Stanley Green, restaurateur

Perhaps restaurateur-turned-bon vivant Stanley Green's biggest disappointment might be not being able to see his name in print in his obituary.

Mr. Green, who enjoyed seeing his name in boldface, was tagged as a "boulevardier" in the gossip columns in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The word fit perfectly. He not only vacationed frequently in France but was one of Philadelphia's most colorful characters.

Mr. Green, 73, died of heart failure yesterday at his home in Center City.

During his salad days, Mr. Green rubbed shoulders and bent elbows with big shots, high rollers, heavy hitters, models, model citizens and goodfellas and was known by just about everyone in Philadelphia. "Somebody who never heard of me, I would probably hate their guts," he said in a 1977 Inquirer interview.

By then, however, his star had begun to fade. He would spend the last two decades of his life working as a public-relations consultant and a gossip columnist, and selling his celebrity. Most recently, he was paid by restaurateur Neil Stein to sit at Rouge on Rittenhouse Square, draw customers, and help everyone have a good time.

Tom Foglietta, former U.S. congressman and ex-ambassador to Italy, said: "I have known Stanley for 50 years. He was as important to Philadelphia as Benjamin Franklin walking down the street eating a roll. He meant as much to this city as the Phillies, the Eagles and Pat's Steaks put together. He was a man of tremendous taste. I have gifts, such as a silk ascot he gave me 40 years ago, that are as beautiful today as the day he gave them to me."

He was born in West Philadelphia, the son of Si Green, who operated 29 successful Jewish delis catering to truck drivers, garment workers and cabbies. But Stanley Green had grander plans for his life.

His father "had the jet, but not the set," Mr. Green said in 1977.

His father's delis were dark, drab, tiny joints sprinkled throughout the city.

Mr. Green's deli - which he opened in 1960 on the 1600 block of Chestnut Street - had style and was fun. He decorated the walls with antique circus posters, dressed the waiters in red-and-white striped shirts and straw hats, and catered to politicians, playboys and celebrities. Years before Center City's restaurant renaissance, Stanley Green's - as the deli was called - was the place to go for lunch or after the theater.