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photos. Everybody who was anybody
came to the London Chop House
when visiting Detroit. Hank Greenberg
gave me my first baseball mitt.
"And dad was treated like a celebrity
as well, especially when in the role of
`visiting fireman' while on vacation at
such spots as Romanoff's and Chasen's
in Los Angeles, The Blue Fox in San
Francisco, Antoine's and Gallatoire's in
New Orleans, '21' in Manhattan, etc.
etc.
"There was some accord between dad
and my uncles. Les Gruber was clearly
the food and wine expert. Sam Gruber
was the businessman. Dad was clearly
the 'host' — the personality people
loved.
"As well loved as a host, he was even •
more loved as an employer. Dad was
unpretentious and patient with the
staff. Lester, on the other hand, was
highly perfectionistic and demanding.
Mistakes were not tolerated and
employees might be reprimanded pub-
licly, on the spot. More than once there
would be reprimand and firings in
front of customers. Knowing where
their salvation lay, they would seek dad
out. The next night tempers had cooled
and they were miraculously back at
work again. This story was corroborat-
ed and reiterated to me a few years ago
by former LCH waiter Manuel Chavez
at his Ristorante Di Modesta.
"Dad loved to travel, learn, and bring
back ideas for the restaurant. In fact,
the summer of 1959, he was on a trip
tc- San Francisco to study the phenom-
enal popularity of both the coffee bars
and 'Irish Coffee', hoping to bring both
back to Detroit. His trip was abruptly
shortened because their London East in
Grosse Pointe had burned down.
"World War II brought boom times
to Detroit's industrial complex. The
London Chop House was so popular
that people would line up to get in;
lines stretched up the stairs and out
onto Congress Street.
"Certain commodities were tough to
come by. More than once do I recall a
phone call from downtown to dad just
before he left for work, late in the after-
noon. There was a shortage of sour
cream for the marinated herring, or of
butter, or cream. 'Call Gelshinsky,' and
dad would walk two houses to our
neighbor, Mr. Gelshinsky the milkman,
get what was needed and take it in with
him.
"The chicken liver pate at the
London Chop House never really made
it as a favorite with most members of
our family. It finally 'got better' when
they listened to my grandma (Sophie
Gruber) and used real shmaltz and

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2002