KATZ`S DELI

G3
Stories about people
KATZ’S DELI
The shop that never
kloses with an owner
who never stops going
10 Quick tips for the new entrepreneur
May, 2014
Katz’s
Deli
The bald-headed Jewish deli dynamo
is everywhere. On TV. On the radio. In
your face. And always, always, never
klosing.
By James Hibberd
I
magine it’s the summer of 1977 and you’re driving a lime-green Plymouth Fury down West Sixth Street. Hitting a red
light at Lamar Boulevard , you stop the car and sweat against the cracked vinyl seat. Suddenly a man comes running out of
the sales office of the McMorris Ford auto dealership, once located where GSD&M is today. He’s a salesman wearing cowboy boots and a western shirt. Waving and grinning, he’s headed straight for your car. You don’t know him; you only know
this stoplight is taking way too long.
The salesman taps on your passenger window. You sigh, lean over and roll it down.
``I can’t help it, I gotta tell ya,’’ he pants in a New York accent. ``Somebody just came in here looking to buy a green,
5-year-old Plymouth Fury -- just like this one! This is too amazing! Pull into the lot and we’ll talk about it.”
And that’s how Marc Katz sold more new Pintos than any other salesman on the lot.
It’s not the age that matters, it’s the mileage. From his job at McMorris Ford, Marc Katz didn’t cover much physical distance
in 21 years. Just a couple of blocks from the dealership, he established Katz’s Deli and, later, Top of the Marc nightclub. But
during that time, Katz shot through three turbulent marriages. He lost his faith in God, and discovered it again. He got
hooked on drugs and got off them. He found that through advertising, he could knock on the windows of almost every car
and home in the city. He passed ownership of the deli to his son, like his father once passed a restaurant to him.
Pulling his 1966 Cadillac DeVille convertible into the 5-minute zone in front of his restaurant, Katz may look like a carni-
Katz Deli owner Marc Katz enthusiastically greets customers who
come from near and far to dine.
Photo by Sung Park/aas.
“My dad . . . my dad . . . was the greatest influence on
my life. My dad was the greatest restaurateur I ever
knew. My dad is my idol.”
•••
val gangster in his tinted sunglasses and deli-themed tie, but he never lets the miles show. Good at selling Pintos, and even
better at selling Reuben sandwiches, Katz has always been best at selling himself.
``Hello! Hello!’’ he says, and enters the deli.
Katz makes his way through the foyer to the dining room, shaking hands and slapping backs. Watching him here, in his
natural environment, it’s impossible not to admire him. Politicians schmoozing with their constituents aren’t half as confident; talk show hosts working their audience aren’t nearly as witty. He inhales the attention and exhales showmanship.
His first stop: a birthday party.
``It’s my mom’s birthday,’’ says a restaurant patron. ``Her name is Margaret.”
``Margaret! Can I show you something?’’ asks Katz, helping the woman out of her seat. ``It’s our special birthday section.”
He takes her to the middle of the room and stops. She looks confused. Birthday section?
``Can I have everybody’s attention! It’s Margaret’s birthday today, and we’re all going to sing! Haaappy Birrrthday to youuu.
Second stop: the bar.
A frequent troublemaker in a denim jacket sits alone, hunched grumpily over his cigarette and coffee.
Katz walks up to the man, taps his shoulder and grabs his check.
``Excuse me,’’ Katz says. ``I’m buying the coffee. Hit the road and don’t ever come back.”
Final stop: the kitchen.
“I can’t help it! I gotta tell ya! Katz’s
never closes!!”
•••
``Hola! Como estas? Buenos dias!’’ Katz greets the frantic,
unresponsive cooks. He checks yesterday’s grosses: $14,512
for the restaurant and $7,500 for Top of the Marc. That’s
good, he says. Business is up 30 percent this year.
A busboy walks by, and Katz grabs him.
``Hey, do I know you?’’ Katz says roughly, and looks at the
nametag. ``Chris?”
The busboy shakes his head.
``My apologies, I haven’t introduced myself yet,’’ he says.
``I’m Marc Katz.”
First, Katz is a gifted huckster. When not purchasing airtime
for his ventures, Katz tempts the press into doing his dirty
work for him. Like the time he took a bagel on his vacation to
the Antarctic just so he could hype it as ``the first bagel ever to
reach the South Pole.’’ Or when he hired a uniformed security
guard to feed parking meters outside his restaurant, vowing to
fight the city if they dared ticket his customers.
