a
0
"The Kosher
Detroi
By Karen Schwartz
verywhere he goes, people want
to talk to Brian Jacobs about
pizza. Like when he picks up his
daughters from school or when
he's at the mall, even when he's
at synagogue. They chat about
new topping combinations and
suggest new kinds of crusts.
'Anywhere I'm at, we talk about pizza:'
he says — not that he's complaining, given
his day job. The 38-year-old Oak Park na-
tive owns and runs Jerusalem Pizza, with
locations in West Bloomfield and South-
field, and recently opened his third eatery,
Jerusalem Sub, in the same strip center as
his Southfield store. And each of his pizza
restaurants houses an additional business,
Coffee at the J in West Bloomfield and
Jerusalem Bagel in Southfield.
With less than a dozen kosher-certified
eateries in Metro Detroit (nine by our
count), Jacobs' newly opened sub shop,
which is also his first fleishig (meat)
restaurant, means he now controls more
than 50 percent of the local kosher dining
market.
It's a swanky concept for someone who
has been working steadily since age 10,
when he cut lawns for the neighbors. By
the time he was of bar mitzvah age, he
started delivering newspapers with his
father, coming home right after school and
waking up early Sunday mornings to make
sure they got delivered on time.
With a larger-than-life personality and
physical characteristics to match, Jacobs
could have been a stand-up comic. Pos-
sessing a wit reminiscent of the late Sam
Kinison and the dry delivery of Steven
Wright, he is never at a loss for words.
But then again, he can't be. Not when he's
constantly taking orders or shmoozing
18 March 2011
I RED THREAD
customers or talking to his employees at
the various shops — courtesy of his trade-
mark Bluetooth headset.
Usually decked out in his Jerusalem
gear — a blue polo shirt adorned with his
franchise's logo, khaki pants and sneak-
ers — he starts his day by getting his three
daughters, ages 8, 6 and 3, up and ready
for school. He grabs a coffee and heads to
the Southfield store. His operation can't
start until he arrives — literally.
For Jacobs is like that guard in the win-
dowless room of Coca-Cola, where the se-
cret to the beverage giant's success lies: He
is the bulkhead between Jerusalem Pizza's
trademark taste and his 28 employees,
being solely responsible for making sure
there's dough every day for the pizzas.
"I'm the only one who makes the dough
mix for both stores; the pizza recipe is the
sacred part," he says. "I give them a bag of
all the spices
and ingredi-
ents; I'm the
only one who
knows the
recipe."
Well, almost
the only one.
He used to
watch the
store's found-
ing owner
make the mix
when he was an
employee there.
"I remember
when he used
to make it:"
he recalled.
"He'd be in the
back of the
store with his
measuring cups and his ingredients on
the table, and I wasn't allowed to be back
there. I said, 'What am I going to do, steal
your recipe?"'
After the day's dough has been made,
Jacobs goes back and forth between stores,
making sure everything is humming. In
between, he'll be on the Bluetooth, in
contact with vendors and suppliers and,
of course, anyone else who can muscle his
way in between calls.
IN ILITCH'S FOOTSTEPS?
It's an auspicious life for the titular
"Kosher King of Detroit:" whose pizza ca-
reer ostensibly began at age 15 courtesy of
another local pizza magnate, Mike Ilitch,
and the Little Caesars at Evergreen Plaza
in Southfield. Jacobs worked there for four
years before he became a manager and left
at the end of his sixth year to take on other
gigs.
He also worked for a meat distributor,
sold candy at party stores and gas sta-
tions, and worked at a barbecue joint on
Orchard Lake Road before he got back
into the business.
The year was 1996, and Aryeh Sharon,
founder of the Jerusalem franchise (back
when it was just that single pizza shop),
asked Jacobs to bring his experience in
the pizza industry to work at the newly
opened establishment.
"It's the same setup, the same equip-
ment, the same machines so it was just
like moving right in?" Jacobs recalls.
