Deli Deal
Canter’s, the quintessential L.A. deli, celebrated half a century in the Fairfax district last Monday, Jan. 12, by cutting the price of its corned beef sandwiches to a mere 50 cents and selling about 15,000 of them that day.
But some people showed up the following day expecting the same bargain. That’s because a photo caption in the Jan. 13 Los Angeles Times indicated the special was good for that day. A correction ran on Jan. 14, but by then it was too late.
“We had one woman who was really furious,” said Lynn Price, a Canter’s manager, “but that’s life.” The furious woman, however, has another chance to get a discounted deli sandwich: On Jan. 24, Canter’s will be selling pastrami sandwiches for 50 cents.
More on Kitchens
Restaurant owners with dirty kitchens didn’t care much for KCBS-TV Channel 2’s restaurant cleanliness series last fall, but other eateries are turning it into a marketing opportunity.
The Subway restaurant at the corner of La Cienega and Venice boulevards has a banner proclaiming it as “Rated the cleanest restaurant in L.A.!”
And Abiento Restaurant & Catering Co. in Pasadena has invited its customers to tour its kitchen and bake shop facilities.
“We invite any customer, any time to approach the manager on duty and say that they would like to take a look at the kitchen. We would be happy to walk them through our prep areas, bake shop, walk-in boxes, line, pantry, employee restrooms, etc…” Abiento says in a press release.
Abiento started inviting customers to tour its kitchen about a year ago, well before the KCBS series, said catering and special events manager Marley Majcher. She estimated that between 75 and 100 customers have taken the restaurant up on its offer.
Jane Hammers Mike
The harshest critic Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner has to face may be Mrs. Eisner.
“I go to one of our movies with my wife, Jane,” writes Eisner in his annual letter to shareholders. “Halfway through the movie, she will whisper to me, ‘How could you make this horrible thing?’ I have probably had this conversation with her 20 times over 30 years. Each time I give her the same answer. ‘Jane,’ I say, ‘we just wanted to make the worst, most boring movie we could. We set out to do that. We hired the worst, most irresponsible director we could find. And we just let him do whatever he wanted to do!!!!!’ She looks at me and smiles. She then repeats the questions on the way home.”
Hemingway Trivia
When members of the University of Pennsylvania’s famed Wharton business school showed up at the Holland & Holland retail store in Beverly Hills, a crowd quickly gathered in an area devoted to its high-priced weaponry shotguns and hunting rifles that the British company has been crafting since 1835. One model in particular stood out: a three-shot bolt action rifle that sells for $26,500.
“It’s capable of shooting someone at a half mile,” said Richard Kumferman, who is in charge of H & H;’s arms, “but that’s not hunting.”
The subject changed to Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel laureate who was a big game hunter and who used an H & H; gun on his African safaris.
A Hemingway buff, Kumferman was asked if the writer used one of his Holland & Hollands to commit suicide.
“No, he used a Boss, 20-bore, side-by-side (shotgun),” Kumferman said, adding that years before, Hemingway’s father had also committed suicide but dad used a .45 automatic.
