Tempest in a Tearoom : Patrons Are Upset That May Co. Facility Will Close

Eighty-two-year-old Bernice Kotz and about 100 of her friends are prepared to make the committed shopper’s ultimate sacrifice.

They have vowed to cut up their May Co. charge cards to protest the closing this Friday of the Fairfax District store’s 52-year-old tearoom.

“We’re very distressed about what’s happening,” said Kotz, a protest organizer who has been going to the restaurant for 10 years. “We will not shop at May Co. if (the tearoom) closes.”

Over the years, the fifth-floor dining room--a charming Art Deco-ish set piece done in blush pink--has evolved into an informal social club for many of the area’s elderly women. Dozens of them visit once, twice or three times a week to play pan--short for panguingue , a popular variation of gin rummy--and bridge. For the price of lunch, they can stay all day.

Two years ago, one regular, a 79-year-old Culver City woman, died while playing cards there, shot by her estranged husband who later turned the gun on himself. In spite of the two inert bodies on the tearoom carpet, some women pleaded with police officers to let them cross the crime scene to play cards, according to a May Co. employee, who asked not to be named.

Their request was denied. But pan is, as one player explained it, an addiction. And, as many of the tearoom’s faithful said this week, so is going to the Fairfax store to meet friends, gab over lunch and shuffle the decks.

Citing changes in the public’s eating habits and other factors, May Co. officials say that they intend to close most of their nine Southern California dining rooms this year, beginning with the oldest operating tearoom, located in the Streamline Moderne store at Wilshire and Fairfax.

“We believe that, given the current volume levels and use of the facility, (keeping the tearoom open) is not warranted,” May Co. California Chairman Ed Mangiafico said in an interview.

Tearoom dining “is not the way people want to eat anymore,” Mangiafico added, saying that shoppers seem to prefer fast-food outlets, particularly in the malls.

But steadfast customers of the Fairfax restaurant beg to differ.

“I think they should close the May Co. and keep the restaurant,” said Bert Potashin, 67, of Santa Monica, who went in Tuesday for a last meal with a friend, Ruth Schwartz.

“The whole place is a kick,” said Schwartz, 50, of Century City, who visits just for the food.

There is nothing trendy on the tearoom’s menu--no Cajun this or goat-cheese that. Prepared by chef Beatrice Johnson, who has presided over its kitchen for 25 years, the dishes run to homey items such as spinach casserole, fish and chips, lamb shanks and sandwiches with names like Indulgence and the Princess. Most of the entrees are priced between $6 and $8.

Among those who rave about the restaurant’s food is Edward Maeder, costumes and textiles curator down the street at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Maeder, 45, who said he has eaten at the tearoom about three times a week for the last 12 years, takes visitors to dine there every chance he gets.

One time, executives from the Christian Dior fashion house in New York invited him have lunch at the exclusive Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills to discuss a possible exhibition of the famous French designer’s clothes.

“I said to them, I really prefer the May Co.,” Maeder said. “We piled into a stretch black limo, went one block to May Co. and had a perfectly delicious lunch.

“I’m personally very distressed about this (closing),” he added over a lunch of stuffed cabbage and bread pudding. “This (tearoom) is such a piece of Los Angeles. People shouldn’t be so willing to discard a part of our culture. These are the kinds of places that are dying out, and it’s a real pity.”

The card games were started in 1977 by former manager Rita Brygart, who thought they would improve the tearoom’s business. She organized four tables by contacting neighborhood groups. The card players fill up as many as 11 tables now.

Kotz said she goes to the tearoom to play pan twice a week, arriving about 11 a.m., half an hour before the restaurant opens. The women play for an hour, stop briefly for lunch, and then head back to the tables. Most don’t leave until after 3 p.m.

One of Kotz’s regular partners is Fifi Mesnick, 76, who, like Kotz, lives in the neighborhood.

“I look forward to coming. It’s my mainstay,” Mesnick said Tuesday morning between hands of cards. “It takes me away from housework and a very sick husband. I’ve met a lot of women here who became my friends.”

Other women explained that they started out years ago playing cards in one another’s homes. But as they grew older, they found entertaining at home more difficult, particularly as many of them moved into smaller quarters.

“We can’t entertain at home anymore,” said 80-year-old Sadelle Isenberg, who has played pan at the May Co. for 10 years. “This is a home away from home. It’s the only activity we really have. If they take this away from us, what will we have left?”

Some customers say that, aside from the high quality and reasonable prices of the food, what has kept them going back is the tearoom staff, led by manager Jocelyne Brass and hostess Jean Bagary.

Louise Jacobsen, who was sitting at a small table in the front of the dining room with a friend, Jeanne Albert, on Monday, said they come “just to eat and to get Bob to wait on us.”

Bob is waiter Robert Eckroth, 59, who has worked for the May Co. for 38 years, the last five in the Fairfax tearoom. Like most of the staff, he is more than a waiter to the regular patrons--he is almost family. He sends birthday cards to some customers and corresponds with others who have moved out of town. For days, his customers have been coming in to see him to say goodby, asking for his phone number so they can keep in touch.

Friday, he said bluntly, “will be like a wake.” Then he turned his attention back to his tables and the ladies.