Hey Team. I realise its been forever since I posted but I only got my Internet hooked up at the new place earlier today. Even so, the keyboard is on my lap and all my stuff (what’s left of it all after 5 carloads to Goodwill and about as much to some Michigan landfill) still mostly in boxes.

Sandy Gordon, yes THAT (host with the most) Sandy Gordon painted the place last week and it looks great. I highly recommend him for all your painting and hosting needs. Actually just painting – we need him far too much as our front-door anchor to let him go.

I ran into the one and only James Russo the other day. James, you’ll remember, is one of the owners of the Monarch. This was our first meeting since I left that place and it was nice to see him. I like James. He works hard, plays hard and has this big kid sort of demeanor. Unless he’s mad and if he is you’ll want to be somewhere else. I ask how he’s doing and it seems he really misses me. Well, maybe not me so much as my customers. The guy who took over after me only lasted 6 weeks. I can’t imagine what could have happened. James and his partners are so pleasant to work with. Very collegial, warm and supportive. hehehe

I often find myself thinking back to the days at the Monarch. Times were simpler then but times have changed and I’m not unhappy about that either.

So what’s going on at the deli? You’ll have to tune in tomorrow because I’m going to bed. Seriously, I am but thanks for reading and for your patience.

You may have noticed I haven’t been around the deli much for the last few days. I wish I could say I’ve been taking it easy and working on my Wii golf game or going to the gym or even that I’d escaped for a few days of r&r.

The truth is far less glam: I’ve got a cold. On top of that I’m moving on Tuesday so I’m taking this time to sort through all of my collected junk and purging all the crap I haven’t used or worn since I don’t remember when. I’m also getting rid of stuff that triggers bad memories.

Can you believe I still have my wedding tuxedo from 9 years ago? Gone. I put my golf clubs on craigslist because I haven’t used them in almost that long and can’t stand the game for more than 9 holes. Broken Ikea lamp that I always figured I’d fix? Gone. Cookbooks I never read, computer cords and disks for machines I no longer own? Out you get. This is really cathartic in a dusty, guilt-ridden kind of way.

A special friend called me a “hoarder” and it never occurred to me until she said so that she’s right. I’ve shifted all this crap from one place to another and even put it into storage when I lived in Florida a few years back. I paid to keep this shit?!? I even told her a story of putting feather cushions into storage. The look of shock on her face was enough to help me see that I have a problem: I hang onto stuff for way too long.

It feels good to let go. Achoooo!

I got the following message from Jay Grossman along with the pic of his son.

“Hi Zane,
Here is a pic of my boys first sandwich.. Interestingly he has never liked mustard yet demanded that it be on his sandwich.. Go figure!
Btw my daughter claims that you have the best fries in town!
All the best,
Jay Grossman”

I can’t tell you how much pleasure it gave me to meet these people, to see the sparkle in their eyes and watch them enjoy each other and my food. Jay’s delightful daughter held the basket of fries under her arm because she didn’t want to share but of course she did because her father’s taught her the value of sharing.

There are so many things that give me pleasure in my business: seeing parents and grandparents with their little ones, seeing people reconnect with old friends and doing that myself. I also get a charge out of seeing my team run the place and I have to tell you: we’re not perfect but in the last few weeks we’ve gotten pretty darned close. It’s so nice to be me when the place works, the line moves and people take the time to tell me we’re doing alright. Better than alright.

Good enough that I took a few days off to go to David Sax’s “Save the Deli” Montreal book launch last week. I’ve started a separate post about that experience but I’ll save it for another day (when my photos come back from the Censor).

Speaking of photos, I’m going to go back and add them in to make this blog a little more interesting so check back in the coming days and weeks. Obviously I’m having difficulty with photos so bear with me.  Maybe the Censor can help with that too.

In the meantime, just know you’re reading the words of one happy man.

Giulia Mandel is an original. She is smart, funny, hard working and extraordinarily talented. She can play the piano like a motherfucker and make conversational references to everything from Groundhog Day to Ibsen to stuff I’ve never heard of.

As a rule I try and hire people smarter than me and in her case I succeeded. Giulia runs the deli during the daytime and does it better than I ever could.