Sharon's former wife, Soril, who opened
the business with her then-husband,
remembers Jacobs coming on board only a
few months after "JP," as it's known in the
'hood, opened its doors.
"When Brian started working for me,
he had a ponytail; he was this 22-year-old
hippie," she said. "The day I knew Brian
started to mature was the day he walked
into the store and he had a haircut?'
Soril Sharon, who continues to be ac-
tive in the business, added that Jacobs
has come a long way over the 14 years she
has known him. "Brian has his business
dreams and is well on his way to realizing
them:' she said. "He works very hard."
As for the haircut, he says everyone
always hated that ponytail, including his
mother, and claims he was given $100 for
getting it cut.
Hairstyles aside, it's hard to find some-
one who would call Jacob's work ethic
into question. While not braggadocios, he
takes pride in claiming that he has rarely
missed a day on the job, calling in sick
only twice (that he can recall) — and never
being a "no-show" despite many nights
when he stayed out a little too late.
For whatever really drives his motiva-
tion, the man who says he hasn't had a day
off since last October (when Jerusalem
Pizza decided to open Saturday nights),
says he always wanted to have money. "I
always wanted to be independent, buy
stuff if I wanted it, never have to ask my
mother for money," he says.
Ultimately, the free spirit grew up. And,
as often happens, the process of growing
up includes falling in love. Like so many
other slices of his life, his romance was
pizza-related. He met his now wife, Rivka,
when the two worked together at JP. And,
even though he says they knew each other
from attending the same synagogue grow-
ing up, it was the close confines of work
that made the attraction grow. "One thing
led to another, and we started dating," he
says.
Married nearly eight years, and three
daughters later, the two are like tag-team
partners in their expanding empire of
kosher cuisine. If he's not at the flagship
store in Southfield, she usually is. Not that
they do it alone. His employees are, by
and large, an extended family and Jacob's
acknowledged lifeline in the lofty goal of
opening multiple stores.
LAUNCHING THE SUB
"I have a good crew in the Southfield
store and in West Bloomfield; as time
goes on, they're getting better — so now
I'm able to focus on new things;' he says.
Those "things" include his latest endeavor,
Jerusalem Sub, which opened earlier this
year and is reminiscent of a particular
sandwich shop he ate in before keeping
kosher.
"When I was 18, I wanted to open a
Subway," he says, adding that the dream
of running a sub shop ran into the reality
of capital financing, or lack thereof, so it
didn't happen — then. Now, his sub shop
is just three doors down from his pizza
store in Southfield, and he is fielding jokes
about having to change his shirt or apron
to go between the meat and dairy stores.
Not that you have to be frum (religious)
to enjoy the food. Jacobs said he gets lots
of feedback from customers thrilled at the
prospect of being able to take non-kosher
colleagues somewhere they'll want to
return.
"When people come in, I don't tell them
when they order a pepperoni pizza that
they're ordering vegetarian pepperoni;' he
says. "When they come back the next day,
they say, 'That was good; I'd like to have
it again.' [And] I'll tell them it wasn't real
pepperoni, it wasn't real Italian sausage
you ate; a lot of times they don't believe
me?'
On his ascension in the restaurant busi-
ness, he laughs, especially when thinking
about those employees who remind him of
himself when he started, saying he tries to
give them tips for staying out of trouble.
He recognizes it is a tougher world: now
than when he moved through the ranks
to get a job without a college degree and
hopes to pass on the kind of good fortune
he has had in his employment.
"I hope one day they can be as fortunate
as I was to take over an existing business
and be able to raise a family, to make a
good living and enjoy their job," he said. "I
got pretty lucky."
As for the future, he says there are lots
of ideas percolating. "Our plan is to open
up more restaurants in Southfield, in the
same area where Jerusalem Pizza is now;'
he said. "We want to expand the Jerusalem
family." RT
www.redthreadmagazine.com