Noam
Welcome to Wandering Jews with Mijal and Noam. This podcast is our way of trying to unpack those big questions about Israel, about Judaism, and about the Jewish experience. And today I have with me David Zabar. How cool is that?
David
I love being here.
Noam
Isn’t it great? Okay, we got David Zabar. Now this is part of Jewish American Heritage Month. That is our focus right now. Okay. So can we talk a bit about Zabars? Because I want to just understand Zabars. First and foremost I got I got this book here family story with recipes by Lori Zabar. Your sister.
David
My sister.
Noam
A blessing. And I want to hear a little bit about Zabar’s. How many Zabar stores are there?
David
There’s one Zabar store. That’s not true. Now you go. Go back if you.
Noam
Bar, store.
David
Well, if you go back 50 years, there were like 2 or 3 other stores on the west side that were part where Zabar also. But by the 1960s, there was one location on Broadway, corner of 80th Street.
Noam
And so why do I think when I think of New York City, I think of Zabar. When I think of Zabar, I think of New York City. There’s only one store.
David
One store, but we’ve been there over 90 years. And and, you know, a West Side is, you know, a lot of actors and writers and, you know, so our name showed up a lot. And, you know, you’ll see in films it helps anchor. This takes place in New York City. There’s a bag of coffee, there’s a shopping bag.
David
There’s, you know, a dozen different places where something Zabar’s will show up.
Noam
So that’s what it is. It’s become basically synonymous with the New York experience or the New York Jewish New York Jewish experience. Also, there’s like a big there’s a big connection between New York Jewish and Zabar. It’s like the reason I’m kind of thrown off right now when you tell me there’s one story, I thought there were 25 to 30 zebras in New York.
Noam
That’s what I thought. When I think of when I think of Zabar, what I.
David
Think they’re probably 25 to 30. Is Zabar family members in New York. Okay.
Noam
What I want to focus on is we’re diving to how the stories of the American Jewish experience from our past can inspire and help us think differently about the future at about what the next chapter of Jewish reinvention might look like. So let’s get some of the basics out of the way.
Noam
Tell me a little bit for people who haven’t heard of Zabars and aren’t so New York centric, what is Zabar’s?
David
So Zabar’s, which grew from a small like one storefront to about half of city block, really started out as one counter. It was the appetizing smoked fish counter in a store that was only about 25ft wide. And then there was Deitch Dairy. There was a dairy, and there was a fruit and vegetable, and there were, you know, 2 or 3 other concessions within that store.
David
And my grandfather had started in the 20s in Brooklyn, and he had a like a fruit and vegetable cart in an open market. And then he had a small store in Brooklyn, and then maybe he moved and got a second store. But when the opportunity in the 1930s came to him to do something in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, which was middle class and mostly Jewish, and he said, you know, that’s we’re going to go there to New York, to the city.
David
And my grandmother always wanted to be in Manhattan. So. So that started Zabar’s. And, you know, he was very demanding on quality. And he’d go to the smoke houses and pick out what he considered the best product. And, and people continue to come to him because they liked his quality. They liked his customer service. And we haven’t moved.
David
Well, maybe we moved half a block, but we have not moved for 92 years.
Noam
And what’s your role as executive director of, say, bars or senior executives? Senior executives. What does it mean? I think.
David
You know, it’s like sustainability, trying to make sure we stay there like we because, you know, there’s there’s a retail and then there’s, you know, dealing with employees and regulations. And you know, we’re building we’re putting in a building a freight elevator. And then we’re going to have a passenger elevator and things that customers need and want, and that we feel that we have to make those changes and be able to, you know, mostly how to make the customer happy.
David
You know, 40 years ago, it was starting to prepackaged the cream cheese and the chopped liver, so no one had to wait for it. And then we developed our our slice precise seven packages over 30 years working with the same suppliers. And they made it how we liked it. And we keep control of the quality and, and people count on us to have that quality.
Noam
Okay. So I want to get into the origin story of Zabar in a bit. But before that, I just have kind of just my mind is going with a lot of different questions to understand. This is Jewish American Heritage Month and we’re talking about Jewish culture. And nothing says Jewish culture quite like New York Jewish culture, right, in America.
Noam
And I want to know what it means. Sorry to be a little philosophical with you, my friend, but what does it mean that Zabar’s is a Jewish store? What does it mean for something to be Jewish? Because the food isn’t doesn’t have certification in rabbinic certification. The Hebrew word for that, or the Yiddish word for that is, or it doesn’t have that necessarily right.
