The War at Zabar's

"Murray Klein, one-third owner of the city's premier delicatessen, picks up his lunch in the busy kitchen of Zabar's at 11:45 on a weekday morning. In this domain of his, he has a dizzying choice of delectables at hand. But he always eats the same simple meal - an egg white, tuna in water, chopped vegetables, unbuttered bread. A cook pops the yolk from the egg and hands what's left to Klein. He gulps it down in two bites."

"Just before leaving the kitchen, Klein stops. His green eyes narrow, and his lips curl with anger. "Saul Zabar," he bellows like a bailiff, "is the world's biggest s-." Saul also owns one-third of Zabar's. "Nobody in the kitchen misses a beat. They've heard it before. Klein might just as well have shouted the name of his third partner, Stanley Zabar - as he often has.""

"Perhaps he's stayed away out of pique over last winter's forced departure of his son, David, as manager of Zabar's sanctum sanctorum, its smoked-fish counter. At one time, this command-level combat - by now an actual Thirty Years' War waged under the big orange logo on Broadway near 80th Street - might have been good for Zabar's. It energized the place, sales advancing inexorably - currently to $39 million a year."

Saul Zabar, the elder brother who helped build Zabar's from a local Upper West Side grocery into an international whitefish landmark, died on October 7 at 97. Murray Klein, one-third owner, follows a ritualized simple lunch and openly expresses hostility toward his partners. Stanley Zabar has been absent for months, possibly angered by the forced departure of his son David as smoked-fish counter manager. The partners' decades-long feuding has been compared to a Thirty Years' War beneath the store's big orange logo. The store continues to thrive commercially, with sales near $39 million and steady international visitors.

Read at Grub Street