Photo postcard from 1985

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.  

Former employee reaches out

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!

Last Elaine Norman photos

More photos from Elaine Norman

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.

More photos from Elaine Norman

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."


 

Great Manhattan photo

Found this photo on Flickr posted by a user named 365Bob:

Manhattan Dubrow's photo

Found this photo after searching Google images for Dubrow's cafeteria.  It's credited to Elaine Norman, 1985, which is the year the last Dubrow's location (Manhattan) closed.

Dubrow's reference in The Daily Beast

I periodically Google and see what comes up for "Dubrow's Cafeteria".  It never fails to amaze me how it pops up often.  It was such an important fixture in New York City for so many decades.

This reference comes from an article by Michael Horowitz in The Daily Beast:

"In 1952, my father, his wife, and his daughter immigrated to New York. Based on his stellar reputation, he was able to join the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, then one of the largest unions in America. Eventually, he was hired to be a “finisher” and sample maker for Oscar de la Renta, whose shop was on 39th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue. It was across the street from Dubrow’s cafeteria, where we’d often meet him after work. Then we’d walk down to Macy’s, which at the time had a butcher shop on the ground floor where we’d buy meat."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/21/my-father-made-jackie-s-pink-suit.html

Another Dennis Ziemienski painting

"Dubrow's Cafeteria"
Oil on canvas, 36x48

This painting looks very similar to the one in this previous post, but the dimensions are different.  Also, this one is little lighter, as though it were the same scene, but in daylight instead of at night.   If I had the money I would totally buy this painting.  Go here if you can do so in my stead.

Reader John Stanton recollects

It's been a long time since I posted anything here - sorry about that. But a reader wrote me to offer recollections of his parents, who both worked at Dubrow's at met there, so I thought that was a good opportunity to jump back in:

"My father was John Stanton (he was known as Jack) and he worked at one of the Brooklyn Dubrow's I believe from the 40's until the 60's, and then worked at the Manhattan location until he retired I think in 1970. My mother's maiden name was Ming Chang, and she started at the Brooklyn Dubrow's (thus why she is in the picture of the cleaning crew, which she said occured on Yom Kippur.) She said she only worked a few months in Brooklyn and then transferred to Manhattan. As to whether my father followed my mom to Manhattan or vice versa, I don't know, but they met while working at Dubrow's. My mom immigrated from China to attend college and she fondly remembers Irving Dubrow who allowed her to have a flexible schedule in order to attend college. She had no set start or end time, he told her to work around her schooling needs, he always needed the help so any time she could work would be acceptable, so my mom was able to come and go and earn money without interfering with her schooling.

My mom laughingly told me the other night that after she graduated she left Dubrow's to work at Metropolitan Life Insurance, and would often go at lunch time to see my dad and the people she used to work with. One day Irving pulled my dad aside to tell him to only charge my Mom half since she was a former employee, and my dad said I have only been charging her half since the day she left! My mother and fathers romance was a true May/December romance, my father born in 1908 and my mother in 1935 so I am sure that people who worked there when they did would remember them since it was such an unlikely couple (my father a hard drinking Irishman, and my mother a petite demure Chinese woman.)

My mom has been in the hospital the last week and I have been visiting her every night and she has been reminiscing about the corned beef and pastrami sandwiches at Dubrow's which is how I came across this blog. I brought her a pastrami sandwich from Katz's Deli Friday night and all she did was complain that it didn't compare to a Dubrow's pastrami sandwich. I barely remember Dubrow's since my sister and I used to go there as young children, but that basically ended in the early 70's.

To give you a bit of trivia and a small laugh, when my parents married in the early 60's my father was interviewed by the FBI to make sure it wasn't a marriage of convenience for immigration purposes due to the disparity in age, and I wouldn't doubt that some of the employees at Dubrow's were also interviewed.

As to what my mom remembers of Richard Hackett, she said he was the driver for old man Dubrow (a.k.a. Benjamin Dubrow - ed.) who would sometimes come in, and greet customers and troubleshoot complaints. Richard Hackett ended up doing some of that and that is why she referred to it as customer relations. (Note: Joe Hackett was the driver for Dubrow's. Richard Hackett is his nephew and a reader of this blog. - ed.)

Unfortunately my father who would be the true treasure trove of information since he worked there so long passed away in 1998, so most of the information I have on Dubrow's is only from my mother who only worked there 3-4 years."

Ming Chang, I hope you recover well in the hospital. You are in my thoughts and my prayers. I've said here before that I think Katz's is the closest thing NYC has left to Dubrow's.

Interesting tidbit about immigration interviews by the FBI - that's the first I ever heard of it. Anyone else recall these interviews?

