I’ve had a long time infatuation with Zabar’s from the days before there was nothing else so aspirational, long before Dean & Deluca emerged as a museum for food. (See "Zabar’s in Excelsis").  In the beginning I had a crush on Murry Klein who had worked his way up at Zabars before I landed on the Upper West Side.

         He would hand me products to discover and write about and as the city’s passion for food grew and Zabar’s began to spread down the block, he would confide his misgivings about expansion.. “You should see the people of the neighborhood bring in their friends to show them Zabar’s,” he said. Click here to read “The Nosher’s Valhalla of Murray Klein.” Now Murray is gone, running some ultimate Zabar’s in the sky. The store continues to grow in sophistication with both Saul and Stanley overseeing the third generation. (And they are advertisers on this site.) 

         Steven and I had dinner with Stanley and Judith Zabar for the first time two weeks ago. The restaurant shall remain nameless, not good enough to write about, not bad enough to fry.  But the two of them were fun to be with.  Judy brought along a catalogue of her paintings from her most recent show. I especially loved her fruits and vegetables and she agreed to let me post them here. They are also supporters of the Judith and Stanley Zabar Art Library at Hunter.

Click here to return to Short Order listings.