Saul Zabar who, across more than seven decades as a principal owner of the Upper West Side food emporium bearing his family name, kept New Yorkers amply fortified with smoked fish, earthy bread, tangy cheese, and pungent coffee, died on Oct. 7 in Manhattan. He was 97.

“I really came into Zabar’s as a temporary assignment,” he told The New York Times in 2008. He never left. Instead, he became one of New York’s leading lox-smiths, turning a 22-foot-wide shop into a world-renowned enterprise. Early on, the Zabars had five small stores, scattered along Broadway from West 80th to 110th Streets in Manhattan. Over time, they consolidated the operation into a single market generating nearly $55 million in yearly sales and sprawling across roughly 20,000 square feet at Broadway and West 80th Street. In a typical week, Zabar’s sold 2,000 pounds of smoked fish and 8,000 pounds of coffee to 40,000 customers.

“Money is not why we do this, not why we’re here seven days a week,” he told Edible Manhattan in 2022. “It’s a way of life for us. It’s kind of old-fashioned.”