Vancouver
A new face at Kaplan's
Serge Haber sells the Oak Street deli after 19 years.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
The next time Serge Haber walks through the doors of Kaplan's delicatessen, it won't be to serve roast beef sandwiches with a side of coleslaw to a customer.
Instead, he will be ordering one himself, sitting down in one of the restaurant's booths and enjoying Kaplan's as a customer instead of its owner.
After 19 years of running the kosher-style delicatessen, Haber has sold Kaplan's to local businessman Marshall Cramer.
"The right customer came in to ask if the business was for sale and I considered the offer and sold it," said Haber, who will turn 72 this summer.
Haber said Cramer, who took over the deli May 18, was the right customer because he agreed to keep the same staff and run the business the way it has been run in the past
" That made it very easy for me [to sell] because I cared about my employees very much and I also cared about the type of business that we did.
"I know he is going to put a new face to the business, as I did when I took over," he continued. "I only pray that he does well."
Cramer told the Bulletin the new face on the deli is going to include interior renovations, new equipment and new menu items.
"What we want to do here is freshen it up, make it look exciting and create a place that people want to go to, not only for the food, but for the ambiance and to gather, meet people and just make it a happening place," he said. "I think there's a need which is rather unique and we're going to make some changes in the product line that wall lend a little more New York flavor to it"
Latest brain research
Dr. Clyde Hertzman, an internationally renowned brain researcher will lead a colloquium on how the latest findings in brain research may be incorporated into quality early childhood education. The presentation is sponsored by UBC Childcarc Services, the Jewish Community Centre and Early Childhood Education B.C.
Hertzman is a member of the health care and epidemiology department at UBC. The guest commentator for the event will be Dr. Hillel Goelman of the educational psychology and special education department at UBC. The colloquium chair is Sheila Davidson, director of Simon Eraser University's childcare office.
Interested parties and professional are invited and certificates of attendance are available for early childhood educators and students.
The event will take place Tuesday, June 20, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Centre. For more information, call Susan Middlemiss at 822-3353, or Roslyn Belle at 257-5111. □
Cramer, who has been involved with the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver for several years, has always wanted to open a deli and the opportunity to purchase an existing business was the perfect start
He plans on opening other Kaplan's stores, the first of whicli is slated for a downtown location. He is also hoping to begin catering services within the next several months.
Once the renovations arc complete, Kaplan's will also extend its hours of operation to longer weekend hours and earlier breakfast hours.
Haber, whose menu items increased in number by 400 per cent throughout the duration of his ownership, had bought Kaplan's from its original owners, Abrashy and Ida Kaplan, in 1981.
After moving to the West Coast from Montreal, he and his wife, Elinor, believed that Vancouver was lacking in kosher groceries.
"I feel that, in my own way, I provided an essential service to the community," he said. "When I bought Kaplan's, I made my wife a promise that we would have kosher products that were not available here and I tried to provide as much as I could at very reasonable prices."
Haber, who said he wall miss his relationships with the staff and customers of Kaplan's, plans on filling his retirement years with visits with his grandchildren in Toronto and New Jersey, camping and collecting model electric trains.
Haber is also on the board of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital and is president of the seniors council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. □
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