“The Penguin Cafe is to Nahariya what the Western Wall is to Jerusalem,” said this week one of the veterans of the city of Nahariya, upon learning of the sale of the legendary cafe that was established in 1940, and since then has not been closed for a single day. Not in the War of Independence, the six days, not in the Peace of the Galilee, not in the Second Lebanon War and not even in the Corona lockdowns.
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“We are selling today, at a peak, and everyone will get their share.” Ilan and Amir Oppenheimer
(Photo: Nahum Segal)
But a conscious decision by the owner of the place, Ilan Oppenheimer, who determined that it was time to end the life project of his father and grandfather, will mean that on January 1, 2023, Penguin will close its doors, and in its place will be built a real estate project by the developer Geva Alon Manhariya, which will combine commerce, Hotels, offices and residences.
In a conversation with “Yediot Ha-North” Oppenheimer revealed that the sale was already made three years ago, and according to the contract it will take effect early next year. Oppenheimer (75) who grew up in the family business, says that he came to the conclusion that it is better to close the business than for it to crumble in the next generation. “It’s easier to distribute money than blocks of a business,” he says, “70 percent of family businesses disintegrate in the next generation.
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The penguin at the entrance to the restaurant
(Photo: Gil Nehushtan)
“Today it is my and my sister’s business, in the next generation there will be five children and five more spouses. It is difficult to run a business with such an ownership structure, and with all the good will, interests change, and it may end up in unpleasant places.
“Instead of starting to divide, it will buy each other’s share and so on, we are selling today, at the peak, and everyone will get their share. At the end of last week, we sold 320 portions. The business is really working great, it is at its peak, but I am already 75 years old, and I know how much It will be difficult to run a business with 5 partners and 5 other spouses.”
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The 40s
(Archive photo: from the book “Penguin the story of a place, the story of a family”)
What would you do without the penguin?
“I’ve been in this business for 50 years, almost every day. This week, when we learned that we were going to close, an acquaintance asked me, ‘How do you sell, we drink every day at your place?’. I asked him, ‘What do you do on Friday?’, he told me, ‘ Kiddush with the family’. I haven’t had a meal with my family on Friday for 50 years, there was no Kiddush. Every day from six in the morning in the business until closing. In recent times it’s also difficult to find employees, but I do it with love. In all these years, there was not a morning that I hesitated Whether to go to business or to the beach. I always wanted to go to Penguin.”
The Penguin Cafe was established in 1940 by Hugo Oppenheimer and his son Ernst. It started as a small kiosk with cassette ice creams, Strauss of course. The owners of the place “borrowed” the name Penguin from an English book publisher that published pocket books, Phuket Book.
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Ilan Oppenheimer
(Photo: Gil Nehushtan)
Ilan Oppenheimer, by the way, is responsible for another brand name, which has become common in all coffee shops in Israel – “Ilan Coffee” – coffee that is part of the menu of any self-respecting coffee shop. At that time, he says, Ilan Oppenheimer was about 25 kg fatter than today, and his fingers did not fit into the ‘ear’ of Naaman’s standard cup, which was used at the time.
“I asked them to make me coffee in a normal glass, from Duralex. Some espresso, some milk and some foam. The pourer creates coffee with three layers of color. People saw me drinking it, and started asking for coffee ‘like Ilan’. And the name caught on, and it spread throughout the country and became a brand name”.
Is it emotionally difficult for you to close this business?
“A cafe is an addiction. People turn to me all the time, tell me how they got married, had a bar mitzvah here, met here, there are a million stories. 82 years of business is an institution. I will miss the day-to-day in the business, the meeting with the people and the employees. Even when I left Here and there for vacations, the business was always in the mind, the worries, thoughts that something would happen. I built every stone in the business, every ledge, every refrigerator. Think how hard it is for people to leave a job or military service after permanent, and think that I’ve been here for 50 years. Every day.”
Penguin, according to legend, has not been closed for a single day since its establishment.
“It’s true, we never closed the business, and it doesn’t matter what happened in the country. During the Galilee peace war, a police officer came here and said why are you open. I said there is no order to close, we go into the shelters when necessary, and if he wants me to close, let him bring an order. Officers and journalists were sitting with us who found refuge here between barrage after barrage.”
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The opening of the kiosk in the 1940s
(Archive photo: from the book “Penguin the story of a place, the story of a family”)
What was the event you remember most from Penguin?
“In the 1990s, the wrestler Kevin Van Erich, who was at the height of his popularity, came to Israel. He came to do a commercial for Strauss, and I was told that he would come to eat at my place. The whole city heard about it and there was an abnormal hysteria. People went up to the roofs to see him. I feared for the lives of the people, and simply I asked him not to come.”
A few years ago, Ilan Oppenheimer founded the Adelina restaurant in Bechberi, which is managed by his son Amir. Ilan helps him. “We had fun together, there was something to get up in the morning.”
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Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball players at Penguin, 1980s
(Archive photo: from the book “Penguin the story of a place, the story of a family”)
What are you especially proud of?
“In all the professionals who started with me and then developed and got as far as possible. Danny from Khomisa, Michel from the mall, Uri Bori, Yossi Shetrit, Ohad Levi, they all started with me.”
“Every day, for people, for guests who go and come back again and again. Everyone with their own personal experience. I love it, and even at the age of 75 I serve dishes and clear tables. They ask me, ‘Why do you need this?’. That’s the whole point, I don’t Need it, I like it.”
1. Penguin was one of five restaurants opened by Hikes in Nahariya in the 1940s
2. Young Jewish women used to distract the British in the restaurant until the raiders went down to the beach
3. In the 1950s, the shack was replaced by a stone structure, and fashion shows with beauty queens were held in the garden
4. Among the regular guests: Shoshana Demari, Yaffe Yarkoni, Arik Lavi, Uri Zohar, Sheika Ofir and the members of the pale tracker
5. In 1964, actress Sophia Loren visited the restaurant during the filming of the movie “Jew”
6. Photographs from visits by Ben Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Cheetz, Uri Zohar, Sheika Ofir and more still hang on the walls
7. In 1972, Ilan Oppenheimer, son of Ernst, returned to Israel from his studies in Germany, and took over the management of the place
8. For the past decade, Penguin has been managed by his son Amir, fourth generation in the family.
9. To this day, dishes are served that have never left the menu, such as apple strudel and whipped cream, and the goulash soup
10. The famous “Penguin Schnitzel” is produced by Zoglovac in a special size for the restaurant