Leonard ‘Lenny’ Kaplan
Restaurateur called ‘Baltimore restaurant royalty’ was a longtime figure in the area who helped set the course for the food scene
Leonard “Lenny” Kaplan, a popular figure in Baltimore’s restaurant scene for decades who had owned The Owl Bar and the Polo Grill, died of complications from old age Saturday at his home at The Colonnade in North Baltimore. He was 85.
“It’s the end of an era,” said chef John Shields of Gertrude’s Chesapeake Kitchen. “He was one of the remarkable innovators of restaurants around Baltimore.
“Lenny was Baltimore restaurant royalty. He and [his wife] Gail set the course for the food scene at the time.”
Added Linwood Dame, owner of Linwoods in Owings Mills: “He was top-notch — a true professional in the restaurant business and he was in it a long time.”
Born Leonard Uriah Kaplan in Jackson Heights, New York, he was the son of David and Gertrude Kaplan.
He attended Bryant High School and earned a degree at the University of Alabama, where he was a guard on the basketball team.
His first taste of the restaurant business was waiting tables in the Catskill Mountains.
While at a fraternity dance, he met his future wife, Gail Shavitz, whose father co-owned the old Nates & Leons restaurant and the Pimlico Hotel.
“At first I thought, ‘How could an athlete dance?’ ” said his wife. “But he had good moves.”
When they married, he went into the restaurant business as part of his wife’s family. He would go on to be a co-owner of the Pimlico Hotel, a Park Heights Avenue dining spot popular in the 1950 through the 1990s.
In his first year there, he took his father-in-law’s advice to walk around and observe. He also slipped out to play a little basketball at the Towanda Recreation Center, his wife said.
His restaurant was famous for its overstuffed egg rolls and a cake named after the Preakness Stakes. Mr. Kaplan had said that despite his business being located near Pimlico Race Course, he attended only one Preakness.
He later owned Restaurant 3900, The Owl Bar, John Eager Howard Room, The 13th Floor, The Other Place, The Polo Grill, Lenny’s Chop House and The Classic Catering People.
Mr. Kaplan served on the boards of The Park School, the National Restaurant Association and TurnAround, a rape crisis center in Towson.
He retired on New Year’s Eve 2002. A Sun article published at that time said: “Lenny Kaplan, an elite name on the Baltimore restaurant scene, is not one to see the glass half empty. Of course, he might wonder if the glass could be a tad more polished, or served quicker, or filled exactly to the level it’s always been filled, or offered in better lighting, or on a tablecloth spread with greater precision, or generally represent absolutely his quite well-defined notion of what the customer wants in a glass.
“This is something of what makes Lenny, Lenny — a man noted both for setting high standards and occasionally chewing heads off the help,” the article said.
“I have been lucky to be relatively successful,” Mr. Kaplan said. “Relatively.”
He noted that his one unsuccessful venture, Lenny’s Chop House, was plagued by Inner Harbor parking problems.
The article described his “megawatt smile and his acute sense of doings around him that made him a successful basketball point guard in high school and college. It’s the point guard who sets the play, ensures everyone’s where they’re supposed to be, anticipates next moves.”
As a maître d’hôtel, or front-of-thehouse man, Mr. Kaplan spent day and night working the floor or sitting at the Polo Grill bar, at the first stool facing the restaurant, where he eyed the dining room like an air traffic controller.
“Lenny was the consummate frontman. He could work a room. I was in awe of him,” said Mr. Shields, of Gertrude’s Chesapeake Kitchen.
“He was such a gracious man,” Mr. Shields said. “And yet, he could be tough. So many of the people who worked for him, and now work for me, had such respect for him. They looked up to and admired him. He set a standard.”
“It’s the details,” said Mr. Kaplan, who opened the Polo Grill in 1990. “Whatever they are. I don’t think I’m picayune. I’m picky about the same details.”
Reviewers praised his rockfish with chanterelles, penne pasta with chicken, and an appetizer of crisp, soft-shell crab seasoned with dill, coarse mustard and horseradish.
Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer recalled his friendship with Mr. Kaplan.
“I met Lenny’s father when I was 19 and went to the restaurant for a crab feast. I said to him, ‘I don’t eat crabs.’ He fixed me a baloney sandwich and gave me a house charge account.
“If you lived in Baltimore, you knew they had the best food and were the best caterers. And you were part of their family. I went on to play tennis and basketball with Lenny,” Mr. Palmer said.
Mr. Palmer said he traveled to Cancun with Mr. Kaplan and their wives.
“They lost my luggage and Lenny wore a size 12 shoe and I wore a 14. He took a pair of his tennis shoes and cut them down so my feet would fit into them. I wore them for the trip with my toes coming out.
“Some people give you the shirt off their backs. Lenny gave you the shoes on his feet,” Mr. Palmer said.
Mr. Kaplan’s wife said her husband was a fan of opera, basketball, cards, steamed crabs, coaching and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
“Nothing gave him greater joy than his family,” she said.
Services will be held at 9:30 a.m. Monday at Sol Levinson’s Chapel, at 8900 Reisterstown Road in Pikesville.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, the former Gail Shavitz, who worked with him in the restaurant business; a son, Jeffrey Kaplan of Chicago; two daughters, Laurie Freeman of Baltimore and Amy Kaplan, also of Chicago; a sister, Judith Brodkin of Portland, Oregon; and six grandchildren.