A Garment Worker recalls

Mark Weiss writes to share this recollection of Dubrow's:

"I began my career in the garment center in 1980 when I started work at Heath Tex children's wear. On my very first day my new buddies took me to lunch round the corner at Dubrow's. I loved Dubrow's and the unique feel of the place. In this day of cold noisy chain restaurants that decorate to look like they understand the locale, Dubrow's needed no such decorations. It was New York."

Puts a personal touch on the image I have of the thousands of garment workers who enjoyed the Manhattan Dubrow's on their lunch break.

Photo of Paul Tobin

This is a pretty decent photo of Paul Tobin, who along with my grandfather Irving Kaplan managed the Manhattan Dubrow's for many years. He is the son of Max and Minnie Tobin; Minnie was one of Benjamin Dubrow's five children.  It's from the Daily News, March 21, 1985, so it's about the impending end of Dubrow's that happened a few month after this article was written. We learn who Dubrow's accountant and lawyer was through this article: Marvin Margolis.  He's quoted just before the article is cut  off.

What's interesting to note is that if you compare this article to the one I posted in the last entry, it becomes obvious that the previous article didn't use a current photo of Paul Tobin!  Look at the change in how much hair he has now and how much he has in the previous photo.

The man on the right is part of another story about a different Manhattan eatery.

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.

Dubrow's at L.A. MoCA

I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles today and guess what I stumbled upon?

This photograph was taken by Garry Winogrand, who was born in 1928 in New York and died in Tijuana, Mexico in 1984. It was titled "Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Campaign, New York, 1960."  I snapped this photo of it with my cell phone, but the resolution is no good.  However, here is the website for a gallery where the photo is shown in more detail, and it even says it's for sale.  I contacted the gallery and was told it costs $9600 (yikes!) but the curator did email me a copy of the photo.  Please do not re-distribute this photo without contacting the gallery directly for permission.

An email from a former Dubrow's employee

I love how people come out of the woodwork to share their Dubrow's connections. The fact that so many people are sitting at hoe Googling Dubrow's Cafeteria, 24 years after the last one closed, tells me how much it meant to people.

This one comes from a woman named Sonia Valentin:

"I was so surprised to Google Dubrow's Cafeteria and find this blog...wonderful...I was a 15 or 16 yr old Puerto Rican student in high school in the Bronx who got a part time job in the Manhattan cafeteria. I worked for four hours from 2-6 pm and was paid $1.50 per hour, and I worked Monday through Friday, and all day Saturday. I was in charge of the "freebies" station where customers got their juices, cole slaw, and applesauce. I was next to Ruth, Jewish, the cashier...and on the other side was Al Tabenkin, Jewish, another cashier...who became a dear friend for many, many years...i went to his 70th birthday party with my husband some time ago. I remember Joyce, African American, who bussed the tables with her daughter - whose name eludes me. I remember Bob, the manager, with the dirty blond hair and beautiful blue eyes - I had a crush on him. Another was Ben the hot meats and sandwich slicer - I was right next to him, and Angelo. This was the first time I ever tasted brisket of beef, and I recall there were some meats the employees were not supposed to eat but good old Ben, a Puerto Rican, always let me have a taste and made small sandwiches for me. I love eating matzo ball soup since this is where I had it for the first time. Angelo, another Puerto Rican, worked behind me and used to take orders for broiled fish, he was so kind to me always in those days when I first started there. Chen was chinese, and the manager of the food department and I remember when we went to the second or third floor to change into our clean, and crisp white uniforms with white shoes and white nylons, everyone was always cooking under his direction -- I was told he had many children. Felix, African American, was a counter man and was the fastest food server in the union and was always so informative about the foods, etc. I think the floor manager was Joe, Jewish....not sure of his name. I got this job via Maria, another Puerto Rican who went to school with me, had long blond hair, freckles, and lived in the same neighborhood as I did, and she worked the soda station.

I remember the day I came to work and found out that Irwin Dubrow killed himself. I believe it happened on a Saturday night and I found out when I went to work that Monday. It was a sad day, and people at work did not want to talk about it, and we were shocked that someone so vibrant, and young was gone. But I recall Irwin was always the quiet type, had wavy dark brown hair, and always said hello. "

Sonia would very much like to hear from other people who worked at Dubrow's from 1965-1968, when she worked there. Contact me via the blog and I can put you in touch with her.

Photo of Dubrow's

This photo was submitted by Leslie Wong. It's on his Flickr page and his blog, and he has graciously allowed me to re-post it here. What a great shot and a great find! Not only a great shot of fabulous mural at the Manhattan location, but of some customers eating there at the time.

More reader feedback (Glen)

Another reader, Glen, writes in enthusiastically to say how much he loved Dubrow's:

"Hi! I think it's great that you have your website about Dubrow's!

