LONGTIME RESTAURATEUR MAURICE SOLOMON, former owner of Fromin’s deli in Santa Monica, died July 7 after a year-plus-long battle with cancer. He was 81.
Known to many by the nickname the Deli King, as his license plate read, he could be found behind the deli counter almost every day of his adult life before retiring in 2018 at age 79.
Born Nov. 21, 1938, in Brussels, he spent two years as a “hidden child,” evading Nazi capture by moving from town to town with his parents. At age 10, he and his family moved to Cleveland. He began his lifelong career in food services at Solomon’s Deli and Lefton’s in Cleveland. He married his first wife, Barbara, in the late 1950s, and had two daughters.
In 1975, he arrived in Santa Monica, where he owned Marjan’s Deli in the Brentwood Country Mart and Fromin’s for over 25 years. He reportedly served celebrities including Cary Grant, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Adam Sandler.
Solomon is survived by his third wife, Becky Swartz; daughters Stephanie (Kenny) Shaevel and Carrie Pollock; two stepchildren; 5 grandchildren; and 1 great-grandchild.
The family requests donations be made in Solomon’s memory to the Shoah Foundation or Stand Up To Cancer.
