"Betz has been in the restaurant business in San Francisco since he first arrived here in 1962, at age 22, and worked his way up from being a waiter to being a restaurant and nightclub owner, and ultimately to owning one of the city's most iconic and long-lived restaurants, The House of Prime Rib. The restaurant, which opened in 1949, has been under Betz's ownership for 40 years, since 1985, when Betz purchased it from founder Lou Balaski."
"Still, it was Betz who made the video below to announce the House of Prime Rib's big pandemic reopening in the fall of 2020 albeit premature, as the restaurant would be forced to close again and reopen again. The video is a somewhat spooky reminder of the mid-2020 paranoia about COVID-19, showing all the cleaning products they were using, and new plastic partitions that were installed between booths."
"Betz, born in Germany in 1939, said he was on his own by the age of 14 and started waiting tables just to survive. "Things were different then," he said in a 2011 interview. "The war was ending. I got a job in a restaurant because that's all that was available." And, he added, "In the restaurant industry, if you do a good job, there's always a job.""
Joe Betz, born Josef Betz in Germany in 1939, died at age 86. He arrived in San Francisco in 1962 at 22 and advanced from waiter to restaurant and nightclub owner. He purchased The House of Prime Rib in 1985 and maintained its mid-20th-century menu, customs and traditions. The restaurant originally opened in 1949 and remained under Betz family ownership for 40 years. Betz retired from daily operations years ago and his son Steven took charge. Betz produced a pandemic-era reopening video in fall 2020 showing cleaning protocols and plastic partitions. He began working at 14 and emigrated via a cruise ship.
Read at sfist.com
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