Against her better judgement I persuaded her to ask her partner Peter to come help us in the kitchen. His talent is wasted on what he’s been doing for us but I know we’ll find a way to make him happy once the positions get solidified – we’ve had a huge amount of turnover in the kitchen because I made some bad decisions. But back to Giulia.

It is because of her that I can take a day off every Tuesday (today being my second one). I know that if she’s there, everything will work because she’ll make it work even if it doesn’t. Huh? Let me explain…

Yesterday the custom-built steamer broke. Today, instead of just waiting for the guy, she called the guy. And when the guy didn’t respond, she yelled and screamed until he came in. Giulia is someone who cares. She finds solutions. She makes this work because she works it. She goes above and beyond and not just at work. Sunday evening, the start of her ‘weekend’, I woke her to ask for her advice on a relationship problem I was having. She was there for me without hesitation.

I’ve made a number of hiring mistakes. Giulia Mandel was not one of them.

Tonight was a very special night.  We hosted two book launch parties for David Sax.  The first was public and the second was private.  Both were enormously fun, busy and thrilling for me personally and professionally.  Because of all the press he’s garnered I was pretty sure the first event would be packed and since his mother Julia and fiancee lauren were in charge of the second event I was sure that one would be packed too.  In fact, except for my parents and investors I didn’t invite anyone to either party.  Well, except for Ron Grebler, Jeff Peters and Manny Blatt but those guys are special.

Better, Sax had invited all the deli guys in the city and most showed up.  Yitz Penciner, a man I consider my mentor and the godfather of deli in Toronto was there with Mrs. Yitz (lovely wife Bernice).  Leslie Wong was there from the Steele’s Deli.  Lorne Pancer from… where else?  Moe Pancer’s was there and he even sat on MY knee for the photo we took. Carol and Jody Silverberg were there from Coleman’s.  Ted Bernholtz waved the Chicago 58 flag and Charise Beck from Switzer’s came just after that photo was taken. These are the people on whose shoulders I stand.  I couldn’t mess this up under any circumstances and I didn’t.

We had a team meeting following lunch service and before the party where I told my peeps about the blog yesterday and discussed with them my expectations.  I was frank and direct.  I accepted full responsibility for our failures and shared responsibility for our success.  I believe I’ve turned a corner and that I’m finally able to accept that my best is good enough.  If I put the right people in place, teach them well and get out of their way magic can happen.  And tonight was magical.  I felt none of the stress and pressure of the past weeks (alright, truth be told I had a minor freak out this morning when I discovered Silverstein’s sent us 24 loaves of double rainbow rye instead of 24 loaves of cocktail rye – but that was it ).

A couple of days does not a changed man make – said my fortune cookie the other day.  With that in mind I’ll try not to strain my shoulder patting myself on the back.

Last:  I’ve heard your cries and I feel your pain.  Thanks to Megan the Mustard Mavin and Alan Gordon’s urging CAPLANSKY’S HOUSE MUSTARD IS BACK.  Danny also wants us to bake our own rye bread and if things work out right, that may happen sooner than you think.

Believe it or not I’ve sat down a dozen times over the last few weeks and each time I ended up saving some rambling thing I wrote without posting it.  It was either too personal, too boring, too kvetchy or just not up to my… standards?  I put it that way because I get far too many comments from people about how much they enjoy reading my blog so now I’m self-conscious about what I write.  That’s my problem: I’ve started to care far too much about what you think of me – not just my food but me and I think its unhealthy.

When I started this adventure it was all about a brisket, a cure, a little smoke, some spice and fresh rye bread.  Gourmet Magazine, Maxim Magazine, Joanne Kates, Bonnie Stern, Corey (Goddam) Mintz, Ruth Reichl, Steven Davey, Geddy Lee, Louis Black and all the outrageous and disproportionate press and public attention I’ve received weren’t part of the plan.  I’m not complaining – not one bit but I am saying that all this stuff has affected me.  I feel a sense of pressure, expectation and responsibility that I’m not sure I ever wanted and I’m not sure this is healthy either.  In fact I know its not.  Evidence? I’ve been yelling at my people and I’ve even been sharp with some customers.  This is not a recipe for success.

