Pastrami Maestro Conducts Meat and Greet

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By day, Saul Cooperstein negotiates deals for Sam Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment Group LLC. By night, the business development executive moonlights as a chef. But not just any kind. He’s a pastrami chef.

Last week, his pastrami-making skills were on display at Breadbar in Century City for the restaurant’s monthly event that features a guest chef preparing eight dishes for $8 each.

Cooperstein, who isn’t a formally trained chef, served a deli-inspired menu featuring “Saul’s Pastrami Sandwich” made with Japanese Wagyu pastrami.

“I’m a guy who likes deli quite a bit and Los Angeles is one of the best deli towns anywhere,” Cooperstein, 32, said. “But I’m also a guy who works for a company that has some high-end places, and I wanted to see if we could combine the two of those: high-quality ingredients and cooking techniques.”

So, Cooperstein started making his own pastrami using high-end Japanese Wagyu beef. The pastrami has gained a following among L.A. chefs.

Cooperstein said Nazarian approves of his extracurricular endeavor.

“I don’t think it’s normal for a guy in the finance department to be doing something like this,” Cooperstein said. “So I give him a lot of credit.”

Unusual Commuter

In the financial world, displays of wealth are not uncommon. But Andrew Polsky, a partner with new investment firm Panamera Capital LLC, isn’t interested in that.

Since co-founding the firm in late December, the 28-year-old Beverly Hills resident has left his shiny BMW in the garage and taken the bus to work in downtown Los Angeles – a move, he said, that is environmentally friendly, gives him new perspective on the city and eases the stress of commuting.

“I dread sitting in traffic,” he said. “So if there’s ever a time when I can just doze off and stare out the window and not be in front of the controls like I am when I’m at work, then I’m all about it.”

Polsky, an expert in foreign securities investing, said his travel choice raises more than a few eyebrows among his colleagues.

“They’re all surprised,” he said. “Nobody does what I do.”

The Big Itchy

At least one area law firm’s managing partner is walking around with a newly gleaming scalp.

When Rick Cohen, managing partner of Buchalter Nemer, found out the firm’s director of operations, Virginia Banker, was battling cancer, he offered to shave his head if his partners would pledge at least $7,500 to the Revlon Run/Walk fundraiser for breast cancer charities.

Employees did much more. They shelled out more than $30,000 to see their boss go hairless in the firm’s downtown L.A. office April 22. He even donned some Kojak-style sunglasses and sucked a lollipop in homage to the 1970s television show, and invited the firm’s outlying offices to watch the peel-down via video conference.

So how’d it go?

“It was just awful,” said Cohen, 57. “First of all, it actually hurt a little bit, and then after it was shaved I couldn’t believe either how hideous I looked or how terrible it felt.”

Still, “it’s absolutely amazing I had the opportunity to do something as slight as this with such a great impact,” he said.

“What I have to look forward to pretty soon is it itching like crazy.”

Staff reporters Alexa Hyland, Richard Clough and Alfred Lee contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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