Noam
There are some food bars that is kosher that has that supervision, but that’s not what Zabar’s is. So what does it mean that it’s Jewish but not kosher necessarily?
David
Well, the book my sister wrote has a lot of the details, which I didn’t learn until I read it about my great grandfather, my grandfather’s life in Russia, in the in the ostrov. And they were merchants and they sold, you know, lumber and grain and, and they travel around to their customers. And my grandmother’s family had a tavern in the same town.
David
And, you know, everyone in Europe was a religious Jew, and they spoke Yiddish and they learned Hebrew. And, you know, my grandfather’s family, they they had enough money to to go to school or go to college. And but then there were pogroms and Cossacks and they would come invade houses. And I believe they they killed my great grandfather and wounded my great grandmother and killed one of the sisters.
David
And my grandfather fought back and had to leave.
Noam
And how did he get out on the day of the day experience?
David
Well, I think he chased some of these Cossacks away from the house, and then he had to hide at a neighbor, and then another neighbor or someone actually smuggled them, smuggled them out of town, maybe in, like, like in the back of a hay wagon.
Noam
Right. So we’re in. How do you pronounce it? I struck. Yeah. You’re in Australia, and there are these Cossacks who are menacing and.
David
And looting and killing.
Noam
Looting and killing. And your grandfather, Louis Zabar, escapes from these pogroms, right. And does so by hiding in different places and and.
David
And then gets transported, you know, out out of town. And I think he went through Warsaw eventually to get to get to Canada. So he made his way to New York, where two of his sisters were. And he met my grandmother, who had come through Philadelphia and recognized that she was a friend of his sisters and Lillian Zabar, or or was title bound, and.
Noam
Lillian title and Louis Xavier, and.
David
In New York City. And he recognized her. And, you know, I don’t know if it says it there, but he said, you’re coming with me. And that was that. That was that.
Noam
Did Lili play any role in the business?
David
Well, yeah. She claims that she made all the salads and she ran the business. And at one point she sold one of the stores when my grandfather wasn’t there. But she was very active in the store, you know, they had the children. And then she was more at home and. But, you know, she was she was busy on the store and they had a lot of friends in the neighborhood who had come from Russia.
David
And she was there were pretty social. And unfortunately, my grandfather passed away in 1949. So, you know, they were relatively young and my father was 18, my uncle was 22, and they had to come and help their mother and and keep the store going.
Noam
So that’s the origin story. But you didn’t answer my question about being Jewish. What does it mean that the that this is a Jewish store? I actually I want to like I’ll give you an example. There’s something called Katz’s Delhi. I think of Castelli as something that is Jewish food but not kosher. And I keep kosher. So I’ve never eaten at Katz’s Deli. But when I see people talk about Jewish culture in New York City, or I can imagine, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David, I could I don’t know if you did this or not, but I imagine him pounding like it.
Noam
Katz’s Reuben sandwich. Right? Sure. So then what does it mean? Something as Jewish? Be little philosophical with me first. What does it mean for it to be Jewish and not kosher? What? What is what does it mean for food? Is it because they used to eat it somewhere? What? What does Jewish food mean?
David
Okay, so my grandmother’s greatest pleasure was to have everybody around the holiday table with the chicken soup and the matzo balls and the brisket, etc., that she’d cooked in a kitchen and her children and her grandchildren, etc., etc.. And it wasn’t a kosher house or kosher kitchen, but it was all the traditional foods and it was the family being together.
David
And to her that was the key to Jewish life. And you know, my.
Noam
Because that’s what they ate hundreds of years ago in Eastern Europe.
David
That’s what came from the old country. That’s the idea. And we saw went the Hebrew school, and we were born in botnets. And that was our Jewish identity. Right. And, you know, we didn’t have in every day. I mean, I go to school every every week. But that.
Noam
Was.
David
But that was so we had the Jewish.
Noam
I did not Jewish people eat brisket.
David
Sure. Lots of people eat press.
Noam
That’s the people who? Brisket, right? Yeah. People eat bagels.
David
Absolutely. And you pickle the brisket? Corned beef. You know. It’s simple and coastal. It could be sauerkraut. You know, it’s it’s all transitive. Yeah.
Noam
So then what makes it use a, It’s that it’s that it’s that the your grandma. Our grandparents used to eat this stuff.
David
I think so, I think, you know, we we have filled in for a lot of people that did not learn to make these things. They remember them from their grandparents or their parents house that their mother and grandmother made. And and they want that experience. They want their children to have that experience. And there.
