Greenblatt's

#212-For Archive: www.oaklanddupree@substack.com

Last night, my friend Charm informed me that Greenblatt’s Jewish Deli and Wine Shop had closed. She had worked at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in LA for many years and at the same time I worked at Greenblatt’s on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood from 1997 to 2000, nearly four years. I was asleep at the switch apparently and did not realize Greenblatt’s had not survived the pandemic, closing in August 2021. I had distanced myself from most things Los Angeles. My pal, Joel Eddy who worked at Greenblatt’s for 30 years had passed away in 2016 and I had no reason to phone there and chat. ( See archive for blog post titled “Joel” ) Joel was one of the best co-workers I ever had in life ,a great guy who loved Rock and roll and all things English, a true Anglophile who loved to vacation there. He was excellent at his job as well. He cherished the night when Beach Boy Brian Wilson came in one late evening years ago to chat and hang out at Greenblatt’s. Joel related that experience to me in a phone call. I am a little sad today, learning of the great and legendary Hollywood deli’s demise. I have had many gigs in life and, all in all, this was one of the coolest and most fascinating of the bunch. … have shared many show biz anecdotes in this blog based on experiences from my Greenblatt’s job as a delivery driver. Last night some memories came flooding back.

It was early 1997 and after several months of living in my crappy, but cheap West Hollywood studio I decided I needed a day job, after spending my funds sending out headshot and actor resumes to agents and casting directors. I was a middle-aged theatre actor from San Francisco who was playing a young actors’ game against very tall odds of success, but I figured “take a shot ! you only live once !” ( at least in this incarnation). At every LA acting or commercial audition the room was filled with guys looking just as good as me and probably as talented… My brother Tom printed business cards with my photo on them announcing “ characters” with my number. I got professional headshots by LA pro photographers, the best there were, and set upon careerism, just like a fresh 18-year-old from the Midwest with stars in their eyes. The acting profession is one of constant rejection which one must weather and survive, maintaining strong belief in one’s own talent. It is quite brutal. When I scored a gig as a bowler and stand-in ( for Jon Polito) on The Big Lebowski and worked for a week on that shoot I felt my move was vindicated. A Marin County casting director, Cecily Jordan, had gotten me the gig after I went daily to a Koreatown bowling alley to practice up. The Coen Brothers were sticklers for everyone who appeared in their films and cast mostly league bowlers from the San Fernando Valley who could care less about movie biz… I almost cried on my first day in LA realizing I had cut loose my great Noe Valley apartment in SF for a near impossible LA adventure. Yet here I was, so I was gonna give it all I had. Eventually though, the spiritual princples of my recovery from alcoholism took over and rescued me from careerism. Lucky me! I had a wonderful sobriety mentor, the late Andrew McCullough, a veteran TV director ( Omnibus, The Thin Man, Donna Reed Show, 77 Sunset Strip, Leave It to Beaver and more)who drank himself off the lots. Andrew was a great friend and a wonderful raconteur. Part of Hollywood’s appeal to me is the stories and legends, because as my readers well know, I’m a film fanatic.

