1674-6 Jacobs Family DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 10 LENGTH: 57 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Tarleton Hotel owner Eric JACOBS
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DEBBIE SONTAG Herald Staff Writer
AT 39, HE'S
DEAN OF NEW
HOTEL BREED
Eric Jacobs is the answer man, Mr. Fix-it to many of the other young
hoteliers.
When the others need to know what a flushometer is and how it works, they
call Jacobs. (A flushometer is the plumbing on a toilet without its own bowl) .
Jacobs, 39, has been a young hotelier for 14 years.
He never meant to follow his father, the late Walter, into the Miami
Beach hotel business. It just happened, when he was en route to law school
after earning a master's in business administration at Boston University.
"A little family trouble and I came back. It was in my blood, " said
Jacobs, owner of the kosher Tarleton Hotel, 2469 Collins Ave.
At the glitzy Lord Tarleton, now the Crown Hotel, Jacobs grew up
surrounded by celebrities -- the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson and the Ritz
Brothers were all regulars. The Ritz Brothers once made headline-grabbing news
for the Lord Tarleton by camping out on the beach behind it. "Lord Tarleton
Sold Out, " the papers said.
It's a fond memory now. "The words Sold Out never lose their appeal, "
Jacobs said.
As a child, however, Jacobs took glamour for granted. Sport was faking an
ID and sneaking into a big hotel show. For his own life, for work, he wanted
something different -- he wasn't sure what, just something different.
At noon Monday, sporting his trademark bow tie, Jacobs was scooping
gefilte fish balls onto the paper plates of a long line of elderly diners,
accompanied by New York, New York.
"Well, it is different," he said.
With his father, Jacobs bought The Tarlet6n, then called The Promenade,
in 1972 and sold most of the family's other properties. The kosher market was
considered strong and dependable, so a kosher hotel it became. A clientele,
mostly
from New York, developed over the years.
"We give them good food, cleanliness, hospitality. To keep them, we use
different hooks," Ja cobs said. "Our latest, welcome gifts and free ice cream
by the pool, are real hits. It's a stupid reason to spend $10,000 for a
winter, but they do it. "
The guests adopt him as son, father and ever present ear.
"They can grate on you. They try to grate on you. They have nothing else
to do, " he said.
"But it's fascinating to watch them, to be around so many people over 80.
I see Alzheimers, memory loss, repetitive behavior, senility. And I sit back
and quietly wonder if that is my fate too."
Jacobs said his real stimulation comes from working for the Visitor and
Convention Authority, which he chairs, and the county tourism council.
The business itself runs fairly smoothly.
"It's a piece of cake. Honey cake, sponge cake, kichel, bow ties," he
said.