" I can't help it, I gotta tell ya, Katz' never kloses!" announced Marc Katz who drove around in his outrageous old Cadilliac and had the Yellow Checker New York cab before that.
But Pillsbury biscuits are NOT matzah balls and what tasted like Lipton powdered soup is NOT chicken stock, at least not the Kosher kind that Katz likes to say they serve up in this restaurant.
When Katz first opened up, the food was GREAT! The Jewish food items were more from the Reform cuisine than the Orthodox but it was OK and then it didn't take long for the New York prices on Texas wages to catch up with them and with me and I could no longer afford to eat there very much.
The few times I would attempt to eat in there, extremely rude servers would tower over me trying to get me to leave even though there were extremely few customers and I was dining at 10 P.M. When the place stayed open 24/7. Maybe I wasn't trendy enough for them.
And every time I ate there I noticed the quality slip, slip, slipsliding away!
Marc katz had marriage disaster after marriage disaster... He and his son Barry got into a huge lawsuit was the beginning of the end for Katz Deli as we knew it:
Differences in business aspirations can lead to family tension.
In Austin, the Associated Press reported, a family dispute over how to run a popular deli had been turned over to the legal system.
Marc Katz, majority owner in Katz's Deli & Bar, earlier this month asked a judge to order the sale of the New York-style deli in Austin. Katz and his son cannot resolve a years-long dispute over how to run the family business.
Katz, 54, accused 30-year-old Barry Katz of funneling money from the restaurant to Katz's Deli in Houston, which the son owns.
In 1997 Barry Katz was given a 49-percent ownership stake in the Austin restaurant, which opened in 1979. He runs the business for his semiretired father, who owns 51 percent.
"It hurts more than anything I've ever done as a father and as a businessman, " Marc Katz told the Austin American-Statesman. "This is the last resort. There is no other solution to sustain the company."
Barry Katz, the lawsuit claimed, took out a $1 million bank loan in the Austin restaurant's name and then lent that money to his Houston restaurant interest-free until 2020.
The lawsuit also said the son also pays the Austin Katzes a nominal fee for the Houston location's administrative needs, and he pays himself a $414,000 annual salary from the Austin restaurant.
Barry Katz, in a prepared statement, said the lawsuit's claims are untrue, and he expects to settle the disagreement and keep both delis going.
The disagreement started last year when Barry Katz decided to expand the business by opening a Katz's Dell in Houston. His father said he eventually agreed to the expansion, and he receives royalty payments from the new restaurant. But he doesn't have an ownership interest in it.
Marc Katz asked the court to order his son to split the proceeds of the sale of the Austin deli between the two co-owners, after adjusting for the money Katz says his son took from the company.
The food went from bad to worse and if you ordered in here, you were either getting more plate than food and (expletive deleted) you could not eat on your plate!
8/5/05
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, colorful owner hopes 'Katz's never closes' still applies
Katz promises $6 million in debt will not affect restaurant
Flamboyant restaurateur and failed mayoral candidate Marc Katz agreed to a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy plan last week that may ensure Katz's never closes.
After the settlement, Katz will spend the next 15 years paying approximately $6 million in debt.
Katz filed for bankruptcy protection in November because of "huge fixed debt and lawsuits with my son, " which made running his business, Katz's Deli and Bar, difficult, he said.
"We basically restructured our loans, " Katz said.
According to Katz, while business was difficult to operate, the bankruptcy case didn't affect his guests, and service went on as usual.
"My guests and staff were very supportive, " Katz said. He said his employees still got paid, but he owes about $70,000 in federal tax withholding from employee paychecks. "The money owed to the IRS is money I owe, not my employees, " he said.
Much of Katz's debt is owed to creditors, advertisers and companies involved with delivering the food served in his restaurant. Katz owes more than $72,000 to Sysco Food Services of Austin, more than $40,000 to MQ&C Advertising and Marketing, and as little as $700 to Odwalla Juice, according to court documents. Nearly 90 claims were made in court for money that Katz owes companies, only three of which were disputed, according to the documents.
A bulk part of Katz's debt is the nearly $900,000 he owes his son, Barry Katz. The elder Katz says he gave his son half of the ownership in Katz's Deli and Bar. His son then opened another Katz's Deli and Bar in Houston. Because of a conflict in where the business' money was going, he decided to buy back the other half from his son for $1 million after a lawsuit. His son still owns the Houston version of the restaurant.
The bankruptcy case will not affect his other company, Marc Katz Deli Foods, which supplies food to restaurants and grocery stores. Earlier this summer, Katz announced he will be opening an upscale gay club in downtown Austin.
Even after filing Chapter 11, Katz is confident his 26 year-old restaurant will continue to hold strong.
"Katz's never closes, and I mean it, " he said.
KATZ HAS GONE THROUGH QUITE A FEW MANAGERS AND WE TRIED TO EAT THERE AGAIN IN August. We were sickened by the ever-increasing restaurant tab:
The tab came to $50.00
And we both got food poisoning!
So I have not been back and since downtown Austin has been having an explosion of Yuppie Condos and TRENDY, HIP, UPSCALE and all of the other nauseous adjectives to tell me that 40 year old and up people, especially MINORITY ones are not welcome unless they have wheelbarrows and armored cars stuffed full of cash, for overpriced itmes of inferior quality, we are |NOT welcome there. Which suits me just fine.
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