Old Original Bookbinder's opts for tradition

Nation's Restaurant News, May 4, 1987 by Karen Bruno

Old Original Bookbinder's opts for tradition

PHILADELPHIA--The 120-year-old Old Original Bookbinder's restaurant has made a few concessions to the trendy and contemporary.

But not too many.

Last month, for example, Bookbinder's president and co-owner, Albert Taxin, added blackened fish to a menu primarily composed of seafood that had previously included only poached and broiled preparations.

He admits, however, that he has had some misgivings about adding the trendy dish. "We're going to try it," he says. "But if I find that we really can't do it well, I'll take it off."

"We're an old-fashioned American restaurant," declares Taxin, who owns Bookbinder's with his sister, Sandy Weiss, and their 81-year-old father, John.

But if change is not necessarily a watchword here, continuity most definitely is. The 1,000-seat restaurant has been operated by two generations of Taxins, with a member of a third generation, "little" John--the grandson of the founder--currently being schooled for succession at Johnson and Wales in Providence, R.I.

Moreover, a loyal cadre of regulars swelled bya steady stream of tourists--more than 10,000 each week--will sometimes wait as long as two hours for a table.

And the cuisine, which is distinguished by its simplicity, high quality, and ample portions, has not changed much over the years, either.

"We go with what we do best," Taxin says, proudly. "We use little or no sauces, just butter and a concoction of Bookbinder's herbs on our fresh fish."

The seasonal, 93-item menu is marked by its use of regional fish and seafood, such as fresh shad and shad roe from Georgia. Also featured are fresh jumbo stone crabs from Florida, jumbo Dungeness crabs from Alaska, Columbia River King salmon from Washington, and scrod and bluefish from New England. Imported Dover sole and Finnan Haddie are offered as well.

Customers are often afforded a choice of preparations for many of the fish and seafood dishes. For example, fresh Columbia River King Salmon is available either broiled or poached--and in both instances served with sour cream and dill--or simply marinated and served cold.

Broiled New England scrod is served either with a lobster Newburg sauce or with tomato and onion in garlic butter. And the fillet of flounder is available pan-fried or broiled, stuffed with lumb crabmeat or baked with artichokes, spinach, mushrooms and a cheese stuffing.

But while fish and seafood dishes dominate the menu, a number of beef and veal items are available: a charcoal-broiled 18-ounce U.S. prime Kansas sirloin steak, breaded veal cutlet with tomato sauce, and roast prime rib of beef aus jus.

The average per-person lunch check is about $14, while dinner for one averages $32.50. Food costs are about 37 percent.

Snapper soup, one of the restaurant's signature dishes, has even gained something of a national reputation since it was first introduced in 1941.

Prepared from farm-grown snapping turtles, the soup is sold around the country and is included on the tavern menu of Chicago's Drake hotel. At Bookbinder's the snapper soup is served with a cruet of sherry as an accompaniment.

The menu is also known for its Maine lobsters, which are prepared in the same large cast-iron pots used since the turn of the century. The lobster pots--whose lids alone weigh 30 pounds each--function as pressure-cookers. "The residue of thousands of lobsters, prepared over the years, accounts for their special flavor," Taxin explains.

But while Bookbinder's has made its reputation by spcializing in fish and seafood dishes, the restaurant also features a number of beef, veal and poultry selections. For example, the present menu includes a 10-ounce U.S. prime sirloin minute steak as well as an 18-ounce Kansas sirloin steak--served plain or smothered in onions, peppers, mushrooms and, if the customer so desires, garlic.

Other meat dishes are a charcol-broiled U.S. prime filet mignon, broiled chopped sirloin steak with onions; breaded veal cutlet with tomato sauce; and veal sauteed with mushrooms and peppers, and served with french fried potatoes and a choice of vegetable.

A long history accounts for much of Bookbinder's special flavor as well. Photographs of presidents, many of whom have dined at the restaurant, line the walls. In another room, constructed of original Colonial-style plaster and timbeR, a collection of antique toys and fire trucks is displayed along one wall.

Located in Society Hill, one of Philadelphia's tonier residential areas, Bookbinder's has grown from a single room to a block-long labyrinth of antique- and memento-filled rooms. Today the operation encompasses 62,000 square feet.

Samuel Bookbinder opened Bookbinder's in 1867 in what was then a business district bordering the Delaware River. In the late 1930s his family donated the restaurant to the Federation of Jewish Charities as a tax deduction.

When John Taxin, whose fruit and vegetable stand was located across the street from the restaurant, saw that the federation wasn't managing the place well, he and three partners bought it in 1941.