Sidney Bloom; owner of famous kosher restaurant (London)
Hyfler/Rosner
2003, aged 82.
Proprietor of his family's East End kosher restaurant where international
celebrities mingled with the locals
For the nearly 45 years of its existence, Bloom's restaurant in Whitechapel
in the East End of London was a magnet for exuberant dining. Be it the Marx
Brothers or Princess Margaret, Frank Sinatra or Barbra Streisand, the boast
of the proprietor, Sidney Bloom, was that no one ever went away hungry.
The establishment was equally well known for its cast of manic and long
serving waiters, who often featured in the "Waiter, waiter, there's a fly in
my soup" - "Be quiet or they'll all want one" type of joke. One of the best
known (jokes, not waiters) was the story of the Chinese waiter congratulated
by a diner on his excellent Yiddish. "Shush, he thinks he is learning
English," says the manager.
Quietly presiding over this theatre of dining was Sidney Bloom, a modest,
shy, cautious man who, with his wife Evelyn, created Britain's most famous
kosher restaurant. Born in the East End, Bloom was educated at Raine's
Foundation School but left at 16 to join his parents' salt beef business.
Morris and Rebecca Bloom opened their shop in Brick Lane, then a centre of
Jewish commercial life, in 1920.
Morris, a pre-First-World-War immigrant from Lithuania, had learnt the art
of pickling meat in his home town. He got up at 3am to go to the kosher meat
market that then flourished in Aldgate, brought his purchases home by
wheelbarrow, and pickled beef until the restaurant opened. He later decided
to try his hand at sausage-making. Because he used veal rather than beef,
resulting in paler sausages than people were used to, he initially had to
give them away to convince customers of their tastiness.
The little restaurant, or snack bar, flourished and Morris moved to a larger
site in Brick Lane and opened a meat products factory in the next road,
Wentworth Street. The restaurant moved into the factory, "over the sawdust",
when it was hit in the Blitz.
Bloom did munitions work during the war, then returned to helping his
parents. He married in 1942.
The family owned premises in Whitechapel High Street that lay vacant in the
postwar years. In 1952, after the death of his father the previous year,
Bloom opened up the site and took the restaurant out of the meat factory. It
was never without a queue at its takeaway counter for beef, chicken,
sausages and salami.
Devoted to his family, Bloom named the restaurant after his father, as M.
Bloom (Kosher) and Son Ltd. Inside, he put his father's photo on the wall,
later to be joined by his mother's.
The East End still had a large Jewish population, although it was beginning
to move out. Sidney recognised the migration to northwest London with the
opening of Bloom's in Golders Green in 1965. City traders, stallholders,
manufacturers from the shmatta, or rag trade, all enjoyed eating at Bloom's.
It was the perfect finish to a Sunday morning at Petticoat Lane market.
Visitors enjoying the chopped liver, lokshen (vermicelli) soup and cholent
(24-hour slow-cooked stew) once included a Cup Final-winning team. When
Golda Meir, Israel's Prime Minister came in, the entire restaurant stood up.
Sidney and Evelyn made the perfect team. As the more extrovert she saw to
customers as they came in. He, quieter and low-profile, though with a sharp
sense of humour, steadied things on the kitchen side. He tried to dissuade
his children from coming into the business, urging each of them to become "a
lawyer or accountant". But when he saw that they were determined, he
insisted that they start at the bottom, washing dishes. He stepped down from
active involvement in 1985 but always retained his interest and concern.
Whitechapel Bloom's closed down in 1996 with heavy losses, and his
rabbinical licence to provide kosher food, always retained, was pressed into
service when his son ran foul of the rabbinical authorities. But the Bloom
family, now into its fourth generation, continued to run a successful meat
restaurant and attract celebrity diners.
Evelyn Bloom died in 1990. Sidney Bloom is survived by their daughter and
son.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:bd6svh$39a$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
> Sidney Bloom, restaurateur, was born on January 1, 1921. He died on June
1,
> 2003, aged 82.
From the Times of London a couple of days after the obit ran.
G. E. Lucas writes: May I add to the list of the waiter-related anecdotes in
the excellent and evocative obituary of Sidney Bloom (June 19)? An
acquaintance dining in Blooms Whitechapel Restaurant ordered mashed potatoes
to his main course.
Pointing out that he had been brought boiled potatoes, the waiter picked up
a fork and reduced the offending vegetables to a pulp. "You want mashed
potatoes," said the waiter. "You've got mashed potatoes."
Phil Elston writes: My favourite memory of Sidney Bloom's excellent
establishment (apart from the delicious sandwiches) is the large banner
displayed outside during the 1977 Jubilee celebrations. It read "Mazeltov to
Her Majesty".
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Pointing out that he had been brought boiled potatoes, the waiter
> picked up a fork and reduced the offending vegetables to a
> pulp. "You want mashed potatoes," said the waiter. "You've got
> mashed potatoes."
Are potatoes vegetables, technically?
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kentucky Wizard
consultations with my Joint Chiefs of Staff, being briefed by members of my
Cabinet and telephone conversations with various world leaders, I have come
to the following conclusions:
> In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
>> Pointing out that he had been brought boiled potatoes, the waiter
>> picked up a fork and reduced the offending vegetables to a
>> pulp. "You want mashed potatoes," said the waiter. "You've got
>> mashed potatoes."
>
> Are potatoes vegetables, technically?
Technically, yes.
However, vegetables that are "technically fruits" are:
Zucchini, tomatoes, and squash.
--
© The Wiz ®
«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»
Sue
<kentuck...@hotmail.com> writes
And you forgot the cucumbers.
--
Sue ];(:)
David Uri
wrote:
>And you forgot the cucumbers.
You could never forget the cucumbers at Bloom's. They were
compulsory.
Regards,
--
David Uri.
davidu...@bigfoot.com (remove VEST to reply)
http://www.daviduri.co.uk