Fortunately, I have people around me who love me and with their support I’m learning how to deal with this.  In fact, I’m learning how to relax and enjoy my life but the intervention didn’t come a moment too soon because if Mr. Warhol is right, I’ve only got a few minutes left.  Would you believe perfect strangers send me messages on Facebook telling me I’m an asshole for yelling at my peeps in the dining room? Its true and they’re right.  That behavior qualifies as assholesque and I am guilty of it.  I did apologize to those involved but the damage was done.  That and another incident I won’t go into out of sheer embarrassment (think asshole x infinity) made me see two things:

1 I need help dealing with the pressure and

2 I need a day off

Number One I addressed a couple weeks ago when I found a new therapist.  Number Two I accomplished yesterday – mostly.  See, Monday night I was driving home after dropping off my date (it’s a secret – don’t tell anyone) when I noticed my crew left the lights on in the deli when they closed.  It was about 1 am and I went in to check on the close.  They did great ‘cept for the lights but as I was leaving I noticed the smoker, my (Southern) pride and joy was idle.  I took off my sweater and made six trips up and down the stairs loading her up.  With sweat rolling down my forehead I went looking for the spice blend.  Looking, looking, looking and not finding.  I found the barrel but it was empty but for a handful or two.

Its now 2.30 am and I called Danny Griesdorf, our brilliant and talented chef.  ”Please tell me you’ve hidden the spice,” I asked, hoping that was true and not at all surprised that he was awake.   I didn’t yell or anything which was good because  it wasn’t his fault. Unloading the smoker went faster than loading and I was home by 3.30 am.  Danny and I met for dim sum and then went to Little India to pick up spices and blend them for service.  Mentsch that he is, Danny wouldn’t allow me to step foot in the deli but went in himself on HIS day off to blend spices and get the smoker smoking.

Danny is representative of the quality of the people I’ve assembled.  Maybe that’s not exactly true because his is an exceptional talent.  I’ve seen and worked with many great chefs and he is as good as any of them.  Delicious, fast, consistent, clean and true to deli tradition Danny makes it happen like no one else could.  But like the rest of my team he works extraordinarily hard to please me and my very demanding customers.  Yelled at?  They should get Club Med vacations (or at least a health plan).

Since my sin was very public, so must be apology: I am sorry.  My behavior was deplorable, disrespectful and wrong in every way. I am taking action to ensure it never happens again and am trying to make amends to those I’ve wronged.  I’m working hard to be the kind of deli-man they deserve to work for.  Mostly I want to thank everyone for sticking with me.

Thanks to Dave Shore and the troupe at Monkey Toast for inviting me this evening. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. Just what I needed.

Thanks to Corey Mintz we had our busiest day ever today. The Star’s outgoing restaurant critic reviewed us in today’s paper in what to my mind is an accurate and honest assessment of our first month in business. The result was a mob scene from start to finish today.

While similar in number to the mob scene Corey created on our first day this one was handled with aplomb by my team. In fact we were short staffed this morning but everyone pitched in and made this a stellar day.

Sandy Gordon, the phenomenal host with the most and now our music programmer extraordinaire mentioned at the end of his shift that our performance today was “a realization of my dream”. And he’s right. I created a system that I hoped would work and today it did.

I couldn’t possibly be more proud of my folks or myself for that matter. In fact, yesterday I had a special guest who reminded me how far I’ve come. I hadn’t seen law professor Allan Young for a few years when he rocked in with his family late in the afternoon. While it may seem like classic Caplansky hyperbole, Allan Young saved my life 8 years ago. I turned to him for help during the most difficult time of my life. While I won’t go into detail here and now I can say that his help had nothing to do with his criminal defense work and everything to do with my needing to find someone to believe in me when no one would. It was nice to have him see how far I’ve come and how right he was to have faith in me.

Justin, if you ever read this, please know you have a very special father.

The smoker arrived, it works thanks to Leon’s heroic efforts and I expect these meat shortages to be a thing of the past. God I sure hope so.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Now come eat. Please.

I heard this morning that Gourmet Magazine will cease to publish following its November issue. Michael Takasaki seems to think its all my fault. Doesn’t he know what guilt does to Jews? Why can’t I enjoy my 15 minutes like John Wayne Bobbitt and Karheinz Schreiber?