Noam
And what’s your favorite Jewish food?
David
Well, I’ll have a bagel, but is that a Jewish food? I’m not I’m not sure.
Noam
You know, like, if I had my co-host here, Michal, who’s she’s Sephardic. So she would be looking at this conversation and she’d be like, what does that mean, Jewish food. That’s not Jewish food. That’s Ashkenazi Jewish.
David
Is buckwheat and and bow tie noodles. Now, where did that come from? That’s traditional.
Noam
That’s from.
David
Where it’s traditional way to come from. I don’t.
Noam
Know what I’m saying. If she’s from North Africa in the Middle East, that’s not the food that they’re eating. They’re getting different food there. And, and, you know, mother delicious food.
David
And my grandmother wouldn’t know what you were talking about.
Noam
Exactly. What is this guy talking about? So I’m stepping in for me and saying, this is Jewish food. Yes, that’s what it is. Jewish food. So your favorite is a bagel. What do you put on your bagel?
David
Like a toasted bagel with cream cheese. With the novi on the side.
Noam
On the side.
David
Why?
Noam
Yeah.
David
Because I was a smoked fish buyer for ten years. Yeah, and I got used to just tasting the fish as it was to be able to appreciate it. So it’s just I’m a little bit of a purist.
Noam
So you like that? You like the taste of the locks?
David
I like the taste of the locks, you know, and then we get into the history of salmon. But, you know, the salty locks, the smoked salmon. There’s.
David
This we call Novi or Nova Scotia. Sabin. They used to call it mile cured salmon in the smoke houses, which means it’s in a brine of salt and sugar for a number of days, and then it’s dried and smoked on racks. And that’s what most people think of a smoked salmon.
Noam
I’m going to play a little game with you right now. It’s called blasphemous or weird or not acceptable. Ready for this? I scooped out bagel with cream cheese and Nova scooping out the veil. How do you feel about that? Is that blasphemous?
David
I don’t care, I don’t do it. And I know people get upset about it. I said, not my experience. You slice of bagel in half. We tend to toast the bagel. Even if it’s fresh. Then what’s a fresh bagel?
Noam
A bagel. Even when fresh?
David
Well, yeah, because it gives.
Noam
You that. That is a sign of a tree.
David
So? So some people think that’s blasphemous. If it’s a fresh bagel, I’m saying no. It gives you that surface to be able to build that sandwich, because otherwise it’s too soft. So that’s.
Noam
That’s what is the.
David
Right there. I don’t know if it’s wisdom, wisdom.
Noam
It’s wisdom. I learned I was I was this, this, this, this years old, this day old, whatever. When I learned that the I think it was actually a couple of years ago, I learned the value of toasting a bagel. When it’s fresh. It’s unbelievable.
David
Right?
Noam
Unbelievable.
David
I mean, the second and third day you got you need to toast the bagel. But but the.
Noam
100%. Wait, so. So you’re saying you’re cool with that? The scoop out. So you do what? What kind of one of my friends who owns a bagel spot? He’s one of the owners. I guess there are many of them. A bagel boss.
David
I’ve heard.
Noam
Of it. So? So there’s, like a franchise in South Florida. Anyone can register terms of origin, but his whole bit is that he said he’s like, no, you’re not going to actually believe me on this. But he said, it’s cinnamon raisin bagel, okay. With cream cheese. And Nova is unbelievable. He said it’s the sweet with the salty is is how do you feel about that deep blasphemous weird or or are you okay with it?
David
You know, over the last ten, 20 years, the the idea of what goes on a bagel has changed drastically because, you know, we never I think capers came later. Capers, capers, capers, lemon and capers came in with Scotch salmon, which sort of came from Europe as as odors and stuff. Not as on a bagel. And now it’s capers and it’s onions and it’s rays and it’s blueberry.
David
That and it’s like. But but I remember, you know, I like a, you know, a cinnamon raisin loaf you could buy in the market. I like cinnamon raisin toasted with cream cheese. I would eat that bagel. But as I said with the salmon, the salmon on the side because I wouldn’t be able to taste the salmon. I want to be able to taste this.
Noam
Out like that. I like that I taste the salmon. That’s so good. Do you? Have you ever heard of this concept of people eating pizza in reverse? Meaning having that, having the. They flip around the pizza so that the sauce and cheese hits the tongue first. Have you ever heard of that move? Because you could taste the sauce and cheese better that way?
