Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House...gone

[Miami Danny]

In the old days people would come to Miami and ask, “Where's the best deli?” Today they mostly ask where to eat Cuban food. But with the closing of Rascal House up in Sunny Isles Beach, there was a lot of hand-wringing about the disappearance of a culture. The last time I ate at Rascal House, Thanksgiving 2007, there was a birthday party behind us, and the young lady was celebrating her 91st birthday. I can also say with certainty that she was not the youngest person at the table. The alta-cocker culture may be drifting away, as are the people who once inhabited it, but there are still signs of vibrant Jewish culture here in Miami, along with some pretty decent food to match. I started with The Old, Old, Restaurant Row, 41st Street on Miami Beach, AKA Arthur Godfrey Road. For those of you who don't know, Arthur Godfrey was kind of the Harry Reems of his day. Huge porn star. Not really sure why they named a street after him; but of course that was back in the fifties when porn was the most respectable industry in Miami (pre-cocaine, in other words). Jackie Gleason, for whom the Gleason Theater was named, was also an amazing lush, although, unlike Godfrey, he actually had talent, and his tag line, about beating the sh*t out of his wife, was hilarious. Vanishing Jewish Deli Culture?

But back to Rascal House. My constant companion, as it was Thanksgiving, demanded, and got, the full works-turkey with all the trimmings, as they say. The food was okay, not much better than steam table fare, and the whole boat including matzoh ball soup and a glass of wine was $22.95 (tip not included, as our waitress informed us several times-guess she'd been burned more than once by those Canadian/Russian tourists). I got the flanken, or short ribs, which was done up old-school-Jewish style, i.e., boiled to death. It was the boiled dinner, after all, and the carrots, potato, beans, etc., all seemed to have been put through the same de-flavorizing machine (apologies to the Woodman). There was some taste, some taste-memory, in fact, that no amount of overcooking could kill. This piece of meat was not savory, but it was substantial, which, where I come from, takes precedence. The matzoh ball soup was a little thin, but the ball itself was light and eggy.

The gratis accoutrements, the half-sour, and sour pickles, the pickled tomatoes and peppers, the thick cabbage slaw, and the four or five bread items (dark onion-y bialy's, etc.), were fresh, and were the biggest hits of the afternoon.

The service was delightful, and our waitress satisfied our curiosity (which we didn't know we had) about every customer by informing us of their habits, both good and bad, in minute detail (“hates bread”, “only eats bread”, “they take the leftover bread home with them”-yeah-it was mostly about the bread, in retrospect). The picture of Gleason on the wall was priceless, as he's one of my all-time heroes, and the characters at the horseshoe counter were alternately calling for their waitress to either turn up or turn down the volume on the game on the TV (she never moved).

There are good things and bad about losing this place. Maybe restaurants past their prime, no matter the sentimental value, should be allowed to die a (semi-) dignified death, and go off into the night with fondness, as it were. Especially in a world where many deserving restaurants struggle, suffer, and die an ignominious death, remembered by no one. The last time I was at Wolfie's, on South Beach, several years ago, the front windows were grimy, and the place smelled like old grease and rotting flesh. At least Rascal House kept its nose clean, and kept on sending out those simulacra of good Jewish Deli food, right up until the bitter end. Of course, without anything to compare it to, it may be remembered as a lot better than it was. But like a good museum, where every single piece of art doesn't have to speak to every patron, the same goes for this old place. Just enough items to smell and taste good, to remember, and maybe not for everyone's taste, but comfortable as an Alexander Calder mobile, or a nice bowl of hot chicken soup.

For some before and after photos see The Last Jew In Miami...

[NJ2FLA]

Very sad indeed. I would love to take home the onion rolls and heat them up the next day and melt some butter. Yum Yum! I also liked their corned beef hash and pineapple cheesecake!

[CaliPoutine]

Yes, very very sad!!. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale( Plantation) and my parents and grandparents used to go on every few months on a Sunday. I remember my gram making my sister some coffee/milk in those little creamers.

Edited April 13, 2008 by CaliPoutine (log)

[gfweb]

I was at Wolfie's toward the end and it was as disgusting as you say. I was afraid to eat anything there.

[wrek92]

I remember going there in the mid-90s when things were going strong. We had breakfast there and I absolutely loved the basket of baked goodies they brought out.

My scrambled eggs were so buttery and it was just a really memorable experience because I was in town from up the state in Tampa and there really isn't anything like the a Jewish deli experience like the Rascal House up that way to the best of my knowledge. Come think of it, I am not sure you can find a place like the Rascal house in Central or North Florida.

Thanks for the news.

[Turtleboy]

RIP.

[markk]

There was a time when I used to live on Rascal House's flanken

The place started to go downhill a long time ago. Food practically inedible, customers sending things back en masse, and waitresses telling people "this is it- take it or leave it".

I don't know if it specifically coincided with Jerry's Famous having bought it, but it might have. Maybe they purposely ran it into the ground so that nobody would miss the food when it closed. It's really a shame what they did to it, though.

On the bright side, Mo's Bagels in Aventura makes a boiled flanken that's probably better than Rascal House's ever was.

[Rebecca263]

Some of my friends went and ordered a corned beef sandwich, and a Rachel. Since when did those sandwiches come with French fries? I must be senile, I didn't remember that. They sent me the photos (and a copy of the 16.95 bill for the Rachel) and I tipped them with an email of a drawing of a twenty dollar bill. Quite nostalgic, but mostly the food hadn't been really good for years and years.