...who planned a three-level shopping arcade."

Of note is that the article appears to contain two factual errors: It cites the opening of the first Dubrow's as being 1932, but I believe the first one opened in 1929.  And later it says that the Manhattan Dubrow's opened in 1953, but it in fact opened in 1952. I know this second one is an error because there are New York Times articles about a robbery at the Manhattan store in 1952.