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Dec 15, 2007

Sarah rated it:

I listened to the audio book. It was ok, not because of the subject matter, which was very interesting in the beginning. During my teen years I worked in our family coffee shop so I completely related to so much of what she said. The problem was that the book was completely disjointed and there was no real linear progression. She has so many aunts and uncles that she kept describing both at young and old ages and I didn't know who was who and how old they were and, most importantly, how they fit More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2007

Jocelyn rated it:

This was one of the few remaining books-on-CD left at the library after the summer vacation rush. Obviously, since this is a memoir, it focuses on the fabulous history of the Volk family all the way down to lost cousins, married-in aunts and uncles, hired help, etc. I started out apathetic, but ended up enjoying her portrayal of New York City during her childhood and actually getting attached to the quirky characters on her family tree. I was sorry when the CD ended.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2007

Alison rated it:

I couldn't stop reading this book. It's one of the best memoirs I've ever read--hilarious, full of memorable characters, and told in short vignettes woven into the longer narrative of the family's life so things never get boring. I highly recommend it.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2008

Paul rated it:

i know a lot of people -- including my wife -- love this book but i found it boring in the extreme and gave up halfway through. it's all bragging about her family (who are somewhat colorful...at least to her), all snapshots, and absolutely no story. i find it amazing it got so many good reviews. i wanted to throw it across the room...it was so annoying. this book is probably a hoot if you're a member of the author's family but for me, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 05, 2010

Megan rated it:

I listened to this as an audiobook. Listening to a book, I'm recognizing, is a different experience for me than reading it; I'm curious as to whether my experience is better or worse through the listening. I definitely feel like it's spotty. I'm always sure there are sections I'm missing. This is confirmed when my ipod gets messed up and I'm trying to re-find my place audially and find that there are sections I never remember hearing before sandwiched between sections I know I've heard.
More...

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Dec 29, 2010

Dree rated it:

This book is not about being in the restaurant business. Maybe 10 pages actually discuss the restaurant. Mostly it is a series of vignettes in chapter form (naming the chapters are food does not make for a food book!). Generally, each chapter is about a person. How great they are, how gorgeous, how clever, how nice or mean, how rich or poor, and how great the author herself is for being nice to said person.

A lot of bragging. The author brags about herself, her parents, her aunts/uncles More...

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Dec 01, 2007

Lain rated it:

Patricia Volk's memoir of her family and its 100-year history in the restaurant business is as much a history of New York as it is a recounting of her relatives. Touching, funny, sad, quirky -- this book has it all. Volk is a talented writer with the ability to create a vivid character on the page. I finished this book wishing I'd been part of their clan.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2007

Beth rated it:

Lots of great stories about multiple generations of a Jewish immigrant family that ran restaurants in New York City from the turn of the twentieth century until the late 80s. Funny, touching, insightful--what you want in a memoir, plus lots of scenes of people eating amazing food, junk food, fancy food, mysterious food, etc.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Natalie rated it:

Cute family memoir. I love NYC Jewish culture, this book really puts it out there. Also, like the food descriptions. Should eat before reading it for a long time or you'll end craving some strange things, like cucumber salad or fricassee.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2008

Selma rated it:

Patricia Volk is like Woody Allen minus the trenchant humor. Her family of annoyingly kvetchy and insulting people is constantly displayed as "lovable," but you know that if you spent five minutes in the same room with any one of them someone would be murdered. Why she constantly parades before the reader this collection of obnoxious characters, most of whom insult her in the time-worn manner of hypercritical ethnic parents, is baffling. And, like one of those round-bottomed clown-f More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lori rated it:

You can't read this book without wanting a pastrami sandwich. Really good and funny.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) rated it:

Since I've recently read Kitchen Confidential
and Tender at the Bone, I thought I'd continue
the food-related-memoir theme. But I'd say
this book was less about life in the kitchen
and more about life in a family, albeit an
atypical one. Favorite part: "What she (her
mom) wants for me is an even cleaner, thinner,
More...

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Dec 27, 2008

Jeanette rated it:

Not terrible, but I honestly doubt I'd have stayed with it if I had it in print rather than audio. With the subtitle, I guess I thought there'd be more about time spent in the actual restaurants and the running thereof. For most of the book she devotes one chapter to each eccentric Jewish New York relative, mostly great-aunts and great-uncles but also parents, grandparents, sister, and beloved long-term housekeeper. Parts of it are pretty interesting and/or funny, but I think someone who is J More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Sarah rated it:

In this book there area lot of names & it gets very hard to follow them at points. But I found this didn't matter - what their role in the family was wasn't the important part, it was the impact they had on the writer & her life. Volk has brought together key family tales & memories to paint a picture of the unit she grew up being a part of. Its the first book in a while to make me cry & really think about certain things in my own relationships, so while it may not have broken any literary grou More...

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Dec 28, 2010

Julie rated it:

#60 - 2010.

Picked this up at random at Half Price Books. I have a vague memory of having read it before but that may be inaccurate. You'd think from the name that this would be chock-full of life at a restaurant, whether from a childhood standpoint or adult looking back. Not so. Volk takes us into the lives of her quirky, fascinating relatives and gives us a look back at when individuality was to be expected of everyone. The restaurant was somewhat incidental and was presented as jus More...