Noam
You think about that.
David
That’s it. So you put the cheese under the sauce.
Noam
No, no, no. You take a.
David
Slice, you turned upside down.
Noam
He turned on side down.
David
I haven’t heard of it about it. So you see if the pizza is cold bc to do.
Noam
Exactly.
David
Okay.
Noam
All right, all right, let’s get back to some serious stuff. Not that bagel story isn’t serious. I want to talk a little bit more about about the story of bars. You working at bars, and then a little bit more philosophy about Xavier’s. You started working at the store when you were 13.
David
13, 14. So we lived in Queens, in Rego Park.
Noam
What are you going to be? Memories from that time?
David
So in Regal Park, Forest Hills, that’s where I grew up. And maybe every other Sunday my father would open the store like 7 a.m..
David
So that’s but, you know, I think each generation saw how hard the parents worked in the store and the joy they got from it and helping customers, and that’s our life. We’re grocers. That’s what we think ourselves as grocers.
Noam
What does that mean? We as a grocer.
David
You stock the shelves, you help the customer. You know, it’s not we’re not, you know, chefs in a fancy restaurant, you know, in the news, you know, it’s not famous. It’s not fame. We’re there for, you know, we’re we’re here for the people. Right?
Noam
I love.
David
That.
Noam
Yeah. So speaking of being there for the people, some food that you haven’t mentioned yet is Harry. Yes. Let’s talk about Harry for a second.
David
Well, let’s talk about herring.
Noam
I want to talk about herring. When you were 14 years old or 13, and you had to, like, deal with herring because no one else wanted to.
David
Well.
David
Let me tell the truth. I really was not a fish person until.
Noam
I knew.
David
I was in my 20s and I apprenticed my Uncle Saul. So I was like a clean slate. And I did not really eat a lot of smoked fish before that.
Noam
There’s a story that we read that Louis would dip his arms and herring barrels.
David
Well, he said that he he was allergic to some of the fruit, so he put his hand. So the herring barrel is like 100% salt solution because the herring is packed in. So just like the belly lox or the salty lox was layered in salt. So but when you put your hand in the barrel and it was below, it was lower than freezing, usually like because a pure salt was about 28 degrees or whatever.
David
So first, you know it’ll numb your hands, but some people claim it cured whatever ailed you.
Noam
Oh, that sounds like a nice Jewish yeah.
David
Story from herring barrel lox barrels.
Noam
Prior to cryotherapy. Prior to the.
David
Yeah, it’s the first car therapy.
Noam
It’s the first car therapy. That’s that’s what it is. The herring barrel. That’s great to know. Okay, I want to I want to speak more about. I think that the story of your grandparents and your parents and you is in many ways this very Jewish story. And I’ll tell you what I mean by that, when if you go through the book and I won’t give away too much about the book of of Zabar’s.
Noam
But here’s something that we noticed. Your family had gone through a lot. They went through pogroms, they went through fires, business breakups. Right. But also lots of successes and innovations. And there’s this author named Bruce Feiler. I think that’s a pronounce his last name. Okay. He talks about that. There are three different types of stories that we could tell in life.
Noam
One’s called the ascending narrative, which is that you started from the bottom, now you’re here meaning like things were from rags to riches sort of stories. Things were horrible. Now things are great. And then there’s another sort of story called The Descending Narrative, which is all about stories that they like. Everything was amazing. We had everything and that we lost everything, and now we’re in this terrible condition.
Noam
And then there’s a third type of story, which is called the oscillating narrative, which is the stories that are like, they’re good and they’re bad. There’s good and there’s bad, there’s challenges and their successes. And he says that the stories that are combining all of that is really the most authentic story, and it’s what keeps families together and strong and really have resilience to, to to go forward.
Noam
When I think of your story, I think in many ways of this oscillating moment. So could you go through some of the ups and downs that you think really defined the family in the business?
David
Well, I think it was defined by, you know, the hard work, the my grandparents in their store and my, my father, uncle, probably from age, you know, 8 or 10, you know, they’d be in and out of the store and they’d be helping out.
David
And my Uncle Saul started selecting his own coffee beans in the 60s and, and having them custom roasted and Jamaican blue Mountain coffee and Kona coffee and things other people did have. And we carry on that tradition of buying green beans and sampling them and test roasting them and having them roasted for us. So it’s about growing with what’s going on and going out there and seeing what’s new, you know?