With the press at his disposal and the airwaves saturated, he
turns his attention to community relations. Ten percent of
sales from one dining room table goes to benefit causes, a
program that’s been adopted by many restaurants nationwide.
REINVENTING THE SPIEL
Katz’s Deli was the No. 1 independent fund-raiser for AIDS
Services of Austin last year.
It’s 8 a.m., and an all-too-familiar commercial is on the
``We’re really lucky to have him,’’ says Kirk Rice, development
radio. Some obnoxious guy is going on about Top of the
director at AIDS Services . ``He raised more than $30,000,
Marc and Katz’s Deli, his cheese-grater voice scraping
and this year he’s helping Project Transitions. He doesn’t pick
eardrums through alarm clock radios and commuter car
just one beneficiary; he keeps changing organizations and
stereos. As the pitchman approaches the end of the script, spreading the wealth.” There are two answers.
he ratchets up the screech factor for the punchline you
``I can’t help it! I gotta tell ya! Katz’s never closes!!”
know by heart.
And you wonder: ``How does he get away with it?’’ How does
``I can’t help it! I gotta tell ya! Katz’s never closes!!”
a deli owner, of all people, get away with passing himself off as
And you wonder: ``How does he get away with it?’’ How
an A-list celebrity? Get away with parading around in his
does a deli owner, of all people, get away with passing him- Caddy like a king?
self off as an A-list celebrity? Get away with parading
The busboy shakes his head.
around in his Caddy like a king?
The second reason Katz can play culinary rock star is because
There are two answers.
he’s sincere. You can tell Katz genuinely believes in what he is
selling, whether it’s his matzo ball
soup, W.C. Clark’s blues set at Top of
the Marc or his own significance. The
overwhelming sincerity turns his
pomposity and narcissism into positive personality traits. You like Marc
Katz for the same reasons you dislike
others. ``I’m the most recognized
local personality in Austin, and I love
it,’’ Katz says. ``There’s nothing wrong
with going into a 7-Eleven and the
counter guy says, `How are you, Mr.
Katz?’ There’s a lot of ego gratification,
but it’s a luxury I can In a PBS special
on innovative small businesses, Katz
explained he simply uses the same
charitable policies as Merrill Lynch
and Coca-Cola. Anybody can serve
good food, Katz figures, but if you can
gain regard that’s a whole knish. •
Ami Tajiri
J207/Gateway
G3 Layout Rationale
Jeslyn Lemke
Because I am a novice in the world of layout and design, my strategy for both the cover and the spreads was to
keep it as simple as possible, despite my inclination to fill the spaces as much as I could.
I chose the Katz Deli story because I felt this set of story and photos (with the possible exception of the beekeeping story) were the most visually engaging and cohesive. In class we were shown examples of many covers and
while the ideas were good, we saw that it was very difficult to implement a wildly creative logo or typeface without the cover becoming cluttered and messy. So for the cover typography I only used Baskerville and switched
between a normal and bold type to distinguish between cover lines, captions and selling line. I chose to make
all the type white to keep its consistency and because it seemed to be the only color that would reliably show up
against the already busy background as well as make the kerning and letting reasonably spaced. I placed the barcode and the date line at the bottom right corner because I thought it would round out the Z-pattern nicely. The
spelling of the word “kloses” on the cover line is intentional because it is part of a phrase used by the proprietor
of Katz’s Deli, which he mentions in the story itself and is pictured in the main story image on the spread.
For the two inner spreads, I also kept things simple by using only two typefaces with the exception of the
main story title, which I chose based on its character that I thought fit the loud, in-your-face personality of the
profile’s subject. I outlined the title, drop-letters and pull quotes in yellow to match the exterior of Katz’s sports
car because it featured so prominently on the cover and the main title image and also because I felt it would add
personality and visual appeal to the copy. I arranged the photos and pull quotes in the spread so that they would
be balanced on the pages if one were reading the story in a magazine, and sized them so they would stand out
and be easily seen/read. I put the copy in columns for ease of reading and also to make placing the images easier.
I used the wrap text function to give the photos and copy a more natural looking feel, while making sure to
adjust the spacing around the image so the copy had ample room and was readable. The reason for the deviation
in font color for the photo caption was because the only acceptable corner to place the caption was not ideal and
neither black nor white could be fully seen, and I found that this color was the least distracting but offered full
visibility. Finally, I found a symbol that fit the tone of the story and used it to both separate pull quotes from the
rest of the story, and again at the end of the article to signify the conclusion of the profile. This detail, I believe,
brings the spread together with its consistency and aesthetic quality.