The restaurant industry will move into 2023 without several of its pioneers and notable characters. Here is a partial recount of whom was lost, along with their ages and best-known affiliations.
George Berkowitz, 97, Legal Seafood
Working in his family’s Boston grocery, a twentysomething Berkowitz decided to turn a newly vacant space next door into a seafood market. The grocery’s point of difference was offering Legal Stamps, or glue-on mini-coupons that customers could collect and swap in volume for home goods and supplies. The Legal name was carried over to the fish market, dubbed Legal Seafood, and the venture took off.
That led to the opening of a barebones seafood restaurant next to the fish market. Berkowitz kept the Legal Seafood name and expended relatively little on the new enterprise. Patrons sat at communal picnic tables. Lighting came from bare bulbs suspended from the sealing and enclosed in brown paper bags to diffuse the light. Servers took orders at the tables, then settled the customer’s tab, cash only, before passing the order to the kitchen.
The idea caught on, giving rise to what became one of the industry’s most respected seafood chains, Legal Seafood. The operation would pass to Berkowitz’s son, Roger, who further refined and expanded it before selling the operation in late 2020 to the company that owns Smith & Wollensky.
John Y. Brown, 88, KFC, Kenny Rogers Roasters
Any of four achievements would have landed Brown in the news. He was the governor of Kentucky, an owner of the Boston Celtics and the husband of former Miss America and sports-reporting pioneer Phyllis George. But greybeards of the restaurant business know him as the man who turned Harland Sanders’ chicken concept into the fast-food powerhouse known today as KFC.
That was far from Brown’s only involvement in the business. He also co-founded Kenny Rogers Roasters with the brand’s namesake pop star, and played key roles in the development of Lum’s, Ollie’s and Chicken By George, named after his wife.
A young member of the industry once asked Brown what it was like to be married to George, one of the first women to broadcast NFL games. Brown calmly responded, “Phyllis George made me a millionaire.” He then paused before adding, deadpan, “Of course, I was a billionaire when I met her.”
He reportedly died from COVID-19 complications.
Bob Chinn, 99, Bob Chinn’s Crab House
After working at his parents’ restaurant as a child, Chinn set out at age 14 to make a name for himself as a proprietor. He hit gold in 1984 when he opened a namesake seafood place in collaboration with his daughter in the distant Chicago suburb of Wheeling, Ill. The enormous establishment (it had seating for 700) quickly became one of the nation’s highest-volume restaurants, a distinction it still bears today. Bob Chinn’s Crab House ranked 65th on Restaurant Business 2022 ranking of the Top 100 independent restaurant by sales, with annual revenues just under $15 million.
Chinn would be in the restaurant seven days a week until age 90, greeting a highly loyal customer base and resolving any operational glitches that arose.
The cause of his death was not revealed.
Audrey Evans, 97, Ronald McDonald House
Evans, a medical doctor, made a name for herself as a childhood cancer specialist at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. Her devotion to helping her young patients and their families led to several unorthodox steps focused more on the mental state of those victims than their physical well-being. The British emigre allowed the kids to bring their pets to chemo and other therapy sessions. She put a bird cage in her office and filled it with finches to provide a distraction.
Her most ambitious effort to sooth the afflicted grew out of her dismay over the struggles families faced when they came to Philadelphia for their children’s treatments. Lodging was costly and impersonal at best. Evans wanted a warmer and more affordable option. Her unlikely ally became the Pittsburgh Steelers, which was trying to raise money for the ill daughter of a teammate. General Manager Jim Murray enlisted the help of an ad agency that happened to represent local McDonald’s restaurants at the time. The outlets volunteered to donate a portion of their sales during the annual promotion of the Shamrock Shake.
The money went to the creation of what was dubbed Ronald McDonald House.
Tom Ferguson, 57, Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken
A longtime mover and shaker of the casual restaurant scene in the Carolinas, Ferguson may be best known as the founder of the Southern far specialist Rise, a fast-casual brand with about 17 units. But he was also involved in such standout operations as the Barkers’ Magnolia Grill and Scott Howell’s Nana’s.
The cause of his death was not revealed.
Gael Greene, 88, New York magazine
An unabashed sensualist, Greene’s reviews of New York City restaurants often included a dash of the prurient. Her distinctive style lent an accessibility to the evaluations of New York City restaurants she penned for more than four decades, first at the influential New York magazine, later via her own website. She elevated the craft of reviewing as much as she celebrated the blossoming of New York City’s restaurant scene in the 1970s and ‘80s. The read became as much of an end as the heads-up on where to eat and what places to avoid.
A friend in the restaurant media told a story about being at a press event with Green after moving into a new apartment. Greene politely asked for the street address, then the apartment number, and delightedly revealed that she had once rented the exact same unit. She whispered to him, “Look under the bathroom sink.” He did, and found a set of handcuffs apparently left by Greene wrapped around the drainpipe.
Tony May, 84, San Domenico
Born Antony Magliolo, the Italian-born restaurateur made few concessions to the American market outside of changing his name. At San Domenico, arguably his most famous venture, he introduced New Yorkers to authentic Italian food and wine, the latter a clear passion.
He opened several other concepts, including two that were destroyed when the World Trade Center came down on 9/11.
May first came to prominence as the manager and co-owner of the famed Rainbow Room, the landmark fine-dining establishment atop Rockefeller Center.
Alain Sailhac, 86, Le Cirque
In the heyday of the New York City power lunch, a favored spot for the influential to flaunt their taste and wealth was Le Cirque, where chef Alain Sailhac dazzled the elite with his kitchen wizardry. He’d moved to that cathedral of fine dining after earning a coveted four-star rating from The New York Times for his cooking at Le Cygne, another showcase for his outstanding European fare.
Along the way, he mentored such standout culinary talents as Terrance Brennan and Geoffrey Zakarian. He would later become a dean of The French Culinary Institute, later renamed the Intrnational Culinary Center, whose students included Bobby Flay, Wyle Dufresne and David Chang.
No cause was given for Sailhac’s death at age 86.
Correction: A misspelling of Gael Greene's last name was corrected in this version of the story.
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