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Feb 18, 2008

Esti rated it:

The Author is brilliant, she's writing down her family journey (and herself) in a wonderful memoir. Every time she mentioned food (from liverwurst,spaetzle, sturgeon, cucumber salad to herseyettes) I get hungry (*smile*) made me wanting to have restaurant family too !!! Not to mention hidden Mattie's chocolate cake recipe inside the book, a little treasure, I will for sure give it a try.

Normally, I'm against spoiler but for this particular book I want to share my favorite part of the More...

1 comment like

Nov 17, 2010

David rated it:

Meh. I'm not sold on the idea that Volk's family was more fascinating than mine or yours. Once you cobble together the achievements of 4 sets of great grandparents, throw in a few Uncles-in-laws, write up some funny stuff your crazy aunt said, it seems that I could grab a random coworker and uncover a family history as rich and interesting as Volks. But she is a New Yorker, and I guess that is supposed to make it more interesting than if your family came from Minnesota or New Mexico.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2010

Lisa rated it:

Lisa M. Kelsey 0

Like some others that have posted here, I expected this book to focus more on cooking, food and the restaurant business, but I really wasn't disappointed. Volk brings to life a bygone New York and tells a wonderful immigrant tale, that of a great family dynasty as well. The next time I'm in Central Park I'm going to look for the bench she bought for her father--the one right next to Madeline Kahn's.

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Aug 22, 2011

Michael rated it:

I'm always a fan of good food writing, and this book seems to be part food journal and part memoir of a restaurant family over the generations.

...done.

Not bad. Nothing special, though I am a sucker for books that include:
-food and cooking
-New York lore
-Jewish family life

This book had all three. It turned out to be more of a family memoir than a focus on the author's life within a restauranting family, which was the angle I felt the title was

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Mar 07, 2010

Patty rated it:

I love books about food and this is a great book about food and family. Volk's family ran a series of restaurants in New York City from 1888 to 1988, but this book is more about her amazing family. I loved it. I laughed and I cried. And I drove my mom crazy by interrupting her book several times to read her the parts that made me laugh out loud.

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May 22, 2009

Tovah rated it:

this was a great quick read. very entertaining and heartwarming. at time i felt like i was reading about my family, which was wonderful. each chapter was rich with stories about food and family and how both were intertwined. the authors family has a great history in the making of new york and deli's, and tells a great story along the way.

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Oct 02, 2011

Bob rated it:

Written as a memoir, the story of a New York Jewish restaurant family, complete with the patriarch who founded a chain of restaurants and gave them out to various ne'er do well relatives. Sometimes cute and funny, sometimes poignant in describing family relationships good and bad, this isn't great literature but is an enjoyable look at growing up in an upper middle class Jewish family in the 1950s-1980s.

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Aug 12, 2010

Leslie rated it:

This book was a last minute pickup in the 4/$1.00 pile at a library sale. I really didn't expect much from it, but once I started it, I just had to finish it. What I learned from this book is that Family is, after all is said and done, family. I snickered, I sighed but mostly I remembered stories of exploits of my own colorful family.

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Sep 05, 2011

Heidi rated it:

I'm not even 1/2 way through this book and I already hate it. I thought there would be stories about growing up in the resteraunt business, but it is just incessant bragging about how funny/great her family is. Book is aimless and has no point, but a bunch of random family memories. I am not going to finish it.

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Nov 11, 2011

Amblingbooks.com marked it as to-read

"What the book really memorializes so beautifully isn't just a restaurant, or a now-vanished style of eating, but a city in its rich and juicy prime: New York." - New York Magazine

Listen to Stuffed on your smartphone.

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Jun 13, 2011

Genevieve rated it:

I think my expectations for this book were too high. This is a memoir about a restaurant family in NYC in the early 1900's-1950's, or so I thought. Really it's the story of a family in NYC that just happens to have a restaurant. There are a million family members (well not really, but like 20 at least) and each gets their own chapter, and their own type of food that reminds the author of them.

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Feb 02, 2009

JM rated it:

I want to be her and grow up with a restaurant family. Instant job, always be variety to dinner, everyone having to be happy all the time, and people busy and working and humming with activity. I love the warmth in the writing. Family and food: what a wonderful combination.

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Jun 18, 2011

Sgilbert rated it:

I really, really wanted to like this book, because the premise of a family who owned a restaurant, who truly loved food, and lived & breathed all types of food, should be a fun, quick read. Unfortunately this totally missed the mark for me. A hugely disappointing memoir

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Aug 04, 2011

Carrie rated it:

I enjoyed this book as an audiobook from Library2Go. The narrator was perfect, with her Jewish accent and pronunciations. The story itself had very little to do with restaurants and more to do with families and familial relationships. Overall I enjoyed this book.

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Jul 07, 2011

Wendy rated it:

An overview of her family with an emphasis on the foods they cooked and ate, this was a good book. Almost every chapter focused on a different family member. The only disappointment is that there was so much focus on the negative memories that the author and her parents had of their relatives, instead of the happy memories.

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