LOOKING BACK
Cafeteria
with Clout
IF
For more than 50 years,
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Assistant Editor
Samuels Brothers Cafeteria
was one of the most
popular spots in the
s by Mars ha Su ndq u
Eastern Market
0
or Morris Samuels,
American
the
dream come true
was a shiny lino-
leum floor, counter
tops crammed with gefilte
fish, an electric train by the
cash register and a menu of-
fering phosphates for a
nickel:
It was a restaurant called
Samuels Brothers Cafeteria,
for more than 50 years one of
Detroit's most popular
eating establishments and
the hangout of sports stars
and politicians, reporters
and businessmen. The
owners of the restaurant
were Morris and Alex
Samuels, both of whom came
with nothing — no money,
no English, no job skills — to
the United States from
Poland.
Morris Samuels was 8
when, in 1913, his father left
for the United States. He
planned to find a place to
live and a job, then send for
his wife and four children.
Before he left, his father told
Morris: "You're the oldest.
You take care of the family."
Morris took a job breaking
stones. He remembers, "My
hammer must have weighed
11 pounds more than I did."
He was paid a little more
than one mark, about $1.20,
a day. It was work, he says,
that "made me a man, ready
for the world." With that at-
titude, he came in 1922 to
the United States with his
mother, brothers and sisters.
Morris' first American job
was as a busboy. He recalls,
"I was ready to get on the
streetcar on Hastings Street,
when suddenly somebody
tapped me on my shoulder
and said, 'I got a job for you.'
It was my uncle, who owned
a barbershop. He said, 'I got
a job for you in a restaurant.'
"I said, 'What do I know
,
about the restaurant busi-
ness?' but I got the job, as a
busboy. I was 15. I got $12 a
week."
Morris went to school at
night and worked 18 hours a
day, seven days a week.
Some of the money he saved;
the rest he gave to his fami-
ly. Though Morris' father
had found work in a factory,
because he would not work
on Shabbat his position was
always precarious.
Morris quickly saw that
the restaurant business
could be both pleasurable
and profitable. "It was a
very busy place and a pretty
good business," he says.
He asked the bosses if his
brother could work several
hours a day. "A year later
we were on our own."
Morris Samuels was 21;
his brother, Alex, was 19. In
1927 they opened their first
restaurant, Reliable Lunch,
with a third partner, who
eventually bought them out.
So Morris and Alex started
again, this time just the two
of them.
"We didn't have any.
money," Morris Samuels
recalls. "But we did have a
drive, a will." They talked
their way into a $10,000
bank loan, then hung a sign
in the window of what would
be their new restaurant. It
said: "The Samuels brothers
will be here to serve you." In
1933, the doors of Samuels
Brothers on Russell Street in
the Eastern Market opened.
It was a successful venture
from the start. Morris
Samuels remembers taking
in $200 a day when a cup of
coffee cost 5 cents and a
sandwich was a dime.
By 1937, Morris had saved
$37,000 — "and remember,"
he says, "this was during the
Depression." He used the
money to buy a home on
Buena Vista Street. "It was
the most beautiful house
you've ever seen."
Morris' approach to busi-
Right:
Ira and Morris Samuels
with a customer in
Samuels Brothers
Cafeteria.
Opposite:
Morris and Alex
Samuels today. "We
wore bow ties so our
ties wouldn't fall in the
soup."
Slogans below from an
early Samuels Brothers'
menu.
"It's Hard to Pay More, It's Dangerous to Pay Less"
56
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1991