Legendary Restaurateur Kenny Shopsin Dies At 76
WEST VILLAGE, NY — Colorful New York character and restaurateur Kenny Shopsin died in his West Village home Sunday, his relatives confirmed on social media.
The 76-year-old owner of Shopsin's General Store was known for his eccentric personality and love for old New York. He first opened the quirky diner with his late wife, Eve, in 1988 on Bedford Street in the West Village. The iconic eatery earned a reputation for its ornery owner and vast menu, 900 items at one point. It has bounced around Lower Manhattan over the years and currently resides inside the Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side.
@shopsinsnyc will be open Wednesday. My dad won’t be there in body but he will be there. I love you dad.
A post shared by Tamara Shopsin (@tshopsin) on Sep 4, 2018 at 6:35am PDT
Shopsin often kicked out customers for bizarre infractions and had an extensive list of unusual rules including no tables larger than four, no ordering the same thing as anyone at your table and one child per customer, reported The New York Times in a 2008 feature on Shopsin.
The purposefully overwhelming menu featured some 300 soups, 75 types of pancakes — from Post Modern to Lemon Ricotta — and other kooky creations including the nuclear melt down sandwich and his famed mac-and-cheese pancakes.
“I hang a menu out in front of the restaurant, which a lot of places do in the hope of enticing customers to come inside by showing them what they have to offer,” Shopsin wrote in, “Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin,” a book he wrote with Carolynn Carreño in 2008. “I do it for the opposite reason. I put the menu there to dissuade people from coming in. My menu is six pages long, and there is a lot of stuff crammed on those pages.”
A 2004 film, "I Like Killing Flies" documented one of the restaurant's relocations and captured Shopsin's persona.
Shopsin aimed to keep the restaurant a neighborhood joint not an attraction. He was beloved for his quick wit and biting humor, and customers subjected themselves to his whims for plates loaded with his creative cooking.
Shopsin's children will continue to operate the eatery without him. His daughter, Tamara, declared on social media that the eatery was open for business on Wednesday.
The restaurateur leave behind five children. His long-time wife Eve died in 2003.
Photo courtesy of Greening Productions
