So sad....just found out ystrday about HankRubin's passing. He was a pretty special person to a lot of people. And should be better known to those interested in food & wine.
Tom
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Alas, we live in a world way overpopulated by celebrities and way to few heros. One of my true heroes is Hank Rubin.
Hank Rubin is one of Calif's food & wine icons. Alas, he is not very well known by those of the current food & wine scene. He should be much better known, I think.
Hank dropped out of UC/Berkeley in the late '30's to go to Spain and fight in the Spanish civil war w/ the Lincoln Brigade, earning him the label of "communist". These adventures are recounted in his book "Spain's Cause Was Mine"; an absolutely riveting read of a time long/long ago.
In the '60's and into the late '70's, he ran an iconic restaurant in Berkeley known as the Pot Luck. Barry Glassner describes the restaurant in detail in his Gastronomica article "The Only Place to Eat in Berkeley" (for those of you who have access to that magazine). There once was a link out there to the free article, but I couldn't track it down.
One of the unique features (at the time) of Hank's Pot Luck was its seasonally-changing menus, focused on ingredients locally sourced. Sound sorta familiar?? One of his most frequent diners was a lady named...Alice Waters. She took the concept and ran with it, founding ChezPanisse, and became famous as the founder of "California cusine". She drove the concept to success and became famous. Alas, Pot Luck closed in the mid-'70's afore I had a chance to dine there and meet Hank in person.
Hank went on to become the first wine columnist for the SFChron, back when few newspapers had such things. He also wrote a Q&A wine column for bon Apetit magazine, then a freebe/throwaway published out of KansasCity by Pillsbury (of DoughBoy fame), answering an assortment of questions from its readers. On these pages of bonApetit was where I had my first interactions w/ Hank. As I recall, Hank was one of the first, in his Q&A column, to suggest that maybe, just maybe, all wines were not improved by "breathing", well before AlexBespaloff wrote his definitive article in the NewYork magazine on that subject.
Hank then went on to become the Editor of Philip Seldon's Vintage magazine. I wrote a number of articles for them. Hank's editing of my articles (which read like a LosAlamosScientificLaboratory report) could, at times, be a bit brutal...but always with a good-natured manner. I owe much of whatever credit I have as a wine writer to Hank.
It wasn't until the early-'80's, after he had left NYC and returned to SanFrancisco, that I actually met Hank in person, when I asked him to join me for lunch on one of my trips to the Bay area. He was everything I had expected from our phone conversations. A genuine/warm human being that I took an instant like to; a warm/friendly smile, a gentle chuckle, and a twinkle in his eyes that I found extremely endearing. He enjoyed greatly talking about daughter Marcie, grandson Blake, and especially, with great pride, his wife, Lillian. He always wanted to know about my son & daughter, and what wines I was liking these days.
I made it a point to get together w/ Hank for lunch every few yrs after that whenever I was out there. It was a friendship I treasured greatly...one of my most special of many friendships. After a lunch w/ Hank, I always felt like such a special and lucky person for knowing him.
When I was organizing last weekend's trip to the Bay area for a friend's wedding (and...yes...there was wine involved), I knew I was way overdue for lunch w/ Hank. Alas, no response to my e-mail after a week. So I gave a call to his phone #. There was a message from Lillian that Hanks was no longer answering this phone #. I was concerned; so gave Lillian a call. Alas, she informed me, Hank was suffering from dementia, had very little in the way of memory, and she had to place him in the nearby RhodaGoldmanPlaza in the Alzeheimer's unit. She related that he liked to have visitors, but warned me he would not likely remember me.
So, with much trepidation, I asked to do a visit w/ Hank and Lillian made the necessary calls. Last Saturday morning, Susan & I made a side trip into TheCite to see Hank.
I knew I had to see Hank for at least one last time. When I tracked him down up on the 4'th floor, Hank was in the middle of an exercise class. I asked the nurse there where I could find HankRubin. He immediately looked up at me, but gave no signs of recognition. But...dang..there it was...that very same warm/friendly smile I'd learned to recognize over the yrs and...yup...that same bright twinkle in his eyes. Just like it always had been.
We walked down the hallway a ways, sat down, and had a visit. Hank clearly didn't remember who I was, as I expected. But he did remember of few people and things from the past that we had in common. He seemed genuinely pleased to have a visitor, even though he didn't know who it was. After about 20 minutes, I walked him back to his exercise group. He gave me a sincere "thank you", which I returned w/ a hug.
