"Our Founder"
Benny Sarfati, 1985
West 89th St, Broadway, NYC
Benny Sarfati, known to many as the sometimes cantankerous proprietor of the corner coffee shop on West 89th St. and Broadway, passed away Feb. 24, 2009, at the age of 87 while in retirement in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Benny's start was not atypical for many an ethnic New Yorker of his generation. Born just days after his Sephardic parents arrived on Ellis Island, Celia and Yomtov took their infant son, and little else, to the Bronx to begin a new life amidst other Jewish refugees. After years of menial work, Yomtov opened a coffee shop in the Bronx.
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At age 17, he and his younger brother Albert enlisted immediately following Pearl Harbor. Benny joined the army, while Albert the merchant marines, separating the brothers for the first time.
With little training and less notice, he found himself headed to Normandy's beaches for the invasion's second wave. He said he walked Europe, right up to the Belgium campaign (Battle of the Bulge). After VE-Day, while returning to the U.S., and only days from port, his troop ship turned about and proceeded to join the Philippine campaign.
At war's end, and the two able-bodied sons back home, their father set the brothers up with their own stores and a life-long partnership that lasted 40+ years.
Opting to live in Queens, Benny worked his West 89th St. store, serving coffee and sandwiches in his adopted neighborhood for the next 40 years. Few in the neighborhood could start their day without first having a "Benny's coffee." Benny's was a landmark, a meeting place, a point of generational reference, and even to some, he was a second father.
The neighborhood came to love him and his sometimes grouchy ways, but he always had a smile and an open ear when you needed it the most.
He closed the store, or more to the fact walked away from it, leaving it to his customers to take whatever mementos they wanted from the modest five-stool store, in 1985.
Benny retired to Florida,
joining his brother Al, where they lived just a few minutes apart
where both enjoyed the next 20-plus years playing golf, bowling, Mets spring Training, and being with friends and family. Benny was survived by his wife, Kitty, their five children, five grandchildren, and one great grandson, along with his devoted brother and sister, Albert and Ester, not to mention the thousands he served on the Upper Westside throughout the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's,
See NYT's archived story - ON WEST 89TH ST., LIVES REFLECT UPHEAVAL.
To those who were his friend, or maybe even considered him a second father, please don't despair; his was a great, full, and wonderful life. He never voiced a single regret in retirement.
Sofia "Kitty" SarfatiNovember 28, 1927 - April 4, 2012
We had mom and dad for a good part of our lives. Kitty's parents, also Sephardic refugees from Turkey, suffering from poverty and anti-Semitism, arrived in the U.S. as young adults during the depression. They attempted to start a new life here but it was not to be as her parents passed away while she was in her pre-teens. She was taken in by her aunt and uncle, and earned her keep by cleaning neighbor's apartments after school. Kitty and Benny were married shortly after Benny returned from the war. Kitty raised five children while holding down many part-time jobs. With the children now settled, she finally had the chance to take night courses at Queens College and received an English degree at age 50.