By Jack Farrell
WEST SPRINGFIELD---Stuart Hurwitz is well into his eighth decade, but you wouldn’t know it.

“I’m the youngest 73 year old you’ll ever see,” he said laughing.

But it’s no boast. He spends large parts of his day at the new Rein’s New York Style Deli in West Springfield. At first, he was helping the restaurant get up and running, but now, even as things are beginning to flow more smoothly, he’s putting full shifts in each day.

“I love to work and love what I do. And I have three sons, who are my best friends, and that’s a pretty nice feeling,” he said. Of course, sometimes my sons tell me when I’m being a pain in the butt and tell me to go home.

His sons Steven and Michael Hurwitz are owners of the West Springfield site, along with Steven Kassman, who is affiliated with the original Rein’s Deli in Vernon, Conn. The new eatery opened about six weeks ago, with 110 workers on staff.

“We’re still learning,” Stuart Hurwitz said. “We hired managers who spent a little more than three months training in Vernon, we gave two weeks of intensive training to staff, and some of our key chefs spent four weeks in Vernon. But until they were under the gun, they really didn’t know what it was all about.”

Hurwitz said all this attention to training was critical because a Rein’s Deli is not like any other. With a very large menu, and with most of the food made on site, extra care must be paid in food presentation and preparation.

“It’s sort of staggering” for workers learning the menu, he said. “Many of them don’t have the heritage. They have to learn, what’s chopped liver, what’s matzoh ball soup?” It’s what’s, what’s, what’s,“ he joked. “But each day, we get better.”

While Jewish diners patronize the new delicatessen, its scope is clearly ecumenical, as witnessed by the large number of people who’ve flocked there during this unadvertised start-up period.

“We did a very ‘soft’ opening,” Hurwitz said.” But the hype was so great we’ve been on waiting lists probably 75 percent of the time for lunch and dinner.”

The deli also serves breakfast all day long, is open seven days a week, and offers a full bar. It’s located by North End Bridge at the site of the formar Ground Round on the corner of Park Avenue and Route 5.

Hurwitz and his sons have long been fixtures in the Springfield area, running Uno Chicago Grill on the riverfront in a partnership with Paul Picknelly and his Hilton Garden Inn. Both are located by the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. The family is also owner of an Uno restaurant at the Holyoke Mall, and is getting set to open another in Worcester, which will also be joined with a Picknelly hotel.

Hurwitz, the former general manager of the Springfield Civic Center and former head of the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, believes deeply in Springfield, and that its fate and the region’s are intertwined.

“I totally believe that the success of Springfield and the success of the Valley depends on everyone working together.”

Hurwitz said that West Springfield Mayor Edward Gibson made his family feel welcome. He invited them to a meeting with the town officials who deal with permitting and licensing and said,” We’re here to help you.”

“They bent over backward to help us,” Hurwitz said. “It’s a business atmosphere the mayor’s creating. That’s what makes the move into West Springfield wonderful.

“I’ve wanted to open up a true, New York style deli for 15 years, and I’ve been working with the Reins for about that long to partner up with them,” he continued. “When this location became available, it looked like the perfect spot.”

The Reins and Hurwitzes have a 50-50 partnership. “They provide the essence of Rein’s -
the recipes, the menu, how they prepare the food. There’s a lot of excitement in the marriage between the two families and we’re committed to it working.” Hurwitz said.

Greg Rein agreed, saying “it’s the right combination, a win-win for everybody. It was the Hurwitzes that found the location and brought it to us and thought it would be a great location and we agreed,” he said in an interview last month.

Rein’s family is from northern New Jersey—“deli country,” he says—where his parents, Betty and Bob got into the business. Bob and Betty Rein, and Bob’s brother Bernie, opened the Vernon restaurant in 1972.

Hurwitz, too, has the deli business in his blood and in his background. His mother and father owned Ruth and Dave’s Deli in Hartford, Conn., for many years.

“I worked there, so I’ve been in and out of the business,” he said.

-- Jack Farrell is a freelance writher in Conway.