A South Street landmark, Jim’s Steaks will be much bigger when it reopens later this year after repairs from a fire last summer.
In a deal that closed Friday, Jim’s owner Ken Silver bought Eyes Gallery, the iconic folk art store next door that was heavily damaged in the July 29th fire.
Both Silver, 58, who runs a popular eatery co-founded by her father in 1976, and Julia Zager, 82, who opened Eyes with her husband Isaiah in 1968, are longtime Inquirers. said the deal between his neighbors was a win. -win. “We embraced each other at settlement,” said Silver. “How often does that happen?”
Eye’s signature glass and tile mosaic by Isaiah Zagar. Philadelphia’s Magic Garden — Maintained and included in gym expansions. Jim’s reserves his first floor of ADA compliant seating to complement the upstairs dining room.
The upstairs seating area was always too small and Jim would not allow customers to vacate it. “Anyone who didn’t understand how Jim runs doesn’t realize that it took him 20 minutes to eat a cheesesteak and he was almost done with it,” Silver said. “People are lining up and thinking, ‘I’m going to go and get a seat.’ Someone was saying, ‘You’re not allowed to get a seat.’ Because otherwise people would come upstairs with a tray of steak his sandwiches and people would just sit there with no food. At times it became controversial. Hopefully this will alleviate much of that. ”
Silver said there will also be two small tables in what is now the front window of Eyes, where the South Street parade will be seen. Before last July, queues of patrons on the sidewalk were part of everyday life on South Street.
He’s targeting Labor Day for reopening.
Julia Zagar is relieved that the 100-year-old building doesn’t need to be refurbished, and aims to reopen Eye’s on April 1, half a block away at 327 South St. said. much of the legacy of Isaiah’s early work. ”
Zagars has spent the last few months removing parts from the three-story Eye building. The new location will be slightly smaller, but will have a larger ground floor.
Julia Zagar said the original Eye’s Gallery look was shaped over decades. “I liken it to painting,” she said. “I put the color in, then I step back and look at it and I don’t like that part, so I go back and put another color in. We did it. [the original Eye’s] Little by little, change things and put in new things. Here we do it in much less time. ”
The sale of the Eye building had been in the works for months, but the Zagers declined to discuss the matter publicly before the settlement Friday. On December 3rd, Silver posted a photo of a worker at the gym’s ruins on his Twitter account. He thanked people for “a lot of wishes and support” but indicated that “a lot of work lies ahead”.
Last year’s fire started in the electrical wiring for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the 100-year-old building. Water and smoke damage was extensive.
Jim’s was founded in 1939 by Jim Perligni Parini) opened stores at 62nd Street and Noble Street in West Philadelphia. The business was sold to William Ploett in his mid-1960s.
In 1976, Abner Silver, an attorney working for Proetto, joined him to open Jim’s on Fourth and South Streets, then part of Philadelphia’s Fabric Row.
In the 1970s, South Street was truly at a crossroads. Plans for the Crosstown Expressway had been dropped just before that, and youth-focused companies such as JC Dobbs and his TLA were making inroads. So did counterculture folks like Zager.
This place was a natural place for a tourist favourite, cheesesteak.
Abner Silver, his wife Joan, and Zagars quickly became friends. Ken Silver said his brother Michael, who is five years younger, will tag along to work with his parents. “They couldn’t afford to hire a babysitter,” he said, adding that Michael Silver and Ezekiel Zager (now an artist and filmmaker) would hang out together on the third floor.
Abner Silver also had Abner’s on 38th and Chestnut Streets, but officially assumed exclusive ownership of Jim’s South Street Steak & Hoagie’s after Ploett’s death in 2011. Shortly thereafter, Ken Silver took over the business. Abner Silver has died at the age of 79 2015.
The Proetto family operates a Jim’s Steaks store in Springfield, Delaware.
Demolition work began at South Street Gym on January 4. The day before, Silver removed the last autographs, photos and memorabilia from the tiled wall. They are washed, stored and hung again.
“I hate to say that,” Silver said.
