Alas, we live in a world way overpopulated by celebrities and way to few heros. One of my true heroes is Hank Rubin.
Hank Rubin is one of Calif's food & wine icons. Alas, he is not very well known by those of the current food & wine scene. He should be much better known, I think.
Hank dropped out of UC/Berkeley in the late '30's to go to Spain and fight in the Spanish civil war w/ the Lincoln Brigade, earning him the label of "communist". These adventures are recounted in his book "Spain's Cause Was Mine"; an absolutely riveting read of a time long/long ago.
In the '60's and into the late '70's, he ran an iconic restaurant in Berkeley known as the Pot Luck. Barry Glassner describes the restaurant in detail in his Gastronomica article "The Only Place to Eat in Berkeley" (for those of you who have access to that magazine). There once was a link out there to the free article, but I couldn't track it down.
One of the unique features (at the time) of Hank's Pot Luck was its seasonally-changing menus, focused on ingredients locally sourced. Sound sorta familiar?? One of his most frequent diners was a lady named...Alice Waters. She took the concept and ran with it, founding ChezPanisse, and became famous as the founder of "California cusine". She drove the concept to success and became famous. Alas, Pot Luck closed in the mid-'70's afore I had a chance to dine there and meet Hank in person.
Hank went on to become the first wine columnist for the SFChron, back when few newspapers had such things. He also wrote a Q&A wine column for bon Apetit magazine, then a freebe/throwaway published out of KansasCity by Pillsbury (of DoughBoy fame), answering an assortment of questions from its readers. On these pages of bonApetit was where I had my first interactions w/ Hank. As I recall, Hank was one of the first, in his Q&A column, to suggest that maybe, just maybe, all wines were not improved by "breathing", well before AlexBespaloff wrote his definitive article in the NewYork magazine on that subject.
Hank then went on to become the Editor of Philip Seldon's Vintage magazine. I wrote a number of articles for them. Hank's editing of my articles (which read like a LosAlamosScientificLaboratory report) could, at times, be a bit brutal...but always with a good-natured manner. I owe much of whatever credit I have as a wine writer to Hank.
It wasn't until the early-'80's, after he had left NYC and returned to SanFrancisco, that I actually met Hank in person, when I asked him to join me for lunch on one of my trips to the Bay area. He was everything I had expected from our phone conversations. A genuine/warm human being that I took an instant like to; a warm/friendly smile, a gentle chuckle, and a twinkle in his eyes that I found extremely endearing. He enjoyed greatly talking about daughter Marcie, grandson Blake, and especially, with great pride, his wife, Lillian. He always wanted to know about my son & daughter, and what wines I was liking these days.
I made it a point to get together w/ Hank for lunch every few yrs after that whenever I was out there. It was a friendship I treasured greatly...one of my most special of many friendships. After a lunch w/ Hank, I always felt like such a special and lucky person for knowing him.
When I was organizing last weekend's trip to the Bay area for a friend's wedding (and...yes...there was wine involved), I knew I was way overdue for lunch w/ Hank. Alas, no response to my e-mail after a week. So I gave a call to his phone #. There was a message from Lillian that Hanks was no longer answering this phone #. I was concerned; so gave Lillian a call. Alas, she informed me, Hank was suffering from dementia, had very little in the way of memory, and she had to place him in the nearby RhodaGoldmanPlaza in the Alzeheimer's unit. She related that he liked to have visitors, but warned me he would not likely remember me.
So, with much trepidation, I asked to do a visit w/ Hank and Lillian made the necessary calls. Last Saturday morning, Susan & I made a side trip into TheCite to see Hank.
I knew I had to see Hank for at least one last time. When I tracked him down up on the 4'th floor, Hank was in the middle of an exercise class. I asked the nurse there where I could find HankRubin. He immediately looked up at me, but gave no signs of recognition. But...dang..there it was...that very same warm/friendly smile I'd learned to recognize over the yrs and...yup...that same bright twinkle in his eyes. Just like it always had been.
We walked down the hallway a ways, sat down, and had a visit. Hank clearly didn't remember who I was, as I expected. But he did remember of few people and things from the past that we had in common. He seemed genuinely pleased to have a visitor, even though he didn't know who it was. After about 20 minutes, I walked him back to his exercise group. He gave me a sincere "thank you", which I returned w/ a hug.
I was expecting to leave our visit greatly saddened. I did not. Hank's in pretty good physical shape for 94 yrs of age. He relates that he is treated very well there and sees Lillian fairly often, sometimes Marcie. Even though the memory is not there and we can't share many of our past experiences, it's not like there's no one home in there. Inside...it's that same HankRubin that I've known for yrs....that same genuine/warm person, that same easy chuckle...and that same twinkle in his eye. Once again, my visit w/ Hank left me going away feeling how extremely fortunate I have been, and am, for knowing HankRubin. I am a very lucky man. I plan to visit him again on my next trip out there.
Anyway, Hank is, and always will be, one of my heroes. He should be more widely known for his contributions to both food and wine in Calif.
Tom
PS: Lillian Rubin, Hank's wife, is a highly-regarded, internationally-known, psychologist in her own right; with quite a few books to her credit. I remember reading her first book, "Just Friends" many yrs ago when I was searching for some answers in my life, but hadn't a clue to even what the questions were. That book was a very good read, and she made a number of very favorable references to her husband. When I finished the book, I read the acknowledgements and she gave much credit to the support of her husband, Hank Rubin. All of a sudden, this big light went off in my head..."Hank Rubin?...HANK RUBIN??....that's MY Hank Rubin !!". All of a sudden, it all came together.
Anyway, I've read most of Lillian Rubin's books. They are highly recommended.