"Grandma Rose" Naftalin and me

In the early 1980s I supported myself by doing some freelance writing...and, um, painting apartments. Sometimes the apartments were occupied, so I had to paint around the occupant's furniture—and sometimes the occupant herself, if she couldn't leave.

Such was the case with one apartment I painted in Northwest Portland, a unit that happened to be occupied by Ms. Rose Naftalin, the 85-year-old former owner of the famed Rose's Deli and Bakery. I remembered my parents taking us to her restaurant a few times back in the mid '60s, and I went back several times as a young adult, mostly for the delicious Monte Cristos and gigantic donuts.

When I first started painting her apartment, Ms. Naftalin was fairly reserved, speaking only when I spoke to her, and then only cursorily. Gradually she started opening up a bit, and by the time I was finished she was a veritable chatterbox.

She told me she had written and published a cookbook called Grandma Rose's Book of Sinfully Delicious Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Cheese Cakes, Cake Rolls & Pastries (Random House, 1975), of which she was obviously quite proud—and rightly so, since it sold more than 100,000 copies. She also told me she had reluctantly sold the restaurant when she got too old to keep running it, but that he didn't really regret selling it until she learned that the new owners had started cutting costs—by substituting margarine for butter, artificial vanilla for real vanilla, and so on. I could see fire in her eyes as she was sharing this revelation, and it made me a little angry, too. It didn't seem fair to me that someone could buy a business like Rose's, with no real investment in the business other than their money, and keep the name but change the recipes—for the worse. Doing so not only misleads customers, but taints the otherwise good name of the previous owner, whose investment was far more than just financial.

The Rose's Deli and Bakery on NW 23rd closed in 2011 after 55 years in business, but three other Rose's are still in operation—in downtown Portland, in Sherwood, and at the Portland International Airport. Each of their online customer rankings are about three stars. I suspect if Rose were still running the business, they'd all be five.

Rest in peace, Rose Naftalin.

Rose Naftalin (Photo: Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Naftalin