Tuesday, October 18, 2005

The Day Greenblatt's Deli Went Dark







Greenblatt's Deli, a usual cluster of matzo ball aficionados and favorite for pastrami fans, was surprisingly empty last Wednesday night. After they just spent money re-modeling the facade ... 'why' you may ask ... well, because the biggest thing to hit the Laugh Factory since Bob Saget had arrived ... Yom Kippur services. Yes, you heard it .. services not at your local satchel-toting temple, but at the world famous "Laugh Factory" on the Sunset Strip. We had to go. We just had to.

Picture it. From the outside, the neon sign reading "Jon Lovitz" now replaced with "High Holiday Services." The corner of Crescent Heights and Sunset, infamous for the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth," now a clash of virgin Mega store teens trying to fight past the cluster of hungry Jews. The stage, somewhere between an homage to the old orchestral shell of the Hollywood Bowl and the entrance to the Ponchik Factory, now riddled with a rabbi, a cantor, and an Ikea-inspired bookcase for the Torah. The prayers ... all written in Comic Sans.

We at first had wanted to believe that the off-key cantor was part of the fun, but we soon realized that even the mysterious knock at the door wasn't a Keystone Cops-type gag, but a serious onlooker. There were a few older gents jumping out of their barstools with Hebrew jeers, and some cell phone disruptions. But all in all, I'd say it was a fantbulous way to ring in the new year. Even if we had to walk past the savory smells of the Gaucho Grill, CPK, and the eerily-dark Greenblatt's Deli (who wouldn't -dare- serve even the most unruly of Hollywood's Jews on the eve of atonement for fear of the blacklist).

2 comments:

Aunt Party said...

How was it that i ended up running into you after services. totally random.

rad said...

i dig steph's idea about producing yrr own service. as the shiksa, i'll help out in any way i can. *bonk*