I was expecting to leave our visit greatly saddened. I did not. Hank's in pretty good physical shape for 94 yrs of age. He relates that he is treated very well there and sees Lillian fairly often, sometimes Marcie. Even though the memory is not there and we can't share many of our past experiences, it's not like there's no one home in there. Inside...it's that same HankRubin that I've known for yrs....that same genuine/warm person, that same easy chuckle...and that same twinkle in his eye. Once again, my visit w/ Hank left me going away feeling how extremely fortunate I have been, and am, for knowing HankRubin. I am a very lucky man. I plan to visit him again on my next trip out there.
Anyway, Hank is, and always will be, one of my heroes. He should be more widely known for his contributions to both food and wine in Calif.
Tom
PS: Lillian Rubin, Hank's wife, is a highly-regarded, internationally-known, psychologist in her own right; with quite a few books to her credit. I remember reading her first book, "Just Friends" many yrs ago when I was searching for some answers in my life, but hadn't a clue to even what the questions were. That book was a very good read, and she made a number of very favorable references to her husband. When I finished the book, I read the acknowledgements and she gave much credit to the support of her husband, Hank Rubin. All of a sudden, this big light went off in my head..."Hank Rubin?...HANK RUBIN??....that's MY Hank Rubin !!". All of a sudden, it all came together.
Anyway, I've read most of Lillian Rubin's books. They are highly recommended.
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Obituary for Hank Rubin -- May 21, 1916-February 24, 2011
Hank Rubin, father of the Berkeley Food Revolution and well-known writer about food and wine, died in his sleep Thursday, February 24, 2011. He was born in Portland, Oregon, and spent most of his life in California, first in Los Angeles, then in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1950. He was 94 years old.
Mr. Rubin was a lifelong advocate for social justice -- a passion that drove him to leave UCLA in his junior year as a pre-med student and enlist in the first major fight against fascism in Europe, the Spanish Civil War, where he fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a contingent of American volunteers. His book, Spain’s Cause Was Mine, published in 1997, described his experiences, first as the head of a machine gun company, later, after a bout with jaundice, as a medic who drove an ambulance that tended the wounded, often made painful triage decisions, and brought home the dead.
He came home from Spain in 1939, a battle-scarred veteran at 23, and returned to UCLA to finish his undergraduate degree. Two years later, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in United States Army where he served in the Pacific theater from 1942 until 1945. After the war, he was accepted into the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley where he earned a Master’s degree, then went to work for the Contra Costa Public Health Department.
In 1960, he acquired the Pot Luck restaurant in Berkeley which, with his innova-tive approach to food, wine, and service, developed into the East Bay’s premier restaurant during the 1960s and early 1970s. Reviewed by food writers as a star of the Bay Area dining, he developed a wine list that caught the attention of wine lovers and critics across the country. He also owned Cruchon’s, a notable sandwich, salad, and pie restaurant near the Berkeley campus. His were the first restaurants in the Bay Area to be fully inte-grated by race and gender.
After his retirement from the restaurant business in the mid-1970s, he focused his energies on writing about food and wine. He wrote “The Wine Master,” a weekly col-umn in the San Francisco Chronicle, for 15 years, served as the Wine Editor of Bon Ap-petit and General Manager of Vintage Magazine, hosted the KQED radio show Lines about Wine, wrote many articles about food and wine, and in 2002 published The Kitchen Answer Book, an essential tool for any cook, that answered the common – and not so common – questions encountered in cooking.
During this time, he also became a popular guest lecturer in several Berkeley ele-mentary schools, teaching children about the wonders of food, cooking, and the need, as he said, “to respect their bodies by putting wholesome food into them.” In 1990, he and his wife, Lillian, moved from their long time home in El Cerrito to San Francisco. There he taught classes about cooking and the restaurant business in several Bay Area public high schools.
Hank Rubin was a man beloved by all who knew him for his integrity, generosity of spirit, and his lifelong commitment to service in the community, his profession, and not least to his family. He is survived by his wife Lillian, daughter Marci, grandson Blake and his wife Margaret and great-grandson Edward.
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Pic & Obit
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Area Restaurateur, Wine Columnist and UC Berkeley Alumnus Dies at 94
By Katie Bender
Daily Cal Staff Writer
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Category: News > Obituaries
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Former Bay Area restaurateur, wine columnist and UC Berkeley alumnus Hank Rubin, who died in his sleep in San Francisco Feb. 24, will return to what his wife called another home as his family disperses the ashes of the late writer and food guru in the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. He was 94.
