Larry Goldstein’s 50-year journey of bagels, business and Detroit pride.
Larry Goldstein hasn’t lived in Detroit since the early 1970s, but he’s still a subscriber and avid reader of the Detroit Jewish News.
“That’s a good newspaper,” Goldstein said. “They have great stories and columns, and it’s a thick paper.”
Goldstein, now 77 and living in Dallas, Texas, grew up delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, washing cars and working as a deli busboy in Oak Park. The son of accountant Herb Goldstein and homemaker Dell Goldstein, he became a bar mitzvah at Beth Aaron, at 18000 Wyoming, in 1962.
He graduated from Oak Park High School in 1967 and earned an associate’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from Oakland Community College.
In 1968, Goldstein saved up his newspaper delivery money to purchase tickets for himself and his mother, a loyal Detroit Tigers fan, to see Detroit defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1968 World Series.
A month later, by chance, Goldstein and his mother found themselves giving Tigers star pitch Mickey Lolich a ride to his office.
“My mom was so excited that she called every one of her friends when she got home,” Goldstein said.
By the age of 21, Goldstein had opened a Mr. C’s Coney Island in Madison Heights. The price of coffee was 15 cents, and Goldstein was there for four years.
He left to work for the late Barry Greenblatt of Barry’s Bagels in Toledo.
“I didn’t know how to make a bagel, and Barry didn’t know that much about running a deli,” Goldstein said. “So, we taught each other.”
Pull Quote
“One day, I’m making boxed lunches, and the next day, I’m making a beef tenderloin dinner. ”
— Larry Goldstein
Barry’s Bagels has since expanded to have multiple locations throughout Ohio and Michigan.
With a strong desire to open his own deli and bagel spot, Goldstein decided to take a leap of faith by moving to Dallas. He and his wife, Susan, a retired teacher, had only been married for a few months when they moved to Dallas in 1976.
Fifty years ago, Goldstein started Bagelstein’s, which he described as a “Jewish McDonald’s.”
He owned the restaurant for 22 years. Upon selling it, he headed north to Toledo for three years to help Greenblatt with Barry’s Bagels.
In 2001, he opened Catering By Larry in Dallas and is still going strong with it.
Goldstein, a father of two and grandfather of five, was a Dallas Cowboys season ticket holder, but he still loves the Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings, the Lions and University of Michigan, of which his wife is a graduate.
He hopes to continue his catering business as long as possible.
“One day, I’m making boxed lunches, and the next day, I’m making a beef tenderloin dinner,” Goldstein said. “We do weddings; we have a full staff of bartenders and servers. We can do everything from a drop-off box lunch to a fine dinner. I’m very proud to be Jewish. I don’t hold it back. I wear a chai around my neck — people see it, I let them know.”
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