I used to eat there often in 1982. I'm lucky that I got to experience the place; I just made it, too. Little did I know that it would close three years later.

WHY did it close? The place was ALWAYS packed. At least it was in 1982. That's when I commuted into Manhattan every day to work.

The food at Dubrow's was GREAT! I never went to a place where they absolutely HEAPED the food on your plate, and it was DAMN GOOD FOOD, too, and the prices were reasonable. It was one of the best values in town.

I can't tell you how much Dubrow's and other places like the Horn & Hardart automats, and other cafeterias.

Manhattan has become an exclusive playground for the rich yuppies. You can't even LIVE in Manhattan anymore unless you're a millionaire. I have friends that both grew up on York Avenue, where they lived in tenements. They were VERY poor. NOW, those "TENEMENTS" would be unaffordable. They both live in Queens, which is where I live and where I grew up. They LOVED living on York Avenue, but, as they say, you can't go home again. It really is true.

It sickens me how New York City is losing its soul. You can't even get an egg cream in New York City anymore. I mean, what's more New York City than an EGG CREAM???????? What a damn shame.

There's nowhere in Manhattan left to eat. What's the choice? There's McDonald's, and there's fancy restaurants, and there's NOTHING IN BETWEEN now in Manhattan. I guess this is just another sign of the shrinking of the middle-class in America. Pretty soon, America will be just like all those other countries: The very rich and the very poor, and that's all! Nothing in between.

As huge chain restaurants and fast food restaurants take over both the city and our nation, as well, we are losing our national identity. New Yorkers, whether they be from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, or the Bronx (I never even THINK about Staten Island because I've only driven through there!!!!) are losing their identity. New York City, just like the rest of the nation, is becoming homogenized and watered down, whether it be accents, mom and pop stores, and other things. If you ask in Queens, where I live, if there's a luncheonette nearby, you'd be looked at like you just came from Mars. They don't KNOW what a luncheonette is, they don't KNOW what an egg cream is, it's unbelievable.

Dubrow's, The Garment District, egg creams, luncheonettes, cafeterias; it's all leaving or has already left the culture of this once-great city.

It's sad to see this happen to the city where I grew up."

What I told Glen in an email is my best understanding of why Dubrow's closed: The price of real estate in Manhattan skyrocketed and made it no longer possible to make enough money off of Dubrow's to keep it open. If people have been to that stretch of Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan, they wouldn't be surprised by the theory, and it seems to be generally supported by the articles I have found about the closing.

What is less clear to me is why the locations in Brooklyn or Miami closed, although I would hazard a guess to say it was also about money. It usually is, and especially when a place was so well loved you can't imagine any reason to close it.

Ask and you shall receive!

Marcia Bricker Halperin has unearthed this photo of Nissa, the woman about whom reader Julia asked in my last post. Marcia confirms that Nissa was in fact a busser and says this photo was taken in about 1977. Perhaps some day Marcia will find photos of Julia's grandfather as well.

Amoeba-like architecture

Found this in another New York Times article:

"It is no accident that it took more than a generation for Art Deco architecture to be appreciated, and similarly, this is why such 50's extravaganzas as the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach seem far less disturbing now than when they were new. It is not perverse taste, it is that they have become a part of the landscape we expect to see, and thus derive a curious kind of comfort from. So, too, with such an oddity as the interior of Dubrow's Cafeteria on Seventh Avenue in the garment district, which has those swirling, amoebalike shapes characteristic of 50's interiors. I walked past it the other day and was shocked to realize how that room, long an object of derision, is beginning to take on a certain appeal."

(Paul Goldberger, New York Times, July 30, 1981)

It's interesting to go back and see how differently things were perceived at different times. I don't think people would think the architecture at the Dubrow's in Manhattan is particularly unusual today. But clearly back then, at least this guy thought it was odd. And of course this is what he's saying - but now, over twenty years later, I think this just proves his point even more.

Where Dubrow's Used To Be

I visited the site of the Manhattan Dubrow's this fall when I was in New York City. When I came home, I found this article which referenced when the Offtrack Betting place opened up where it used to be.

"With a little luck, a new offtrack betting branch will open this fall in mid-Manhattan. But before the first $2 bet is placed, the Offtrack Betting Corporation will have spent $739,000 in rent for a branch that took almost two years to open.

Present and former officials of the agency clash over who is responsible for the delays in opening the branch at Seventh Avenue and 38th Street, on the site of the old Dubrow's cafeteria. But the officials, from two OTB administrations involved in the project, agree on one point: the abnormal costs will reduce the OTB's overall profits this year and the revenues it can give the city."

(New York Times, April 9, 1992)

This is a cool sculpture currently found in the area which pays homage to the Jewish garment workers of yore.