Rubin, a staunch supporter of social justice as well as an advocate for public health, was known by his family and friends as a "warm and loving and generous person," according to his wife Lillian Rubin.
Even as his cognitive functions gradually declined over the last 11 years of his life - eventually causing him to be moved to an assisted-living facility in San Francisco last April - Hank Rubin remained the same loving person, his wife said.
"He was kind and considerate, even when he didn't know what day it was," she said.
In the 1960s, Hank Rubin owned three restaurants in Berkeley, including the popular continental restaurant, the Pot Luck, which Lillian Rubin said often amassed huge lines, especially during his annual "best of the Monday night dinners" event when he sold the best Monday night dinner specials from the year.
Before entering the restaurant business in Berkeley, Rubin pursued his undergraduate degree at UCLA, served in both the Spanish Civil War with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and World War II and earned his master's degree in public health at UC Berkeley.
He later began his writing career, becoming the first ever wine columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle - a gig that lasted 15 years. He also freelanced food and wine articles and edited magazines for wine connoisseurs and foodies.
Within the last 14 years, Hank Rubin authored two books, "Spain's Cause Was Mine," an account of his service abroad in the Spanish Civil War and "The Kitchen Answer Book: 5,000 Answers to All of Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions," which Lillian Rubin said many people treat as a "Bible."
During his work in the restaurant business, Hank Rubin never failed to value social justice. According to his daughter Marci Rubin, he owned the first top-rate restaurant in the Bay Area to integrate its staff in the 1960s.
"He understood his values, and he lived by them, and he didn't need external validation or people to tell him he was right," Marci Rubin said.
While flying from Kansas City, Mo. to San Francisco 36 years ago, Hank Rubin sat next to a 6-year-old girl who was travelling without her parents. Rubin, being the gentle person he was, agreed when she asked him to become her pen pal.
"The last letter that I sent arrived the day that he died," said Caitlin O'Halloran, now 42 years old. "We wrote letters all of my life from the time I was six years old."
O'Halloran and Hank Rubin developed a strong bond and friendship over letters and sporadic lunches throughout the years. Hank Rubin also attended her wedding and visited her shortly after the birth of her son Jess 12 years ago. At their final lunch together last year, O'Halloran said she brought her son along so he could have a "real, living memory of Hank."
He is survived by his wife, daughter, grandson and his wife and great-grandson.
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Berkeley food guru Hank Rubin dies at age 94
By Jackie Burrell
Bay Area News Group
Posted: 03/15/2011 10:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 03/15/2011 03:11:35 PM PDT
Hank Rubin. (Contributed/Rubin family)
Long before Chez Panisse was born, before Berkeley's Schoolyard Garden was sown, and healthy, wholesome, local food became such bywords, there was the Pot Luck, a small Berkeley restaurant with a national reputation.
It was run by Narsai David and Hank Rubin back in the 1960s, and its approach to food and wine was novel. David went on to open his Kensington restaurant, Narsai's, and help shape the Berkeley food revolution. Rubin, who died Feb. 24 at age 94, became the longtime wine editor for Bon Appétit magazine, as well as a fixture on the Bay Area's wine and food scene, as a wine columnist for the Chronicle in the 1970s and '80s, and host of a KQED radio show. He was also a frequent visitor to Berkeley elementary school classes, where he lectured on the importance of healthy and wholesome foods.
The former El Cerrito resident moved to San Francisco in 1990, but never slowed down. In 1997, he published "Spain's Cause Was Mine" (Southern Illinois University Press), which described his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War. As a pre-med student at UCLA, he dropped out of school to join the all-volunteer Abraham Lincoln Brigade in its fight against fascism.
Rubin finished his undergraduate degree before returning to the battlefront with the U.S. Army in 1942. He later received his master's degree in public health from UC Berkeley and worked for the Contra Costa Public Health Department in the 1950s. Those experiences, his
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family says, instilled in him a passion for social justice and his restaurants -- The Pot Luck and Cruchon's -- were among the first in the Bay Area to integrate.
In 2002, Rubin published a second book, "The Kitchen Answer Book: 5,000 Answers to All of Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions" (Capital Ideas).
Rubin is survived by his wife, Lillian, daughter Marci, grandson Blake and his wife Margaret and great-grandson Edward.
