The Best Of Everything

offer The Fullest of Wishes
For a Happy, Healthy and
osperous New Year
r Customers and Friends

ey Be Inscribed
The Book °lige

Tith Deep Sincerity For
I Restaurant & Banquet
S uch Great Successes.

S S

family's former
business, the
London Chop
House, still evokes
for so many people.
"My father was Al
Woolf; my mother,
Bertha Gruber
Woolf.
"The stories I heard while growing
up were of the glory years of World
War II and the post-war business
boom years. Dad was a bit older,
had already served in the military,
and had started a family. He wasn't
called up and stayed at home and
'ran the business' while my uncles
Lester and Sam [Gruber] were in the
Army. What a ride it was. The Chop
House was 'the place to be' for every
major businessman, entertainer and
sports figure visiting Detroit. Our
autograph books contain an amazing
collection of celebrity messages and
photos. Hank Greenberg gave me
my first baseball mitt.
"Dad tragically died very young at
age 55 in 1960 and was then forgotten
by the restaurant reviewers of the '70s
and '80s.
"Lester's daughter, Leslye, who lives
in nearby Hillsborough, Calif., and I
had a terrific reunion in Manhattan
last year with 94-year-old Jerry Berns
of New York's Club 21. We reminisced
about the wonderful old places and
the common thread between '21' and
— not the least of which was
the failure of the next generation to be
involved in the business."
(Michael attaches a' section from the
1960 book, Great Restaurants of
America by Ted Patrick and Silas
Spitzer ... "Owners: Lester and Sam
Gruber, Albert J. Woolf; Maitre
d'Hotel: Alfred; Chef: Philip Valez.
"London Chop House is Detroit's
most famous restaurant, a fame
achieved in almost equal parts by
excellent food, excellent wine and
excellent publicity. The owners,
Lester and Sam Gruber and brother-
in-law Al Woolf, are shrewd busi-
nessmen and promoters, so shrewd
that they know slick stunts alone
won't make a restaurant flourish.
The waiters wear plaid or paisley
jackets. An itinerant artist Nv i 1 1 dash
off a caricature of you if you don't
fend him off. If you make an
advance reservation, matches with
your name printed on the cover will
await you at your table. You will be
showered with bulletins, birthday
and anniversary greetings, messages
of good cheer.
"But even though you might con-