ZAFRA

Clara and I discovered that one of the pleasures of owning a small neighborhood restaurant is making friends with our customers. From the first day we opened Zafra, we saw that the restaurant had the potential to become a warm and welcoming meeting place. Mothers with their children in tow were stopping by for a midday snack and resident physicians working at Saint Mary Hospital (now called Hoboken University Medical Center) were rushing in for a steamy cup of Cuban café con leche or a sandwich at our bar counter, always taking the time for a quick chat with us or our employees.

Early on we made friends with a young couple—Joe Ruddick, a musician, and Mary Lou Schempf, a painter. Sometimes Joe would bring his musician friends for lunch or dinner after a recording session at his Hoboken studio, and we often saw Mary Lou making drawings of the restaurant on a sketchpad.

 

We soon discovered that Mary Lou was not only an extraordinarily talented professional painter, but also generous as well, because one day Mary Lou showed up at my house in Weehawken with a surprising gift:  three beautiful small oil paintings of Zafra—one in the sunshine, one lit up at night, and one depicting a lively moment inside the restaurant. We cherish these wonderful paintings.  They capture Zafra's soul and its many moods. As a result of delivering her three paintings personally, she and her husband fell in love with Weehawken; they eventually sold their building in Hoboken and moved there.

 

For Joe and Mary Lou, Zafra has always been a home away from home. For us they will always be friends and family.

The memories of those early days will forever live in our hearts and in Mary Lou's paintings.