Saul Zabar, the principal owner of Zabar’s, the iconic Jewish food emporium on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has died at age 97.
His daughter Anne said the cause of death was a brain bleed, according to The New York Times.
For more than half a century, Zabar ran the abundant grocery on Broadway, selling a smorgasbord of Ashkenazi delicacies, from smoked fish and stacks of cheeses to bagels, rugelach and babka. It offers special menus for holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Passover.
Zabar, who was born in 1928, had not intended to take the helm of the store founded by his parents, but abandoned his plan to become a doctor in 1950 when his father died and returned to run the grocery. From that year on, he expanded the business along with his brother Stanley.
He was known for his exacting standards when it came to selecting fish, and his office once doubled as a tasting room for coffee. In one instance, according to an account in the Times, he stomped on a slab of whitefish that he deemed to be of an insufficiently high standard.
Each week, the store sold approximately 2,000 pounds of smoked fish and 8,000 pounds of coffee to some 40,000 customers, according to the Times. Under his leadership, Zabar’s became a symbol of New York Jewish culture. The store featured in a music video for Vampire Weekend, whose frontman Ezra Koenig is Jewish. It has partnered with Adidas and Nordstrom.
Saul Zabar handling a slab of fish in 2009. (Screenshot from YouTube)
“A true New York legend,” posted New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “He gave the city lox, love, and a place to argue over babka. Zabar’s isn’t just a store, it’s a slice of NYC soul. May his memory be a blessing.”
It has also figured in local and national politics multiple times. In 2018, mayoral candidate Cynthia Nixon caused a minor scandal when she ordered tomato, capers, onions, lox, and plain cream cheese on a cinnamon raisin bagel — a sin for area bagel enthusiasts. Later, US Rep. Jerry Nadler, the Jewish Democrat who has represented the area for decades, brought a Zabar’s bag to an impeachment hearing for President Donald Trump.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, left, and New York State Senator Brad Hoylman, center, greet voters while campaigning for Nadler outside Zabar’s on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. (AP/Mary Altaffer)
Saul Zabar married Carole Ann Kishner, a Hebrew teacher, in 1968, and is survived by children Ann, Aaron, and Rachel Zabar, along with four grandchildren.
Other Zabar relatives have worked for the grocery or branched out into their own New York food businesses, but Saul continued working at the store, a near-daily presence for customers.
A video posted to Instagram in 2021, when he was 93, shows him carefully inspecting slabs of raw salmon in the store’s smoked fish department.
“Hopefully, what we think is the appropriate product is what the customers think,” he says as the video shows him delicately pressing into the raw pink meat. “So far, we’ve been successful.”
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