Mel Krupin is back, sort of

[DanielK]

A blast from D.C.'s restaurant past is holding court at a Maryland deli

pssst: the food at Brooklyn's a mile north is better.

[DaveO]

As an old timer that is an interesting piece of news spiced with nostalgia.  I liked this paragraph from the article:

Mel is 85, a relic from a time when what made a restaurant big in D.C. wasn't its celebrity chef or its food. It was the big man who ran the joint, the tummler who knew where to seat.......(different celebrities)

The man who "ran the joint"  had much more relative publicity then, though chefs were slowly but surely gaining more notice, fame, and attention.  But it was nothing like today or the last 15-20 or more years.   Later in the article it references the period when Dukes had closed and Mel ran a steak house/celebrity restaurant just a block from the old Dukes.  Then Duke reopened and the media named "matzoh ball wars" ensued.  That garnered a lot of publicity at the time.

After he closed Mel Krupin's downtown he later purchased (or partnered) on a deli on upper Wisconsin  (Tenley) and renamed it Krupin's (as I recall).  Boy they had dynamite Chicken in the Pot, one of my fave meals from the past and it also doubled as an incredible medicinal version of chicken soup.  My wife and I would feast on that and often presented to all or any of our sick friends of all backgrounds and ethnicities.   People loved it and found (or believed) it worked as medicine.

Ahhhhhh....food.  Heals a lot of wounds.

[DanielK]

After he closed Mel Krupin's downtown he later purchased (or partnered) on a deli on upper Wisconsin  (Tenley) and renamed it Krupin's (as I recall).  Boy they had dynamite Chicken in the Pot, one of my fave meals from the past and it also doubled as an incredible medicinal version of chicken soup.  

Yes, Krupin's. It was very very good for a very short time.

One of the best "Chicken in the Pot" entrees I ever had was actually at BJ Pumpernickel's in Olney.

[Mark Slater]

As an old timer that is an interesting piece of news spiced with nostalgia.  I liked this paragraph from the article:

After he closed Mel Krupin's downtown he later purchased (or partnered) on a deli on upper Wisconsin  (Tenley) and renamed it Krupin's (as I recall).  Boy they had dynamite Chicken in the Pot, one of my fave meals from the past and it also doubled as an incredible medicinal version of chicken soup.  My wife and I would feast on that and often presented to all or any of our sick friends of all backgrounds and ethnicities.   People loved it and found (or believed) it worked as medicine.

Ahhhhhh....food.  Heals a lot of wounds.

15 years ago I had cataract surgery at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. Even then, this kind of surgery was an out-patient procedure. I got there at 8AM. I was walking out the door of the hospital at 11:30. Going down Wisconsin Ave. I told my friend who was driving to pull into Krupin's deli because I had a craving for chopped liver. We sat there in the deli, me with a gigantic patch over half my face, enjoying chopped liver, bagels and knishes.

[DonRocks]

The man who "ran the joint"  had much more relative publicity then, though chefs were slowly but surely gaining more notice, fame, and attention.  But it was nothing like today or the last 15-20 or more years.   

10 years, 3 months, to be exact.

[dcs]

Mel Krupin, a Giant of DC Dining, Has Died, Ann Limpert, August 27, 2020, on washingtonian.com.

[Mark Slater]

Many years ago I had cataract surgery at Suburban Hospital. It is an outpatient procedure and it was lunch time when I was discharged. My driver and I decided on Krupin's on the way home. Me sitting there with an enormous patch over my eye, eating chopped liver with potato pancakes, drinkin Celray soda. I met Mel several times. He was a fun guy. Sorry to hear.