By Eileen Soler, Posted on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
April 16, 2012

Pembroke Pines’ mayor is moonlighting — as a co-owner in a popular neighborhood nook.

For years, Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis has held court at a landmark restaurant in his city. It’s where he met and courted his wife. It’s where he went every day for breakfast, sitting in his favorite booth along the back wall. It’s where he planned his winning elections.

But on Tuesday, he had a new experience there: Greeting his customers.

“We’re having a reunion today,” Ortis said, welcoming people to the opening day of The Mayor’s Cafe, formerly known as the Bagel Bar West.

The restaurant, at 1677 Hiatus Rd., had been closed since July 2011, leaving its longtime customers bereft.

“We were left with no ‘place’ to go,” recalled longtime customer Bonnie Yaffe.

Neither Ortis nor good friend Lewis Nadel could bear the demise of the neighborhood nook where bagels, corned beef and knishes were served with hefty portions of friendship, laughs and conversation.

So they teamed up to buy the place.

Nadel said people started showing up at Mayor’s Cafe weeks ago. On the day workers moved in tables and chairs, some customers followed them in, sat down and tried to order.

Both owners live just a hop, skip and jump away. Nadel in Cooper City and Ortis a few blocks north of the restaurant.

“The mayor used to live within walking distance. Now it’s within running distance — he can’t get here every day fast enough,” Nadel said.

The favorite orders of the day were “The Mayor’s Skillet” made with eggs any style over home fries, ham, peppers, onions and melted cheese and “The Big Louie” — turkey, corned beef, cole slaw and mustard on rye.

Ortis and Nadel have big shoes to fill.

Previous owners Russell and Lois Kwitkin created a homey kitchen ambience that customers compared to the television bar “Cheers” — where everybody knows your name and a cast of characters traded insults and backslaps and built life-long relationships.

Customers from senators to housewives were treated the same. No one was spared and everyone played along.

A 1999 article in the Miami Herald recalled Russell Kwitkin being compared to the sitcom’s Sam Malone: “a rough, tough cream puff” who delivered jokes as easily as he did chicken soup to sick customers.

In 2005, when Lois Kwitkin died of breast cancer, the community mourned.

Kwitkin sold the restaurant and two others tried running the place, but it just wasn’t the same.

But that was forgotten Tuesday as a steady stream of customers hugged and chatted from the time they entered until they left full of matzo ball soup, hot pastrami on rye and promises to come back.

“We’re living old memories and making new ones,” Barbara Ortis, the mayor’s wife, said.

Henry Koppel was so happy the place was open again, he came to eat twice.

He was among the first served after doors opened at 6:30 a.m. His first meal? A lox omelette with a side of potatoes and a bagel. His second meal? Another bagel with a schmear plus coffee.

“Its a very exciting day for all of us,” Koppel said, during lunch with friends from a nearby retirement community. “From now on we can pop in to meet whenever we want.”

Mana Paduano was perfectly pleased with her white fish salad on a bialy.

“Everyone has been looking forward to this day for months,” Paduano said.

Sherry Cohn described the split pea soup as “the best ever.”

Not bad for two guys whose day jobs are running a city and being a security specialist.

But Nadel said they’re cut out to run the place.

“We both felt we had tremendous experience in the restaurant business,’’ Nadel said. “We both eat out a lot.”