We reported that the great delicatessen in Beverly Hills, Nate 'n Al's, had closed. This is true but it may still have a future. The owners have released this statement. I didn't correct the odd sentence that's missing a word or two…
The media has incorrectly reported that Nate 'n Al's is "gone forever." As we originally stated, we couldn't fully guarantee the safety of both our customers and employees for take-out and delivery during this pandemic we have chosen to cease that service. Our current lease is expiring shortly and we have encountered major difficulties with the city of Beverly Hills who would have been our new landlord on Canon Drive. It is the intention of the current ownership to get through this crisis like every other restaurant and make the right decisions at the right time. Our goal is to keep the Nate 'n Al's tradition alive.
I hope it returns in some form and that that form is close to what it was. I'll settle for the same potato salad.
But I'm skeptical. Restaurants I like have a way of closing, promising to return soon and then never being seen again. And once in a while when they do return, it's in name only. Cassell's Hamburgers went away and came back as a place called Cassell's that serves burgers and is decorated with its old signage…but it's as much like the old place as the new Hawaii Five-O resembled the original Hawaii Five-O. A restaurant is more than the name and a few of its recipes.
What unfortunately will never come back even if Nate 'n Al's does is something that had already gone away. You used to be able to go to breakfast there and see Doris Day at one table, Jan Murray at another, George Burns at a third. People like that. Larry King was there every day for years and when he became a partner in another deli in Beverly Hills, he still sometimes showed up at Nate 'n Al's.
My two favorite Nate 'n Al's moments…one came when Sergio Aragonés and I had lunch there with a notable film actor who wanted to acquire the rights to Groo the Wanderer for a live-action movie he would direct. It was one of those great meetings that led to nothing, as so many meetings do, but it was memorable because Harvey Korman was dining alone in the booth right next to us.
I knew Harvey a bit and he joined in on our meeting without being invited to do so or even changing seats. He just leaned across the little divider between his table and ours and began listening to what was being said and offering unsolicited ridiculous suggestions about a story about which he knew nothing. ("You should put a duck in it. People love ducks. And every movie needs to have a scene where somebody says, 'You can't talk to me like that!'")
The agent of the actor-director was also sitting with us and she politely asked Mr. Korman to leave us alone. Mr. Korman replied that he would gladly leave us alone if we promised him a part in the movie. We promised him a part in the movie and he said, "Fine" and went back to his pastrami sandwich. I guarantee you that if that movie had been made in his lifetime, Harvey Korman would have been in it somewhere.
The other favorite moment was when I had brunch there with a man I consider one of the five-or-so greatest comic actors who ever lived…maybe one of the three-or-so. His name was Phil Silvers and I think I'll save that story for another post in the coming week.