David
And you know, do you reach plateaus? Do you say, what’s next? What’s new? I think the prepackaged meals, the putting things self-service over the last, you know, last 30 or 40 years that, that that was required. But the idea that you still had a full service counter, that someone could get a quarter pound from the person they knew behind the counter, whether it was whether it was a lox or roast beef or whatever.
David
And you know what’s blowing up now? Sandwich shops and bagel shops making sandwiches. And and it was thinking, okay, you know, we’ll build a, we’ll build a new bakery kitchen and we’ll, we’ll I you know, our goal is always to produce things that are better. You know, there’s economics. Can you, can you make it for the same or less.
David
And can you make it better than you’re buying from someone else. And it’s going to be fresher and and will people, you know, beat a path to your door to get that product. So that’s, you know, that’s where we’re going. What do we need? We need to make it easier for our customers and make a better product.
Noam
Getting back to the Jewish theme for a second of of bars, you explain the business of it all and why it’s so attractive. I think it’s so interesting what you just said about like, there’s there’s very much so this human connection that really matters to you, as I like your description of yourself as grocers, if you yourself, as part of the experience with the interaction with human beings, with AI right now, where AI could figure out how to do lots of things, you say no, humans need humans.
Noam
Humans want to connect to humans. Humans want to have that relationship. I want to also think about this Jewish component, what people think of zebras. Do you think they think of a Jewish market? They do you think they think of it as Jewish?
David
I think, you know, we have maybe half our customers think it’s Jewish and cultural and it’s tradition and it’s Jewish. And other people say it’s a gourmet shop of going to get the the bread I want and the coffee I want. And so, you know, people have different like I say, when we read a good book, everybody comes away with a different thing that they identify with.
David
But I will tell you an anecdote or in general, when I was buying the smoked fish, say, Tuesday. You know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. No, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I might be in Brooklyn and at the smoke houses. And part of our tradition is going and seeing the product before it comes to the store so we can say yes, no, maybe.
David
Or, you know, we have to sample that first. And, you know, it was, you know, freshness. It was about the salt. But I worked behind the counter Sundays and Mondays, and there were a lot of old timers then who had had their own shops. ET cetera. You know, the kibbutz with the customers, etc.. So you really need to have contact with your customers to understand what you’re doing, and you had to understand the quality of the fish and how it handled, how it sliced, how it tasted, and then the customer’s reaction, you know, what?
David
Did they appreciate it? Was it what you doing? You know, important or did it make things better or whatever. So it’s if you don’t work with customers, you’re not going to get anywhere,
Noam
I want to hear a little bit about Japan. I know that you have a following in Japan. Have you ever seen the documentary? I never know how to pronounce that. Jiro Dreams of Sushi or Jiro Sushi.
David
No, no and no. So I haven’t been to Japan, but there is a supermarket and it’s quite a distance from from Tokyo. Yo. I mean, more south and west. And they purchased. They purchased. They were products like T-shirts and shopping bags and maybe some of our vacuum. And I have had people they like iconic things in American things.
David
And the Japanese tourists will come and they will buy up, you know, the zebra bags and the mugs and the towels and the the things with the zebra brand on it.
Noam
Had this become a Japanese?
David
I do not know. I can’t answer that.
Noam
You don’t know. But you have people coming to your store just from Japan.
David
I mean, it’s it’s an American icon of quality, of some kind. I don’t know, I not.
Noam
That’s an amazing thing. Like, as this American iconic experience as zebras.
David
That the Japanese want to come and they want to bring home as they are branded products.
Noam
Like when I travel, I travel a lot for work and I go to an airport. I want to buy something that like represents Boston or Atlanta or New York. I buy like a sweatshirt. So they’re people from Japan are coming to the United.
David
They’d want a zebra.
Noam
Sweatshirt.
David
And they want.
Noam
To where I want is able to sweatshirt what I do. You know we got his sweatshirt. We’ll talk you know guide.
David
You walk up the staircase to the house. Where’s and there the sweatshirts.
Noam
I wanted to ask a few more questions. I’m going to end with these these three questions right now. Imagine yourself have fun with this, David. Okay.
David
You ready? Okay, go.
Noam
Imagine yourself walking through the front door of the store right into the cheese section.
David
Okay?
Noam
Tell us what you’re putting in your cart, starting from there.
David
I like a good. I like Stilton, blue cheese. It’s a little more buttery. It’s got lots of flavor. You know, I like stronger cheeses. Now I’m a little bit older, so. Right. And nice sheep’s milk, pecorino and. But a parmesan I like. You can eat parmesan Reggiano just straight from the piece. You don’t have to.
