www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY April 19, 2020 4
Property manager provides free housing for COVID-19 fi rst responders
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Joe Torres, owner of Joe’s Place Restaurant & Bar, who passed
away April 12 from COVID-19 Photo courtesy Joe Conzo
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MEMBER:
BY JASON COHEN
A man who served
the likes of Derek Jeter
and Jennifer Lopez and
became known as an
icon in the restaurant
industry was taken
from the Bronx this past
weekend.
On April 12, Joe Torres,
owner of Joe’s Place
Restaurant & Bar, 1841
Westchester Ave., passed
away from COVID- 19.
Torres, 73, had his eatery
for two decades and
spent the majority of his
life in the kitchen.
For many years he
was the chef at Jimmy’s
Bronx Café on Fordham
Road, which shuttered
in 2004.
Borough President
Ruben Diaz Jr. expressed
his condolences.
“Joe catered a lot of
our events and sponsored
our Orchard
Beach Salsa summer
concerts last year,” he
said on Twitter. “More
importantly, Joe was a
friend. My heart goes
out to Joe’s family during
this diffi cult time.”
Torres was born in
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
and developed his culinary
talents from an
early age in his mother’s
kitchen. At 9-years-old
he came to America and
began cooking at 14.
Kevin Fitzpatrick,
who wrote “111 Places
in the Bronx That You
Must Not Miss,” reminisced
about his time
with Torres.
“He is just a classic
old school chef,” Fitzpatrick
said. “What impressed
me about Joe
was that he basically
grew up in a kitchen.”
Torres told Fitzpatrick
how as a kid he
would work 60 to 80
hours a week and when
his friends were out riding
bikes, he was behind
the wheel of a Cadillac.
He mastered his trade
while cooking at Jimmy’s
in the 90s. Fitzpatrick
said even though
he served numerous celebrities,
he was always
humble.
Here is an excerpt
from his book about
Torres.
“I worked in Manhattan
hotels and restaurants
as a teenager.
Daytime I was at the old
Americana Hotel. Then
I’d go over to the Cattleman
on 45th Street and
work at night. I was
there 18 years.”
Joe’s Place is the
restaurant he always
wanted. “Now it’s been
more than 20 years cooking
Caribbean food,”
Joe says. “Our mechado
is a very good looking
dish. Cow feet soup is
a traditional Spanish
dish. Try the mofungo
stuffed with shrimp,
or sweet plantains and
yuca. For dessert get
the tembleque, it’s cocoa
based.”
Joe Conzo, a retired
paramedic and lifelong
Bronxite, was the
photographer for the
book. Conzo recalled
how during the 1996
blizzard Torres and the
staff at Jimmy’s helped
feed FDNY/EMS personnel.
Conzo noted that
Torres was looking to
retire, but sadly his life
was cut short. His death
came as a shock, Conzo
said. He heard he was
in the hospital and the
next thing he knew he
had passed.
“He gave back to the
community and he was
an approachable guy,”
Conzo said.
BY JASON COHEN
As thousands of health
care workers from across the
country come to aid NYC’s
overstretched hospitals, regional
property managers
are stepping up to provide
additional support with rentfree
apartments for COVID-19
responders.
Doctors Irahm Kahn
and her sister-in-law Amber
Kahn, of Connecticut, made
the trek down 95 and have
recently been accepted as volunteers
to BronxCare hospital
at 1650 Grand Concourse.
While Irahm, 41, has three
children and a husband back
home, she knew her services
were needed in the Bronx.
She told the Bronx Times
that it was music to her ears
when she found out that
Goldfarb Properties, a property
owner and manager,
had offered free housing for
front line responders in partnership
with BronxCare and
other New York-area hospitals.
So instead of traveling
an hour and a half each way
after working a 12 hour shift
and possibly exposing her
family to the virus, she now
has an apartment next to the
hospital.
“We don’t want to jeopardize
our families and kids,”
she said. “It was nice of Goldfarb
to offer us an apartment.”
Irahm, who was a licensed
doctor in Pakistan and today
is a radiology research assistant
at Yale New Haven Hospital,
said during her many
years in the medical profession,
she has never seen a crisis
like this.
When the epidemic began
she immediately knew she
wanted to help. Irahm began
volunteering two weeks ago
and has been working three
days a week 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
and sometimes longer shifts.
“They’re doctors dealing
with it the best possible way
they can,” she said. “When
you opt for this profession
you have seen a lot, but this is
a totally different scenario.”
According to Irahm, the
staff at BronxCare has welcomed
her with open arms
and made her feel at home.
While the apartment is
only for two months, Philip
Goldfarb, owner and managing
partner of Goldfarb Properties
and Trevor Schaper,
vice president of operations,
said they will extend the
agreement if needed.
Goldfarb, who has had
the company since 1975, explained
that his company
houses doctors from Mt. Sinai,
Montefi ore and Bronx-
Care year round, so helping
out-of-state volunteers during
this crisis was a no-brainer.
“I can’t make face masks
but this is something I can
do,” Goldfarb said. “This is
something nobody has experienced.
You just have to do
the right thing and keep going
forward.”
Schaper noted that with
people coming from places
like Texas and Massachusetts,
not only are they working
in a different hospital,
but they are temporarily living
in a foreign place. Many
have been asking him places
to go to dinner, making him
feel like a concierge.
“In a way it has been more
challenging than renting
them like we normally do,”
he said.
Parkchester community loses
a local culinary legend
Doctor Irahm Kahn of Connecticut,
staying in a free apartment
provided by Goldfarb.
Photo courtesy Irahm Kahn
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