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Changing Up A Family Business
Small businesses are in my DNA on both sides, and I’m especially fascinated by family businesses. It’s enough of a challenge to simply start a venture, let alone make it thrive. The idea that succeeding generations will devote decades more to running it is so intriguing.
This helps explain why I’m delighted with what Danny Raskin has done with Manny’s Delicatessen in Chicago. He is the fourth generation of his family to be in charge — and he has made some visible changes in the years since he took over in 2016.
It had been a decade since I was inside Manny’s, and they were immediately apparent to me.
Manny’s has been around since 1942. It was founded by brothers Jack and Charlie Raskin, and at the time, it was one of many Jewish delis in Chicago. Danny’s grandfather, Emanuel “Manny” Raskin, moved it to its current South Loop location in 1964, and had the wisdom to buy his building.
In need of a refresh
As delis began to disappear or move to the suburbs to follow their customers, Manny’s hung on. It gained a reputation as a hangout for politicians, and became a required campaign stop. Chicago mayors, Bill Clinton and of course, Barack Obama all made swings through.
But by the time I paid my first visit in 2011, it seemed like Manny’s had seen better days. The sandwiches were big and the food authentically Jewish, but the place struck me as kind of drab and cramped. I went that one time, didn’t go back, and secretly wondered if Manny’s was going to meet the same fate as other old-school delis that failed to change with the times.
“It became a time when everything looked very, very worn,” says Danny. “My dad was so involved in the restaurant that he didn’t look to external things like that.” His attitude was, “The food’s fine, the staff’s great, let’s keep doing what we’re doing.”
But esthetics meant more to Danny’s generation. “When I took over, I saw a need to update certain things, and we kind of had to.” Equipment had to be replaced, “and when you replace a piece of equipment, you can’t just do that, you have to replace the flooring.”
After attempting to make changes incrementally, he led a $1 million renovation in 2016, taking down a wall, expanding the dining room, lengthening the cafeteria counter, and upgrading some of the menu offerings, like desserts. Despite the extensive changes, the restaurant was only closed for three days during the renovation.
“We wanted to keep the same look as the original restaurant, but open it up and make it brighter,” Danny told me when I visited earlier this month.
Modern technology — and collaborations
In another shift, customers were asked to pay for their meals once they reached the end of the cafeteria line. That might seem like standard practice, but at Manny’s, “people used to pay on the way out,” Danny says. “You ate, and then you paid. But at lunch time, it was so busy that people just wanted to pay, eat and leave.”
For a long time, Manny’s also was cash only. “The staff had worked here so long that they basically memorized every transaction. If they had an open check, they knew whose it was.”
But younger people carried less cash than their elders, and Manny’s refusal to accept credit cards was becoming a hindrance. “As I saw things starting to change, I said, ‘let’s just take payment right away, and then we don’t have to worry about it.’”
Replacing the aging equipment had other benefits, such as helping to bring down Manny’s electric bill, which was enormous. “I mean, it still is,” he says, laughing, “but everything is up to code the right way. And if you need to get something fixed, they have the parts. It’s not like they have to rig something up.”
Manny’s was cruising fairly well in 2020 when the pandemic struck. Chicago imposed widespread restrictions that were almost the deli’s deathknell. On July 14, Danny famously tweeted, “We are struggling. This isn’t a joke. Support your fav deli tonight. Thanks.”
The plea worked: Chicagoans responded in a socially distanced line that stretched down the block. That December, Manny’s kicked off an eight-week sandwich series with eight local places, ranging from Smoque BBQ to Antique Taco, The Wieners Circle and Roots pizza.
Earlier this year, Manny’s held another collaboration, this time with knishes, a popular hand-held side dish. That one was even more successful than the sandwich series, he says, because diners could order both their favorite foods and a knish.
“In the end, I’ve become a lot closer with people in the industry by working with them. I got to go into some other kitchens, and see how things worked,” he says.
That’s a sharp contrast to his elders’ day as well as his earliest time in the restaurant world.
“When I first started in the industry, a lot of business owners were not as much into talking, and they thought everyone was their competition,” he says. “In today’s time, whether it’s a restaurant, or real estate, or any other type of business, people want to communicate and work together. You learn all these things working together, and it makes you a better restaurant.”
