Mel Krupin is the 78-year-old maitre d’ of the downtown D.C. McCormick and Schmick’s, and is almost as well-known as the power lobbyists and politicians who come to the restaurant to see him. He was the maitre d’ at the swanky Duke Zieberts in Farragut North from 1968 until 1978, and opened his restaurant, Mel Krupin’s, in 1980. He came out of retirement seven years ago to work at McCormick and Schmick’s, where he still practices his witty one-liners on the clients.
You moved here from Brooklyn in the ’60s — how was that?
When I came to Washington, D.C., I knew no one. It only cost $15 to fly here one-way from New York. I came with my suitcase and I walked to Connecticut Avenue, and I started working as the manager at Duke Zieberts.
You’re famous for teasing your clients. What’s one of your favorite zingers?
Most New Yorkers are talkative — I like to fool around, I like to joke, I make people feel comfortable. When someone comes in and says, “Can I get a table?” I say, “Sure, at Marlo. They got a sale, you don’t have to pay for three years! You want lunch, you can stay here.”
Whowere your clients when you ran Mel Krupin’s?
We were very heavy on the Democrats, we were very heavy on the union people, and that’s the way it was. The Republicans didn’t eat out much — they went to the plays!
I remember when Jimmy Carter lost the election, when Bert Lance, who had been top man, came in for lunch and all of a sudden I put him in the back room instead of the front room. He said, “It didn’t take long, did it?” I said, “What do you want me to do? If you lose, you lose!”
