It has been just over 30 years since I moved from California to Fisher Island, a residential community immediately adjacent to Miami Beach and the neighborhood known as SoFi for South of Fifth Street. There are some very historic and interesting things throughout that swath of land, none of greater renown than the iconic restaurant Joe’s Stone Crab.
People have been known to line up for hours for a table at Joe’s. Back in the day, reservations (hardly acknowledged even today) were then all but unheard of.
I never had to deal with any of that. Not, as you might suspect, because of my multiple Emmy wins from that time in the 1980s when my career was on a Hollywood upswing. No matter how I may have flattered myself, I always knew I owed my celebrity status at Joe’s to my bride, actress Sharon Gless, who everyone knew back at the turn of the last century as America’s best-looking cop in a skirt, Christine Cagney of Cagney & Lacey.
Joe’s owner was Jo Ann Weiss Sawitz Bass, the grandchild of Joe Weiss, the guy who created the place over 100 years ago. Jo Ann’s father inherited the business from his father and by the latter years of the 20th century, the restaurant was hers (later co-owned with her son, Steve Sawitz, who… with his Mom… made it even more successful). Together, mother and son, got to see the place, year after year, being named one of the highest grossing restaurants in the United States while still maintaining items on the menu that any local could afford.
It was a matter of personal pride to Jo Ann Bass that however pricey those seasonal stone crabs would become, at Joe’s, locals could always afford what was arguably the best fried chicken in town at prices below that charged by the Kentucky Colonel.
Besides loving her restaurant, which she ran with the help of her lifelong best pal, Rose Cook, Ms. Bass loved Cagney & Lacey and especially my wife, its blonde star.
Forget reservations, Sharon and I never hesitated as we marched past the waiting throng to be seen by the maître d’ who would stop whatever he was doing, lean into the microphone on his podium and say, “Ms. Gless, party of two. Sharon Gless.” Sometimes, just to mix it up, the captain would call out my name. Either way… never a wait, we never broke stride.
More nights than not we would be seated at what we came to learn was “the family table.” And it was a rare “boy’s lunch” where Jo Ann did not come over to give me a greeting and ask about my then working-a-lot spouse. And those famous desserts? Never paid for one… not while Ms. Cook or Ms. Bass were in house.
Fisher Island was all very new to me then. And very friendly. Sharon was off in London doing a play or in Canada doing her Queer as Folk series for Showtime and I would regularly be fielding calls from neighbors who seemed concerned about my being home alone and asking me to join them for dinner… off Island. I thought it was nice, and a pleasant break from the on-Island pizza joint, the Garwood lounge, the Beach Club, or Renato’s Italian eatery.
What I noticed was how often these invitations resulted in our going to Joe’s. While it is true that the number of fine restaurants in the area has grown exponentially since the mid-90s, even then, Joe’s was not the only high-quality eatery around.
I am not the brightest lamp on the bush, still it did not take me long to realize that rather than concern about my being left alone while my wife was at work, the invites were coming my way because in my company, my hosts did not break stride either. With me along, they could get a table at Joe’s without the wait. All thanks to Jo Ann Bass.
Three decades later, Sharon and I still love Joe’s… rarely do we have a houseguest from out of town where we don’t take them to this iconic eatery… and even though Jo Ann had been less active of late, prior to her recent passing, both Sharon and I are always treated by the gang at Joe’s like something close to family.
Rose Cook has been gone for some time now… we managed that major adjustment well, I thought. Not having Jo Ann Bass check in on us from time to time will take more of an effort. Both Sharon and I will miss our fabulous hostess… still, as far as that big stone crab restaurant in the sky is concerned, I will not mind if it takes Ms. Bass a while longer to seat me at my table.
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