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in the early days, Joe did the cooking, Jennie ran the
dining room. "She was a tough old broad," Jesse remembered:
She reminded me of some of those old Zane Grey books,
where the madam is tough as hell but all heart. If she
didn't like you she wouldn't let you in. Let's say a
man was married and coming in with his wife. Then, another
time, he'd try to come in with his girlfriend-out! She's
just as soon say, don't bring your tramp friends in
here. Who's going to fight with an old lady? So that
was that. Other clients were captains of a different
sort of industry. But Jennie Weiss had her own criteria
for who belonged at Joe's: Al Capone came in, and he
used the name Al Brown. Every day at 5 o'clock (because
no one dined 'til about 5:30, 6:00 P.M.), he'd pull
up with his entourage and sit down and have dinner and
go. One night Jennie walked up to Mr. Capone. She said,
"Mr. Brown, I must tell you something. If I don't like
somebody, I don't allow them to come in here, but you've
always been a gentleman, and anytime you want to come
into this restaurant, you can." It touched him. Every
Mother's Day, up pulled a truck with flowers, a horseshoe
reading, "Good Luck Mother Joe's." She never realized
who he really was but she had heard somebody mention,
that's so and so. |
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