Last Day for Mort’s

All week long Jake Robinson, nearly 6, had been reminding his mother Leslie, ‘Remember March 31, remember March 31! We have to go to Mort’s and say goodbye to everyone’it’s the last day!’ Sure enough, Jake could be found early Saturday morning at Mort’s Deli, eating breakfast at one of the restaurant’s round tables with his mother and his sister Lily, age 2. Their server was Albino Fuentes, a 15-year employee who proudly told his many well-wishers that he had landed a job at Gladstone’s down on PCH, a restaurant also owned by former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, Mort’s new owner. ‘Albino is so friendly and he remembers all the kids’ names,’ said Leslie Robinson, who has lived in the Palisades for six years. ‘This place will really be missed, but we can go to Gladstone’s; it’s a fun place for kids.’ Like many of Mort’s patrons, Robinson hoped that Riordan’s new eatery (which will return as a remodeled deli restaurant this summer, along with a revamped and remodeled Oak Room), will continue to offer a variety of soups. ‘Time and time again,’ she said, ‘if a friend was sick, this was the place we’d come by to pick up soup and drop it off.’ Numerous other patrons continued coming into Mort’s to order a final, favorite meal, and to hug owner Bobbie Farberow, who opened the deli with her husband Mort in 1974, after several years getting the business going at tiny locations on Sunset and Swarthmore. Mort died suddenly in 1999. Jacqueline Braunstein, 87, said she had been having lunch at Mort’s with a group of friends every month for more than 30 years. ‘We’d talk about everything going on with our kids and grandkids. Now our kids are bringing their own children here. I loved that continuity about Mort’s.’ Prominent businessman Steve Soboroff, who ran for mayor after Riordan retired and is a longtime Palisades resident, said he was pleased at how Farberow was able to bring off a sale of the restaurant to Riordan, a Brentwood resident who had been eating breakfast and holding meetings at Mort’s for many years. ‘What he [Riordan] did was great,’ Soboroff said. ‘Bobbie put her life into Mort’s, but without a lease, she didn’t have any value in the place.’ Fortunately, Riordan stepped up, paid Farberow for her hard-to-obtain liquor license and will now use that license to build a banquet business in the Oak Room, along with a separate area where people can gather and visit after work, order a drink, and enjoy various appetizers. ‘The sale is good for Bobbie,’ Soboroff added, ‘and I think Dick will do a good job. He cares about the community.’ At about 9 a.m., Riordan quietly entered the restaurant through the back door and got in line to order his usual breakfast: eggs over easy, bacon, rye toast, tomatoes and potatoes. He had brought in a framed photo of himself with Mort, taken out in front of the deli in 1997, to give to Bobbie. Of course, a reporter couldn’t resist asking Riordan is he intended to keep Mort’s as the name or part of the name for his new restaurant. ‘We haven’t decided yet,’ he said. ‘If I open my mouth, people will hold me to it. People say ‘Mort and Dick’s’ might be a good name, but I just don’t know yet.’