So that day in early ‘97 I interviewed with Jeff Kavin the owner of Greenblatt’s, which was only three palm tree lined blocks from my pad at Hayworth and Fountain in WeHo. Jeff was tough operator, a mustachioed former attorney who was passed the family business by his parents. He had a calculator in hand and computed profit and loss constantly…calculators were an important tool on this gig.… Jeff determined from my SF cabbie experience that I was suited for a driver’s job…but first I had to be vetted by a guy named Dr. Ed Gelb who was kind of a con artist. To say he was a prick and an asshole is being kind. He was a second banana to F. Lee Bailey, the renowned but checkered attorney ( defending O.J. Dr Sam Sheppard, Albert De Salvo the Boston Strangler)...Herb Caen called him Flee Bailey based on an SF drunk driving case he beat) on a hokey lie detector television show. Gelb had several Japanese TV plaques on his wall. I passed his intrusive and insulting background check and was hired. Now I had an Orthodox landlord, plumber Zalman Roth, and a Jewish talent agent, Richie Reiner ( Rob’s cousin and Carl’s nephew) and was now, for all intents and purposes , an honorary member of The Tribe …Greenblatt’s was known as a wine store that fronts as a Jewish Deli and I began the gig wearing my uniform of blue jeans ( no shorts allowed), sneakers and a white starched shirt with a Greenblatt’s issue blue cloth apron which was the deli unform and my Greenblatts ID pin saying “ Jack”. I soon learned that the deli operation and its vast menu was organized chaos, a busy operation with lots of stress. The place itself was three floors, basement being wine storage, the main floor the deli and wine shop, and upstairs the dining room on one side and the kitchen on the other. A dumbwaiter servicing all three floors and was invaluable. I had to learn the menu and all its idiosyncrasies and exceptions and write up each order with pen and paper and compute the prices and taxes. I then gave it to the deli people who prepared all the food on the vast menu with no grill due to LA licensing laws. The excellent Corned Beef and Pastrami were kept in a steam table. Turkeys were roasted upstairs in the ovens , and all the trimmings were made with the finest ingredients, probably the best turkey dinners in LA. Greenblatts had the greatest chicken matzo ball soup in town as well ( Jewish Penicillin it proclaimed on our guest checks)). the very premium Nova Scotia smoked salmon arrived in full filets packaged in Canada. A diminutive and likeable Latino cat named Raul was a wizard at slicing the fabulously delicious lox and often saved me trimmings out of security camera range .You could work up quite an extreme appetite on that job. Milagro was the very friendly Salvadoran prep cook lady upstairs and she saved me snacks as well. There were always fab deviled egg trays in the upstairs walk-in… had to resort to sneaking one occasionally to curb hunger and those eggs were just delicious ! Milagro ( Miracle in Spanish) was the seventh child in her family ,all the rest were boys… Bacon was microwaved and the wonderful aroma constantly wafted over the operation. BTW many Jews eat bacon ,though our clientele was a complete spectrum of Angelinos, all races, nationalities and religions, as were the employees, whites both Gentile and Jew worked side by side with African Americans, Latinos, and Filipinos in mostly harmony but things could get a little heated and emotional in the high stress workplace… the drivers and clerks answered the phones which, of which there were four , with extra long cords that would sometimes get tangled in the busy bustle of operations. The internet and cell phones were in their infancy and not utilized. I was to be paid minimum wage and tips with no meals supplied as were the wait staff . All the deli employees , clerks, and cooks had meals, decent hourly pay and benefits…The store and restaurant itself was oak and brick with nice booths and tables. A very well appointed business. My job was to deliver orders ranging from some deli food to local slobs to big catering orders to studios like Paramount, gifts to movie stars,and wine orders like cases of Bordeaux or Champagne worth thousands of dollars to collectors, big wigs, and high rollers. Occasionally I had to get supplies or kitchen ingredients. like going to Diamond Bakery in the Fairfax neighborhood for their fabulous double loaves of Rye Bread. A kind lady named Ruth worked in the bakery and always gave me a few cookies or some Rugalach as a sweet Lagniappe. She had numbers tattooed on her forearm, which indicated her survival at the hands of the Nazis. I never broached the subject but just basked in her friendly and gracious humanity.

Also part of the job was to restock the big walk-in frig with beer , wines , and soda pop, especially Dr Brown’s, when I wasn’t driving, plus answering the phones and working sales on the floor of the wine shop. I wasn’t drinking then but my 20 years of bartending came in handy. I was more knowledgeable than 90% of the wine customers, who sought validation for their selections so I was a pretty good salesman , though Joel Eddy, owner Jeff Kavin and manager Richard Kanda, a real character originally from Belgian Congo, were the master wine sellers . I took charge of the walk in and soon became buyer for beers and soda, fancy imported chocolates, and the potato chip snack rack. I also tended and inventoried the locked caviar refrigerated display. I pushed Kettle Chips when they came out and we sold tons of those tasty rascals.I had the young twenty something clerks taste the beers and Belgian ales and would buy or reject on their tastes and say so… The only error I made as a buyer was rejecting Red Bull as I thought then it was a bullshit product. Little did I know or foresee its eventual insane popularity heh heh heh heh heh… Jeff would have all the liquor salesmen and vintners come in once a week for a tasting and sales session and boy would they kiss his ass! He was a tough sell. But placing your wine in Greenblatt’s was prestigious. I got to know most of these men and women and was like a buffer between them and Jeff when I placed my soda, beer and customer special request orders with them. Sometimes , when help was short, I waited on tables making nice tips…The best times at Greenblatt’s were on slow nights when Joel and I would bullshit with the comedians, actors, and musicians who came in like Paul Rodriquez who would do guest sets at the Laugh Factory next door, Richard Lewis , a very steady customer, as was Dom Irrera an extremely funny motherfucker from Philly, Charles Fleischer , the voice of Roger Rabbit, always cracking jokes, British ex-pat musician Terry Reid, actor/ musician Gregg Henry, Nic Cage, Keanu Reeves and so many others. When we sold Denzel Washington a complete wine celler selection I was tongue tied , just in awe of his greatness, rare for me. BTW I had to give non-disclosure agreement on hiring not to gossip about celebrity clientele, of course that became moot twenty years later. I personally sold and expedited big catered Thanksgiving dinners, in separate years, for Dwight Yoakum and Renee Zellweger , when she was new to Hollywood. I also worked closely with Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night, a great dude and his very nice wife, catering a memorial gathering at his Laurel Canyon home. So many others I can’t recall today, but have written about in past blog posts.

