When you've been in business close to sixty years, as Jerry Feld has at Club 404 (he bought the bar/restaurant before he was even old enough to have a liquor license), the people who come to your place are like family, and the people who work for you are like family (hell, a lot of them -- like his wife, Harriet, and his son and daughter, are family).
Club 404 lost a member of the family two weeks ago: Steve Clark, who'd been a cook at the restaurant at 404 Broadway for 25 years, died on March 31, at the age of 58. And the place hasn't been the same since. The staff is stretched tight as everyone scurries to cover for his shifts, even as they grieve his loss.
But at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 19, the extended Club 404 family will kick back and commemorate Clark at a memorial service at the 404. Everyone's welcome -- and, in fact, the restaurant will remain open through the event. Feld hasn't closed the 404 for a day since he opened it back in 1951, and he's not about to start now. Because the family -- which means everyone who considers Club 404 a home away from home -- is depending on it.