Noam
Do you put it you don’t put a cheese on a cracker.
David
You know.
Noam
You do.
David
You don’t do lies. But but a nice breed. Cheese. A nice soft cheese.
Noam
Yeah. You’re a high class cheese connoisseur. Keep going.
David
That’s it. But, you know, I like, I love, I love, I love a fresh mozzarella. I got a.
Noam
Muscle from there. What else are you putting in the. What else are you.
David
Putting in? Am I going to the next department?
David
Well, you know, I go into so we have a candy department which also has dried fruits and nuts etc. and you know, it’s unsalted roasted almonds, which was snack on. My wife’s a baker. I’ll be buying baking bars of chocolate for her. And you know, it’s candied orange peel.
Noam
And at the store.
David
No, but she writes baking books and cookbooks. We sell them at the store. So. So I’ll be buying that and I’ll go on. And always buying the roast turkey that we make ourselves
Noam
Do you shop there a lot?
David
Almost every day.
Noam
Yours, Abrams. Every day. What, what what do you got a good deal?
David
I get a small discount. There’s a family, a family and a there’s a family and an employee discount. What I do have, which is a very limited, is there is a house charge account which only maybe a dozen people have. Barbara Streisand had one,
Noam
You and Barbara have the account.
David
I do, my parents do. My sister. You know, family members.
Noam
Get that.
David
My cousin, who used to run the office was in love with Barbra Streisand and anything she wanted, she even delivered herself. So she had she had a house account.
Noam
She is a Jewish icon.
David
She’s a.
Noam
Jewish, for sure. Okay, let me continue. Question two Zabar’s is famous for its appetizing products and its coffee. But what are the under the radar products that people need to try?
David
You know, we think of the roast beef, the turkey, the things we make in house and everything we make in house. I, you know, I only like our coastal law that we make. And I like, you know, and I.
Noam
Think there’s, there’s, there’s this line in the Talmud that if you see something that’s not kosher, but you want to eat it, you’re supposed to say, F.C. like, I wish I could have it. That’s the way I feel. I just want Zabar’s eventually. This is my next business idea for you. Ready for this? I want you creating Zabar’s 2.0 with all kosher products.
David
All kosher products.
Noam
Kosher products. And then I get into Barbra Streisand too.
David
To segregate and to make a kosher kitchen or to make a kosher z bars, you know, we kind of had to I don’t I don’t think we have the energy of the manpower to, to kind of reproduce it or start over again.
Noam
Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, a man can dream. There you go. But it’s also, I hear, the business model. The business model is saying, this is what we do, and we’re focusing on this period. And that’s. And we’re going to be excellent to that. We’re going to be the best in the world at that. We’re going to be iconic for that.
Noam
We’re going to be American iconic for that Jewish American economy, for that New York Jewish iconic for that. And then people from Japan are going to flock to New York City to get stuff from zebras to bring back to Japan, because that’s what you do. Okay. Last question I want this is my last question.
David
For you. Well, I want one more thing to say is about 30% of our business is mail order and shipping. It’s gift baskets. But then, you know, you need two quarts of chicken soup and and and rolling this and that, and we’ll send it overnight. You know, it’s it’s that’s what we.
Noam
Do what you do. Okay. Last question. Human to human. It sounds like it’s a huge component of what you do. Seems almost like a blue collar approach. You have to to the relationship with people. You’re not high brow. You’re not, you know, let everyone take care of it. You. You’re grocer. You’re a grocer.
David
Okay.
Noam
I want you to tell me one member, one memorable encounter you’ve had with the customer.
David
I can tell you. My experience behind the appetizing fish counter is if you. If you had a customer that you. You knew you weren’t making them happy. For what a reason. Maybe you were too young. Or maybe they they you’d go to the guy next to you, you know, I. Why don’t you help this customer? Because I don’t think I, I don’t think I understand exactly what they want.
David
Please. And they will take that customer and everyone will be happy. So you can’t you can’t make every customer happy. But you. You try your best and you. And that’s it.
Noam
Life lessons from David Zabar. Appreciate it very much. The story of Zabar A family story with recipes Lori Zabar. The story of Zabar is a Jewish American story, a Jewish New York story, and a story about the ups and downs of the Jewish experience, which, like I said before, is the oscillating narrative of the Jewish experience. So, David, thank you so much for coming on Wandering Jews.
David
Good. I’m so glad to be here. Thank you.