Jeff , of course, had the radios disconnected in the delivery vans , on orders from his Dad. no distractions for the drivers. This was before GPS and armed with a large Thomas Guide map book of Los Angeles, I learned the streets , back roads and shortcuts of Hollywood, West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills and Laurel Canyon. I developed a very valuable skill set… From Santa Monica Blvd, to Mullholland Drive and Beverly Hills to Hollywood Bowl I knew countless ways to circumvent traffic jams. Pre- GPS Angelinos just stayed on main thoroughfares and suffered… So , yeah, I took this job and its performance to heart and did my very best at it…We catered all the Jewish high holidays, Christmas and Thanksgivings plus Hollywood Bowl concerts with picnic basket specials. Joel used to joke about whose holiday would we ruin this year. It would happen , the operation was just too big , busy, and chaotic not to have occasional fuck ups… I used to jokingly call myself Schlepp Gofer, delivery boy to the stars, but when those $100. tips from, say , Jim Jacks, Louie Anderson, or Van Morrison hit my pocket it was gratifying…My brother Tom asked me my regret from my Hollywood experience and I said that it was not going on a paid audition for a character role in the movie Being John Malkovich for Director Spike Jonz, set up for me by Cecily Jordan. I passed on the audition because I didn’t want to call in sick and let my employer hang. It was an acquired value from sober living, and I never heard from Cecily again. She , no doubt, didn’t think I was serious about acting and I guess it was true. The beginning of the end of my Hollywood adventure It was a joyous day when I saw LA in my rear-view mirror and returned to the Bay Area… miss boogie boarding and body surfing at Malibu’s Zuma Beach though! More Greenblatt’s references will surely come in this blog.

Bits, Snippets: Heard “ Maestro” Dick Bright on KALW hawking his new book on making it in the music biz, though a little late in the game for me and my confederates, Dick assures us the book is filled with anecdotes and stories, so looking forward to reading it. I worked with Dick in 1980 at The Stone nightclub in SF, when he hosted a Monday night weekly variety show featuring Dick Bright and his Sounds of Delight, Little Roger and the Goosebumps and various comics such as Jane Dornacker, Dana Carvey, Bobby Slayton, Billy Jaye, Bob Sarlatte. Michael Pritchard, and many others. Also enjoyed Maestro Dick when he hosted Cartoon Classics on local TV which featured Looney Tunes and Warner Bros cartoons , Da Best !…Jerry Springer succumbed to the Big C…his show was a wild trailer park run amok special and if you ever felt low self-esteem you need only tune in for a few minutes to feel good about yourself…such low brow human behavior before TV cameras flushed any civilized person with a glow of superiority , like it or not…The Harry Belafonte interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air was aired the other day on the occasion of the great man’s passing. Fascinating listen…Club Deluxe, the very hip and cool club on Haight St. in San Francisco has shuttered and that’s a damn shame ! I loved hearing my pal jazz drummer Vince Lateano jam there with various combos. Just the coolest vibe and great appreciative audiences… CNN and Fox News each took the occasion to can TV talk hosts Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson, respectively. One Liberal and one Right Winger, no biggie ! both eminently replaceable...sometimes I’ll switch over from CNN to Fox , just for perspective, during news events like the recent Trump court appearance., but I can’t take much of Fox, especially that Strega, Laura Ingram, who makes me wanna puke…CNN’s John King is the best of the bunch IMHO

April Views and Boob Tube Opinions: Finished The Lost City Of Z (2016) adapted from a book by David Grann. A true tale of obsession by a Brit explorer regarding Amazonia , ( Bolivia and Brazil ) and undiscovered civilization.. Fascinating … reading Grann’s current book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, a damn good book set in the 1920’s Oklahoma oil fields on Osage land… apparently Scorsese and Deniro have a film coming soon based on it…Also finished The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix, the murder mystery set in 1830 at West Point with Christain Bale as the detective and Edgar Allen Poe as a lead character…a slow moving tale that features a bizarre twist payoff at its conclusion. Pretty good... Streamers: The Diplomat : A Keri Russell vehicle to show off her sexy body and brainy acting. If you miss Homeland and The Americans, this one should satisfy you, I think it is quite well done…OTOH Love And Death on HBO not so much…The first episode taking place in late seventies Texas is a little creepy and yet put me to sleep…will give it another chance… Barry ( HBO) in its fourth and final season is surprisingly good. Bill Hader’s dark comedy rolls on with zany violence and some laughs.

Songs of the Day: To Live And Die in LA ( extended version ) -Wang Chung + Midnight Train To Georgia -Gladys Knight and the Pips + Surfin USA- Beach Boys