It appears that fall is well and truly here in all its blustery, rainy glory. Perhaps we should add a soup-centric “Where to Eat” to the slate? For now, cozy up to this week’s lineup:
Zabar on ZabarWhat would the Upper West Side be without Zabar’s? What will Zabar’s be without its longtime scion Saul Zabar, who died last week at the age of 97? Already, much has been written about Mr. Zabar’s commanding presence and what his absence might mean for the Jewish emporium in the long term — you can even check out the spread at his shiva in this story from Jacob Bernstein on the Styles desk. But the first person I thought about upon Saul’s passing was his grand niece Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, who took over as the chief executive of Momofuku in 2019. (Her grandfather, Stanley Zabar, is one of Saul’s younger brothers, and was the vice president and chief financial officer of Zabar’s for decades.) Over the weekend, I hopped on the phone with Marguerite — she was on a long-planned family trip to Japan to celebrate her father’s birthday — to chat with her about growing up Zabar. This interview has been edited and condensed. What were your earliest memories of Saul?I grew up with Saul as the president to my grandfather’s vice president on a very much deserved pedestal that my grandfather put him on. And my grandfather, Stan, was way more the business side. I remember we would review paper P & Ls [profit-and-loss statements] of Zabar’s at the dinner table, usually during dessert. He would go into the kitchen and grab it and talk through it. But Saul was always product. And I think for my grandfather and everyone else around him, that was very rarefied air compared with the business side of Zabar’s. Saul was known for his exacting standards — his obituary even includes an anecdote about him stomping on subpar whitefish.He taught everyone that impossible standards were essentially the floor for the product going into the business, for how people should be operating. I think that’s something that I’ve taken with me is that the small details are the big things that show up. It really does matter. And I think a lot of that, it was less to do with Saul and more to do with him advocating on behalf of the Zabar’s customer. And I can tell you firsthand, having worked as a cashier in my teens, that the toughest critics are the Zabar’s customers. Are there facets of Saul’s life or personality that you think have been missed in the coverage around his death?The empathy, the generosity, I think, gets second billing to the cutthroat intensity that he had for the business and its product. Zabar’s was the first job for hundreds of employees’ kids, or offering loans to individuals who needed it. I think the responsibility that Saul felt as the leader of this business for not just his own family, but the employee base of Zabar’s, you can see it in the tenure. It’s the softer side that reflects how Zabar’s is able to be Zabar’s. You need both. What lessons do you think you’ve applied at Momofuku?I think coming from a family business, the way I think about it is it’s a much longer game than a typical business. You’re making decisions for the long run, not the short term. Launching the consumer products was one strategy, right, of how do you create something that has diversified value outside of brick-and-mortar restaurants? And how you take care of employees is something that I learned from the business. Would you ever go back into the family business?I think I have a good proximity, which I love. And I live in Brooklyn, which is also a good proximity, where I can be there every single day if I need to, but also a little far. I joke that living in Brooklyn is like my Rumspringa before I return to the Upper West Side.
THE RESTAURANT REVIEW I CavalliniSome restaurateurs enjoy building small empires, opening restaurant after restaurant in quick succession. Others, like the owners of the Four Horsemen — which I think of as Brooklyn’s Via Carota — take the slow and steady route. That’s how we got to I Cavallini, only the second restaurant from the team, and now the subject of the latest review from Ligaya Mishan. Like its sibling restaurant, I Cavallini is a tough reservation, but does it measure up to the Four Horsemen’s enduring stature? Read the review → CLOSING OF THE WEEK EnsenadaEleven. That’s the number of days left to enjoy one of the best fish tacos in New York City, before the Williamsburg restaurant Ensenada closes for good. In a touching Instagram post, the restaurant’s chef, Luis Herrera, wrote that “our heart is not in it anymore,” citing the toll of opening a second location of the restaurant in Miami, which closed in July. “We are broke and vulnerable, emotionally, mentally, physically and economically.” Ensenada’s final service will be on Saturday, Oct. 25. More restaurant news → FROM READERS LIKE YOU A “masterpiece” wedge salad and the 4 p.m. debateWe have two inbox items this week. First, Jallyn D. simply had to let us know about another great wedge salad after Ligaya Mishan raved about the version at Keens in last week’s newsletter: I will keep this short since you must get a lot of emails: please try the wedge at Turk’s Inn if you haven’t already. It’s kind of a masterpiece. I will pass that info onto Ligaya! I also asked at the top of last week’s newsletter whether 4 p.m. qualifies as very late afternoon or very early evening. Cary L. sent the following message with the subject line “Afternoon”: This is still The New York Times, not the Farmers’ Almanac. It is indeed! Thanks for reading along, and see you on Thursday. CORRECTION A Where to Eat newsletter last Tuesday misstated the chef E.J. Lagasse’s middle name. It is John, not Junior. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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