Louis Zabar, born Mordko Leib Zabarka, (1901–1950) came to the United States through Canada from Ukraine, Soviet Union, in the early 1920s. His father, also a merchant, had earlier been murdered in a pogrom in Ukraine. Louis first lived in Brooklyn, where he rented a stall in a farmer's market. He married Lillian Teitlebaum (1905–1995) on May 2, 1927, and they had three children: Saul Zabar (born in 1929), Stanley Zabar, and Eli Zabar. Lillian had come to America by herself and settled with relatives in Philadelphia. She moved to New York City and met Louis Zabar, whom she knew from their village in Ukraine. Louis Zabar died in 1950; by that time he owned 10 markets. After the death of Louis, Lillian married Louis Chartoff (1900–1978).[3][4] From 1960 to 1994, brothers Stanley and Saul Zabar partnered and co-owned Zabar's with Murray Klein, who joined the store in 1953, but was not a member of the Zabar family.[5][6] Klein officially retired from the store in 1994 and died on December 6, 2007, in New York City.[5]
Importing the Wigomat and other drip coffee makers in the late 1960s, Zabar's was the first shop selling these machines in the USA. As of 2006[update] Zabar's is headed by Saul Zabar as the president and co-owner. He was attending the University of Kansas when his father died. Stanley Zabar is the vice president and a co-owner. He was a student at Horace Mann School and later the University of Pennsylvania the year his father died. The Zabar Art Library of Hunter College, dedicated in 2008, was made possible through the support of Stanley Zabar and his wife Judith Zabar.[7] A move and expansion in the 1970s made Zabar's one of the largest supermarkets in Manhattan.[4]
In 2011, it was found that Zabar's was selling product labeled as "Lobster Salad" that actually contained no lobster.[8][9]The New York Times reported that the store "charged $16.95 a pound" for the seafood spread made mostly of salted crawfish and mayonnaise.[9] Zabar's later combined the product's name with the store name and relabeled the spread Zabster Zalad.[9]
Eli Zabar has his own line of specialty shops, which as of 2023 comprises ten outlets.[citation needed] These include the flagship Eli's Market at 1411 Third Avenue, and E.A.T., at Madison Avenue near 80th Street. He also owned the now-closed restaurant and market, Vinegar Factory, on East 91st Street near York Avenue.
In 2022, a book chronicling the history of Zabar's and its food was published: Zabar's: A Family Story With Recipes.[10] The author, Lori Zabar, who died of breast cancer in February 2022 at age 67, was the eldest grandchild of the founders, Louis and Lilly Zabar.[11]
Aaron Sorkin has used Zabar’s as a cultural signifier. In Season 7, Episode 6 of The West Wing (The Al Smith Dinner), the character Louise Thornton, played by Janeane Garofalo, says, "We can't run a campaign for editorial writers. We'd have 12 votes, half of them within walking distance of Zabar's" in response to Democratic nominee Matt Santos's concern that the New York Times might endorse Republican nominee Arnold Vinick.[13] In Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Steven Weber’s network chairman Jack Rudolph mocks Bradley Whitford’s producer Danny Tripp by telling him that, if they swapped jobs, the network would lose money but would be the “number one rated network within a one-mile radius of Zabar’s and the Chateau Marmont.”[14]
In Season 4 Episode 3 "I Heart NJ" of How I Met Your Mother Ted is arguing about how New York is better than New Jersey stating "Zabar's" in a list of notable New York establishments ending with "New York is the intellectual and cultural hub of the planet."
^Scelfo, Julie (October 25, 2016). The women who made New York. Heald, Hallie. Berkeley, California. p. 278. ISBN978-1580056533. OCLC960644058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Stout, David (December 23, 1995). "Lillian Zabar, Co-Founder of Quintessential Deli". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2007. Lillian Teitlebaum Zabar, who fled the pogroms of her homeland, went to the United States and became part of an American success story, died yesterday in Manhattan. She was 90, or perhaps 92 or 93. Mrs. Zabar was a founder with her husband, Louis, of Zabar's gourmet delicatessen and food emporium on Broadway at 80th Street in Manhattan. The business was started in 1934 in Brighton Beach and now has about 35,000 customers a week and $40 million in sales a year, her sons Stanley and Saul said last night.
^ abGray, Christopher (November 10, 2002). "Zabar's, Broadway Between 80th and 81st Street; As Its Horizons Widened, It Never Left Home". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2007. According to Saul Zabar, his father, Louis, was born in 1901 in Ukraine and came to the United States through Canada in the early 1920s. That was after Louis's father, a merchant, was murdered in a pogrom. Louis Zabar first lived in Brooklyn, and he soon rented a stall in a farmer's market. In 1941 he opened a store in the third building north from 80th in the old Calvin Apartments, which was by that time a hotel. He gradually built a network of other small markets, and when he died in 1950 he owned 10 Manhattan stores.
