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parents started Joe's, but Jesse Weiss was the key figure
in consolidating the prominence the restarurant still
enjoys. "Jesse was a character," says one longtime Miami
resident. "He was a scoundrel, a womanizer to the hundredth
degree, a gambler. But everyone who came into Joe's
wanted to see Jesse. He knew everyone- movie stars,
journalists, politicians, sports people, gangsters.
He would come by your table and it was a big deal. He
was a Damon Runyon character." Runyon himself, not surprisingly,
was a longtime friend of Jesse's. "It was Papa's disposition
that brought Joe's so many VIP's," says his wife, Grace.
"Because he had that personality. And he never burdened
them with anything but a gift of love." Like all once-in-a-lifetime
personalities, Jesse is almost impossible to describe
(and some of the descriptions, while accurate, are hard
to believe). But his own recollections, as well as those
of his family and many friends, give a pretty fair idea
of the man, who enjoys a place among legendary twentieth
century American restaurateurs. When Jesse Weiss was
seventy-five, Miami anchorperson Ann Bishop spent many
hours recording his memories. Here's how Jesse concluded
the interview: I want to be remembered as trying to
live my life with as little aggravation for others than
I have for myself. Unfortunately, I'm a Hungarian, and
I'm hot-headed... I think my daughter tells people,
don't pay attention to that, and she's smart about it.
She's my pride and joy. She's a great mother, she's
a great gal, she's got an awful lot of class. She's
not money-hungry, she's fast to do for others. I'm proud
of what others have done keeping Joe's going, which
I consider a monument to myself. The family all do a
hell of a job. I've had a good life. Now I want to say
one more thing. I'm the most fortunate man in the world,
for one reason! My daughter Jo Ann. She has my hot Hungarian
temper, but like me, she forgets what she got angry
about five minutes after she got angry... and I love
her dearly. |
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