Oregonian Writes Guide To The Big Apple

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – For decades, tourists to the Big Apple have mapped their journey with the help of a fact-packed red paperback.

For generations of visitors, "Where to Find It, Buy It, Eat It in New York,’’ now in its 13th edition, has been the city’s sightseeing Bible.

Few realize, however, that the book their visit hinges on is researched by an 80-year-old Oregonian, living 3,000 miles away in Salem.

Author Gerry Frank has bridged that distance through a lifelong love affair with Manhattan, a fondness nurtured through a long career in business, politics and community activism. It’s an enthusiasm salted with monthly visits to New York.

Now in its 13th incarnation, Frank’s book is a comprehensive and thorough compendium of all things New York.

What’s free and what’s not? Where is the best shopping? Where can you get your hands on cheap theater tickets?

The natty, energetic Frank has in-stant entree in the unlikeliest of places, from prestigious radio stations and restaurants to neighborhood delis and bookstores to the toniest of hotels, includ-ing his personal headquarters, the Plaza Hotel.

"They take care of me,’’ he said of the Plaza.

But being ubiquitous is hard work. Frank visits New York nearly every other week.

The author frequently arrives on the red-eye flight from Oregon, with barely time to pop in and out of his Plaza room before heading off to a promotional meeting or a research tour.

From such exhaustive research comes an expansive view of New York and its attractions, enough that even jaded New Yorkers find things they hadn’t known about their own city from a guy based in Salem.

Betty Watson, a Manhattan resident shopping at Zabar’s food store on the Upper West Side, is a pushover for one of Salem’s best-known men.

"I bought a book because I’m going to use it,’’ she said as she shopped in an aisle lined with a dizzying array of cheeses. "I’m familiar with New York. I’ve lived in New York for 40 years, and I don’t know everything. Every-day, there’s something new to learn here.’’

The encyclopedic 533-page guide to nearly 300 restaurants, more than 50 museums, several hundred retail stores and dozens of the city’s finest hotels skips few necessities of negotiating one of the biggest cities in the world.

Frank, descended from the family of the Meier & Frank retail chain fame, has served in state government and spent 26 years as special assistant and chief of staff for former U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore.

He is a fourth-generation Oregonian known for his popular gourmet cake shop and restaurant, Gerry Frank’s Kon-ditorei, in Salem, as well as the chocolate cake contest he judges at the Oregon State Fair each year.

But there always has been another Gerry Frank, a boy and then a man with a love affair with a city not his own.

"When I was about 12 years old, my family brought me back here,’’ said Frank. "Meier & Frank’s had its own buying office in New York. They put me in the hands of my uncle, and he took me all around New York.’’

The interest deepened over the years, first when he returned to New York as a buyer and later when he worked for Hatfield as chief of staff in Washington, D.C.

"But in those 26 years, I never spent a weekend in Washington,’’ Frank said. "I spent one weekend in New York, and I spent the next weekend in Oregon over the years.’’

"Where to Find It, Buy It, Eat It in New York’ is said to be the oldest com-plete, independently published guide-book to New York City. It was recognized as a finalist in the Independent Publishers Book Awards.

It took five years of research to do the first edition.

All the publishers turned him down, forcing Frank to self-publish through Gerry’s Frankly Speaking Inc.

"I knew I was an outsider, and I knew I had to work doubly hard to make this thing successful,’’ he said.

Although publishers now want to buy the rights to the book, Frank has no interest in turning it over, preferring to keep control of the book and its content.

"I like to be my own boss,’’ he said. "Nobody tells me what to include or omit.’’

Reader Comments

No comments have been posted. Be the first!

Other Stories With Comments:
Article	Comments
Golden City: Bought, Burned, Bought Again	1