{"id":10925,"date":"2013-05-08T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=10925"},"modified":"2021-06-22T07:37:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T11:37:04","slug":"seigers-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/08\/seigers-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"SEIGER’S RESTAURANT"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The cops<\/strong><\/span> at the Sixth District police station in Cleveland considered me a hippie spy from the Heights.\u00a0 But when I told the cops I was a Seiger (\u201cMy uncle owned Seiger\u2019s Restaurant on E.118th<\/sup> and Kinsman\u201d), the cops warmed up to me. The cops — the older ones, the bosses — all knew Seiger\u2019s Restaurant.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Cleveland Jewish News, 1968<\/p><\/div>\n

Seiger\u2019s Restaurant was a Damon Runyon casting hall on Kinsman Road. All manner of hustlers, cops, businessmen and shnorers<\/em> (beggars) hung out there. The shnorers<\/em> were Orthodox Jewish tzedakah<\/em> (charity) collectors who had their own booth in the back.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Seiger’s, 11802 Kinsman Rd., 1957<\/p><\/div>\n

My Great Aunt Lil Seiger served the shnorers <\/em>kosher food from her apartment, which was at the back of the store. The shnorers <\/em>wouldn\u2019t eat the non-kosher food from the restaurant. The deli was kosher-style<\/em>, not kosher.\u00a0 \u201cWe served the rabonim<\/em> [the rabbis] on special china and silverware,\u00a0 milchig<\/em> [dairy]\u2019,\u201d Lil\u2019s son Danny said.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Seigers: Audrey (daughter), Lil, Danny (son) and Itchy, 1948<\/p><\/div>\n

Rabonim<\/em> —<\/strong><\/span> and cops — ate well at Seiger\u2019s. Nobody ever got a ticket for an expired parking meter, and sometimes cars were parked two-lanes deep on Kinsman.\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t even spend a nickel in Seiger\u2019s,\u201d retired cop Bill Tofant said.<\/p>\n

Itchy Seiger, my great uncle, was the owner and chief kibitzer <\/em>(glad-handler\/talker).\u00a0 He had been a cloak maker in Galicia, Austria-Hungary.\u00a0 Itchy was the greeter.\u00a0 Aunt Lil did the cooking, except the breads and strudels, which she bought.<\/p>\n

There was a party room, seating about 65, in the basement. The matchbooks read: \u201cSeiger\u2019s Restaurant, Delicatessen, Barroom and Rathskeller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Danny and Itchy Seiger, back row, from R. Shiva for Anna Soltzberg, South Euclid, Ohio, 1964<\/p><\/div>\n

I didn\u2019t<\/strong><\/span> go to Seiger\u2019s Restaurant often.\u00a0 My parents didn\u2019t think Kinsman was the right direction for a Sunday drive. More often we wound up out east — the other direction — at the Metroparks.<\/p>\n

Danny — my cousin —\u00a0 started showing up at Yiddishe Cup gigs in the 2000s. I asked him about the mini-feud between his father (my Uncle Itchy) and my grandmother, Anna\u00a0 Soltzberg (nee Seiger).\u00a0 Itchy and Anna had been half-siblings. (Enough with the genealogy, Klezmer Guy!<\/em>)\u00a0 Danny said Itchy and Anna had had two things in common: sugar diabetes and iron wills.<\/p>\n

My grandmother\u2019s candy store — near Itchy\u2019s deli on Kinsman — had frequently been \u201coyf tsoris<\/em>\u201d (badly off), and Itchy rescued it, Danny said.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Anna Soltzberg, center, 1950s. Others unknown<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEverybody loved<\/strong><\/span> Itchy,\u201d Danny said. Everybody but my grandmother, who complained about Itchy\u2019s buy-out terms on her store.\u00a0 Later, my grandmother opened a candy store further east on Kinsman, near Shaker Heights.<\/p>\n

\"Cleveland

Cleveland Plain Dealer , 1947<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAt the restaurant, there were two brothers, the Schoolers,\u201d Danny said. \u201cOne, Joe, wanted a soft matzo ball. The other, Morty, wanted a matzo ball as hard as a baseball.\u00a0 Ma made both kinds.\u00a0 That’s how we thrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somebody should take Danny, age 80, and a video camera for a stroll down Kinsman. Walk Danny through the old neighborhood and into Seiger\u2019s, which was recently a soul food restaurant.\u00a0 (Today it’s boarded up.)<\/p>\n

\"\"

New World Restaurant, formerly Seiger’s, 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n

The audio,<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/span>Danny: <\/em>\u201cThis is where Ma made the mish-mash soup. She gave the recipe to Corky & Lenny\u2019s. This is the counter where Jim Brown bounced a $10 check.\u00a0 I should have saved it for the autograph.\u00a0 This is where Oscar Schmaltz downed an industrial canister of soup.\u00a0 Oscar weighed 400.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Footnote:\u00a0 Seiger\u2019s is pronounced Sigh-ger\u2019s (rhymes with High-gers) by Jews, and See-ger\u2019s by cops.\u00a0 Seiger\u2019s closed in 1968.<\/small><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

For relatives only . . . family photo above, taken at the shiva\u00a0 for Toby Stratton’s mother, Anna Soltzberg.
\nOn floor, from L: Bert Stratton,\u00a0 sister Leslie.<\/small><\/p>\n

Middle: Aunt Lil Soltzberg of Washington;\u00a0 Janice Bregman (wife of Marc Bregman); Aunt Pearl Bregman; Great Aunt Molly Mittman; Marcia Seiger.<\/p>\n

Top:\u00a0 Uncle Milty Soltzberg, Toby Stratton, Julia Stratton, Uncle Sol Soltzberg, Great Uncle Sam Mittman, Aunt Lil Soltzberg of Delaware, Great Uncle Itchy Seiger, Danny Seiger.<\/p>\n

(Sol Soltzberg, Milty Soltzberg, Pearl Bregman and Toby Stratton were siblings.) Marc Bregman — the son of Pearl Bregman — probably took this photo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cops at the Sixth District police station in Cleveland considered me a hippie spy from the Heights.\u00a0 But when I told the cops I was a Seiger (\u201cMy uncle owned Seiger\u2019s Restaurant on E.118th and Kinsman\u201d), the cops warmed up to me. The cops — the older ones, the bosses — all knew Seiger\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cleveland-full","category-family-history-not-boring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10925"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28986,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10925\/revisions\/28986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}