Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life— Marvin Gaye, “Inner City Blues,” from What’s Going On, 1971
Forty years on and it’s a white man hollering.
Michael Feigenbaum feels trapped in the ghetto. His bakery, Lucy’s Sweet Surrender, is the last vestige of what used to be one of the largest Hungarian neighborhoods outside of Hungary.
Feigenbaum and his wife, Marika, who was shot in the shoulder during an attempted robbery in the shop two years ago, run Lucy’s. It’s on Buckeye Road at East 125th Street. The neighborhood feels naked. There isn’t a lot of traffic and virtually no business, so Lucy’s stands out. Feigenbaum would prefer it be a beacon. Instead, it’s a target.
Lucy’s is known for its dobos torte, its paczki, its strudel, a cake robed in chestnut purée. It has been around since 1957, and it is legendary. Feigenbaum says people from all over tell him, crying, they haven’t tasted anything so delicious since their grandmother ran the kitchen. A Lucy’s pecan roll can bring one to tears.
Feigenbaum is a stocky, purposeful man who bought Lucy’s from original owner Lucy Ortelecan, a Transylvanian native like Marika, in 1994. The business grew; at one time there were several Lucy’s besides the original, including an outpost on Shaker Square in what would become the original (and long-defunct) Joseph-Beth bookstore. When Joseph-Beth came in 2001, Feigenbaum lost his space, relocating to South Moreland. That location didn’t catch either; the original Phil the Fire succeeded it.
Feigenbaum says he sold chicken-and-waffles entrepreneur Phil B. Davis his assets but was never paid, resulting in a lawsuit. Despite a summary judgment in his favor, Feigenbaum says he hasn’t collected anything and Davis still owes him $75,000. Davis, meanwhile, has announced plans to restart Phil the Fire in the former Houlihan’s in Beachwood. The original Phil the Fire, along with a short-lived downtown brand extension, collapsed in 2006 when a rogue hedge fund manager pledging to bankroll Davis never came through.
The Feigenbaums soldier on despite the Shaker Square and South Moreland disappointments and a failed effort to open Café Marika in the Collinwood Arts District. Lucy’s – a sturdy building featuring good space for baking, vintage equipment and loyal if timorous help – is their shaky ground zero. (Pictured, left: Marika's gunshot wounds sustained during a robbery in 2009.)
Armed with an executive chef degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Feigenbaum bought Lucy’s even though the neighborhood was already 80 percent vacant; a few other Hungarian establishments, like the Balaton Restaurant (now in Shaker Square) and Orban’s Flowers, remained.
Since then, says Feigenbaum, the neighborhood has virtually emptied. What used to be the Buckeye shopping district, between East 116th Street and East 130th Street, no longer exists.
On July 11th, 2011 @ 10:01:am,
Just bought some amazing pastries and breads from him at the Kamm's Farmers Market. Really great stuff!
On July 11th, 2011 @ 06:34:pm,
Nice work, Carlo. At some point the kids with the guns need to get some equity in something besides violence and criminal enterprise. Maybe when everyone else has left the neighborhood.
On July 12th, 2011 @ 08:37:am, Mark Chesler responded:
...On March 14 and March 29, 2003, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, Oberlin College class of ‘73, executed two $20,000 promissory notes to Phil B. Davis, Phil the Fire’s flamboyant proprietor, at prime plus 200 basis points, collateralized by an equity stake in Phil the Fire. Mr. Davis, a former deodorant salesman, failed to make a single payment on the bargain-rate loans. On October 31, 2003, the well-heeled ice cream czar and the wannabe waffle king consummated a Halloween wing-and-a-prayer loan consolidation through a $100,000 line of credit issued by Shore Bank. Mr. Davis subsequently defaulted on every facet of the original loans. According to Cuyahoga County Court records, Phil the Fire’s tax returns, prepared by leading public accounting firm SS & G, show a loss of nearly $50,000 in 2002. In an amended July 19, 2004, brief attached to the extensive litigation spawned by Phil the Fire’s demise, Phil B. Davis declares on line #93, "Defendant never claimed that the operations of Phil the Fire on Shaker Square had yielded a profit after its first year of operations." The Ohio Department of Taxation affixed eight liens totaling $69,555.63 to Phil the Fire’s Shaker Square carcass. The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation weighed in with unpaid claims of $7,265.37. Mr. Davis’ Shaker Square operation inherited the retail storefront formerly occupied by Hungarian strudel purveyor Lucy’s Sweet Surrender, a 49-year Buckeye neighborhood fixture employing a bevy of elderly, veteran strudel kneaders. On assuming the balance of Lucy’s ten-year lease, Mr. Davis seized $75,000 in specialized bakery equipment belonging to Lucy’s proprietor Michael Feigenbaum. Lucy’s never fully recovered and, according to Mr. Feigenbaum’s Hotel Bruce web posting, is "living on fumes." On Sunday, March 26, 2006, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a front-page expose detailing the implosion of both the Shaker Square and downtown Phil the Fire and Waterhouse Restaurants, established with the financial backing of fugitive Atlanta hedge fund manager Kirk Wright. I, not any member of this body [Oberlin City Council], was the original source for that story. Wanted on state and federal mail and securities fraud warrants for allegedly absconding with $185 million in investor assets, Wright targeted novice minority investors, particularly professional athletes with significant discretionary income. Equipped, according to the New York Post, with "a materialistic streak that would make Madonna blush," Wright’s illicitly acquired auto collection included a Bentley, a Jaguar, an Aston Martin, a BMW and a Lamborghini. A March 9, 2006, Wall Street Journal article reported Mr. Wright’s financial seductions occurred in "suites he rented at Atlanta Falcon football games." Since February 2002, SCA’s financial patron, Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, has owned the Atlanta Falcons. According to Phil B. Davis’ Cuyahoga County court filings, Davis "met twice with Wright in Plaintiff’s Atlanta office." In a short, tumultuous five-month life-span, Phil the Fire’s illiquid downtown Cleveland gravy train racked up well in excess of a million dollars in unpaid debts and forfeitures — including over $15,000 in Ohio workers compensation liens — was on a C.O.D. basis with vendors and, according to Phil Davis’ July 28, 2004, court filings, had a chronic negative cash flow. Channel 19 reporter Scott Taylor ran an investigative piece broadcast March 14, 2004, on Phil the Fire Gateway’s imminent meltdown. On March 23, 2004, the IRS slapped a $226,259 tax lien on Phil the Fire for failure to pay federal withholding taxes. On April 15, 2004, Phil the Fire employees picketed outside the swank downtown eatery to protest their untendered paychecks. Although Phil Davis’ initial capital contribution to the Gateway Phil the Fire restaurant was a nominal $100, as set forth in the operating agreement, Mr. Davis retained a 60% ownership stake. On March 31, 2004, as the downtown Phil the Fire hemorrhaged cash and the chickens came home to roost, Mr. Davis borrowed $20,000, via a promissory note, from Phil the Fire’s talented chef, Alexander Daniels. Despite receiving $50,000 from Mr. Wright on April 26, 2004, in an impetuous, global out-of-court settlement, Mr. Davis defaulted on the bulk ($15,000) of Mr. Daniels’ unsecured loan and a contracted $11,000 culinary consultant’s fee... ouch.blog-city.com/sustainable_community_associates_stone_soup_1.htm