Collectively honoring Ina
There was certainly a sense of camaraderie on Wednesday night, when chefs across Chicago came together to honor beloved Breakfast Queen Ina Pinkney. It was an eye-popping event, with everyone from Danny, to Mexican food impresario Rick Bayless to Michelin star winner Zach Engel, to master baker Greg Wade, to name just a few of the 60 participants.
Ina was feted with an enormous cake and she held court in a colorful jacket, greeting every admirer with her trademark smile. You can see her above surrounded by the chefs.
It was impossible to sample everything, but I was excited by Rick’s corn cake, the popular hot chicken and grits from Honey Butter Fried Chicken and of course, Galit’s hummus and pita.
Chicago excels in saluting people and in raising money for good causes. This evening will go down as a highlight of the culinary year.
Fears For Summer Resort Area Business
With so much pent up demand for vacations, you would think that restaurants in summer resort cities would be looking forward to the coming season. But many are facing a looming headache: the inability to attract staff.
The problem isn’t wages, which have risen in recent years. It’s housing prices, according to the Traverse City Record-Eagle. The real estate boom has put reasonably priced rentals out of reach for many of the college aged and young people on whom they rely for seasonal help.
Without them, the Traverse City area simply lacks the labor pool that restaurants in northern Michigan require to operate at full capacity. “In our little community, there’s no place for them to live. Rental housing is virtually nonexistent.” said Steve Christian, who has owned Dinghy’s Restaurant & Bar in Frankfort since 1999.
Jeff Lobdell, whose Grand Rapids, Mich.-based restaurant group operates 21 establishments, says the labor shortage isn’t just a problem for restaurants in an area so dependent on tourism. “If we don’t have a healthy hospitality industry, giving people good service and good quality food just because we’re running so short (of workers), it’s going to hurt everybody in the region,” he said.
The Peach Crisis Also Causes Headaches
Farther south, another food-related crisis is brewing. The peach industry is bracing for a difficult season. As I wrote for The Takeout, it’s possible that Georgia farmers will harvest 60 percent fewer peaches this year, compared with 2022, when the peach harvest also fell from 2021.
The peach world has encountered two problems. First, this year’s winter was mild, and peaches did not get the chilling time that they needed to go dormant. The warm weather caused blossoms to form about six weeks earlier than usual. Then, a freeze in early March wiped out some of those blossoms, which are needed to develop into peaches.
The bottom line: if you love fruit from the south, snap it up when you see it, and prepare to pay more for it. Luckly, peaches are grown in other places, from California to New Jersey and up to Michigan. But some people insist on fruit from what is, after all, the Peach State.
Farewell To A Detroit Culinary Legend
People across the Detroit area are mourning the death of Molly Abraham. For generations, Molly was the restaurant critic for the Detroit Free Press, the city’s equivalent of Gael Greene or Mimi Sheraton. She died last week at age 92.
Like them, she often dressed in disguise to review area restaurants. In those pre-internet days, people often waited for her assessment before they would book tables at new places. She helped make the careers of area chefs such as Brian Polcyn, Keith Famie, Milos Cihelka, Yvonne Gill, and Douglas Grech.
Unlike some critics, who blast restaurants without regard to circumstances, Molly would talk to chefs who presented a dish that disappointed her. She genuinely wanted to understand why something had gone wrong, and offer suggestions for how to fix it. From Molly, I learned that chefs appreciate hearing feedback directly, rather than go public with complaints that put them on the spot.
Molly was endlessly entertaining, candid with her views, and was also a tireless supporter of the Newspaper Guild. She was a true union maid, as the old saying goes, and she’ll be fondly remembered for supporting striking Detroit newspaper employees during a long and bitter strike.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
I’m off to Nashville this week, where I will be speaking Tuesday night as part of the Nashville Jewish Book Series.
CulinaryWoman Newsletter readers in the Nashville area can get in free to the program by using this code. Enter NJBS2023 when you order tickets here. I love visiting Nashville and I’m looking forward to dining well while I am there.
Thank you to the powers that be at Post, the new social media platform. After Twitter de-verified me, Post speedily gave verified my account and I now sport their blue check mark. Find me under (@) MickiMaynard. You can also feel free to email me at culinarywoman at gmail dot com.
I hope you are staying well, and if your doctor recommends getting a Covid booster, think about doing so. I’ll see our paid subscribers tomorrow with Red Beans and Advice, which will focus on the upcoming Kentucky Derby. I’ll see everyone else next week.