Seven Brothers segment up

Episode #6 of Table for Two is now up at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icydKoTA ... ature=plcp
One of the brothers, (Jim) shows us some "Old School" diner breakfast cooking.

The Seven Brothers original restaurant, Manda's, was a regular late night stop for a bunch of us who worked for Burt Katz during the Pequod years of 1971-'86. Back then we were open until midnight or later and Manda's was open 24 hours. We'd do all our clean up chores, then head over to Manda's for what was loosely referred to as "breakfast"; sometimes a stack of pancakes, sometimes a cheeseburger and fries.

The brother who manned the cash register always gave us the hairy eyeball as our motley teen aged crew invaded his restaurant. This in spite of the fact that we were there practically every weekend, both Friday and Saturday night, never made trouble, always spent money, and always left a good tip for his waitresses. But whatever ill will he sent our way was always more than compensated for by our regular waitress, Kay.

We loved Kay and she loved us. We always worried about her. She seemed to be so frail, bordering on anorexia. Her long thin face was further exaggerated by the big puffy Jackie Kennedy style flip hairdo that framed it. One night in the late '70s we came in, sat at our regular table and were met by one of the other regular waitresses who worked the late shift.

"I know you kids knew Kay. She died this week of cancer in her lymph glands. It spread really fast; it took everyone by surprise. She really liked you guys. I thought you'd want to know. I'll give you a minute."

I'll be damned if I can remember her name, but this bearer of sad news became our new regular waitress until our gang went their separate ways. After that I kept going to Manda's occasionally on my own but it wasn't the same.

Fast forward to last spring when Sharon was out of town for a few days. I was working both lunch and dinner for Burt at the current location. After we closed for lunch I decided to get a bite for myself and wound up at Seven Brothers for the first time about 30 years. The brother who used to run the register was now running the kitchen. I don't think he recognized me as I sat at the counter, but doggone it, I'd swear that SOB gave me the hairy eyeball.

Buddy