Category: book Nook
Stuffed Adventures of a Restaurant Family
Edition: Unabridged
by Patricia Volk
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Subject: Biography & Autobiography - Nonfiction
Duration: 7 hours, 52 minutes
File size: 113273 KB
In this wildly funny and charming memoir, Patricia Volk entertains with a
unique perspective of New York in the mid to late twentieth century and of a
bigger-than-life family that owned fourteen restaurants, including Morgen’s
in the garment district.
Volk’s family came to these shores determined to make their mark.
Great-grandfather Sussman Volk brought pastrami to the New World.
Grandfather Jacob was known as the "most destructive force on Wall Street"
and was memorialized by E.B. White as "the greatest wrecker of all time" for
his innovative method
of demolition. Uncle Albert was the first man to stir scallions into cream
cheese. The last of Grandfather Herman Morgen’s fourteen restaurants was a
famous garment center hangout. One grandmother won the 1916 trophy for "Best
Legs in Atlantic City." The other was a three-hundred-pound calendar girl.
Ms. Volk’s handsome, demanding restaurateur father invented the six-color
retractable pen and pencil set and the double-sided cigarette lighter (so
you never have to worry which end is up). For three generations, just about
every Volk and Morgen (with the exception of Uncle Al, who had an
eleven-year affair with Aunt Lil and then refused to marry her because she
wasn’t a virgin) has, no matter what the circumstances. exhibited a
terrifyingly positive attitude. With a cosmic disdain for the status quo,
all of them—the tyrants, do-gooders, lovers, martyrs, and fakes—lived at
full tilt. "What the book really memorializes so beautifully isn’t just a
restaurant, or a now-vanished style of eating, but a city in its rich and
juicy prime: New York."—New York Magazine "Emotionally luxurious and heart
gladdening."—Kirkus Reviews
I got my copy from the unabridged project from N L S but it didn't show up
on any regular search of the catalogue. This was an absolutely delightful
book. I felt like a member of the family or at least a close friend. I
loved it, a huge 5 out of 5.
Happy reading,
Carla/TexasRed