Alex Azar October 19, 2013 from The Journal Gazette on Vimeo. Alex Azar, founder of the Azar's chain of restaurant and hotels in Fort Wayne, Ind., talks about how he and his friends Eugene Tigges, Dick Snouffer and Dick Goshorn, and sometimes others, came to meet regularly at Manny's Place on Calhoun Street for coffee and to chew the fat. Journal Gazette video by Chad Ryan.
Alexander "Alex" Abraham Azar February 16, 1923 – December 17, 2020 Klaehn, Fahl & Melton Funeral Home obituary has a lot of family and business information. His father Abraham Azar arrived at Ellis Island in 1899 at age 20, from a small town in Damascus, Syria. A cousin told Alex he could get him a job in Bryan, Ohio. Later, with his brother David, he opened a grocery store on Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne. By late 1980s the business had grown to be worth more than $40 million with 50 restaurants in Indiana and Ohio, including Big Boy franchises and Marriott hotels. Son George bought the family business in the early 1990s. David died in 2006. Among various real estate holdings, Azar Inc. still encompasses a Big Boy restaurant in Waynedale, the Back 40 Junction restaurant in Decatur and a 300-room Marriott in Huntsville, Ala. [ The Waynedale Azar's closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic and was torn down in November 2024 ] Copied from Azars shifting family business from food to property by Paul Wyche published December 1, 2013 in The Journal Gazette newspaper archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Alex Azar, the man behind some of Fort Wayne's most loved restaurants, died Dec. 17 at his home. He was 97. Born Alexander Abraham Azar to Syrian immigrant parents, the Fort Wayne native graduated from South Side High School before attending Indiana University, where he earned a business degree in three years. When he wasn't studying, he worked nights at an A&P grocery. After college, Azar went on to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following his discharge, Azar put his college retail experience to use in 1945 when he opened a local grocery with his brother, David. Alex Azar managed produce, and David Azar was the butcher. Alex Azar remained restless, according to information provided to The Journal Gazette in his obituary. His older brother, Albert Azar, invited him to visit a thriving Big Boy restaurant in Cincinnati in 1953. Alex Azar was impressed and soon bought a Big Boy franchise from Frisch's. Within a year, he opened his first Azar's Big Boy Drive-In on West Jefferson Boulevard. Azar opened multiple Big Boy locations in northern Indiana and Colorado with the help of his brothers David and George. A natural-born entrepreneur, Alex Azar went on to launch Captain Alexander's Moonraker, Captain Alexander's Wharf and Roby's Roast Beef, which Marriott Corp. acquired and renamed Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers grew into a popular chain of fast food restaurants in the Mid-Atlantic states. Azar's business relationship with Marriott continued when he became the Marriott family's first franchisee in 1968, the year he opened the Fort Wayne Marriott Inn. He went on to open several more Marriott locations in the Midwest. Azar, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, was married to his late wife, Norma, in 1946. He was also preceded in death by his parents and siblings. He is survived by his children, Laura (Jerome) Meers of Bonita Springs, Florida; Linda Azar of Reno, Nevada; and George (Lorena Pinzon) Azar of Fort Wayne; grandchildren Jason (Stephanie) Adams and Sumitra Azar. Copied from Local restaurateur Alex Azar, 97, dies Owned Big Boys, eatery that began Roy Rogers chain by Sherry Slatter published December 24, 2020 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
Capt Alexander's Moonraker: A New Concept for Shoney's
THE IDEA OF fast-food chains getting into the gourmet arena seems to be catching on quickly. The Dobbs Houses were probably the first in Memphis to branch out from the pop-in pop-out concept when they opened the Mark IV (now Chesterfield's) on Poplar. Earlier this year the Krystal Co (remember their nickel hamburgers?) followed trend by opening The Loft on Mt Moriah.
LATEST TO JOIN the trend is Shoney’s South Inc., which early next month will open Captain Alexander's Moonraker in Germantown Village Square. The ironic thing about this new venture is that it will be located about 100 feet east of a Shoney’s outlet in the square thus giving patrons a chance to compare the differences between two completely different outlets owned by the same corporation.
CAPTAIN ALEXANDER’S Moonraker patterned after a successful restaurant in Fort Wayne Ind is the pilot for what Shoney’s South board chairman James H Prentiss hopes will become a national chain.
Design of the new restaurant is around a shipboard motif everything being geared to make the diners feel they are actually eating while afloat. It begins at the entrance where one will have to cross a bridge over running water before actually going inside. The running water meanders through the interior of the restaurant terminating in a seven-foot deep pool. “We are bringing in authentic artifacts from all over the country” said Bill Horwitz who will direct the Moonraker’s voyage into the competitive sea. “The floor will resembls actual decking on a ship and we hope to have cannons and all that.”
There will be one large area for exhibition cooking and some of the dining areas will be known as the Captain’s Cabins and the Wharf Room Live entertainment will boom from The Crow’s Nest elevated above the bar area. A real boat is being shipped (no pun intended) in and will serve as the salad bar. The menu will include such nautical foods as broiled halibut Alaskan king crab legs lobster and lobster tails as well as steaks sirloin and spaghetti. John Fleps a highly-experienced chef whose credits lie mostly in the North will be chef of the Moonraker. He’s currently in training at the Fort Wayne Moonraker which has no affiliation with the one going in at Germantown Village Square. Russ Meister who recently resigned as food and beverage manager of Holiday Inn-Poplar will be Horwitz’ assistant.
Fort Wayne newspapers after 1923 are not online, but similar restaurants were started in Fort Wayne at this time shown below in South Bend and Indianapolis, Indiana and Memphis, Tennessee.
More than 1,000 persons attended a party at Captain Alexander's Moonraker here Tuesday night.
South Bend's newest dinner house will open its doors to the public next Monday night.
Located at 300 E. Colfax, the Moonraker offers a nautical setting along the St. Joseph River. The restaurant's interior is spacious and elegant. It will accomodate 325 for dining; 240 for cocktails and dancing, and another 100 in the waiting area.
This is the fourth Captain Alexander's dinner house to be opened by Alex and Dave Azar.
Chef Jerry Wilson, a member of the American Culinary Association; the Academy of Chefs, and Les Amis D'Escoffier Society, created a variety of ice sculptures to enhance the service of cold and hot Hors d'oeuvres.
The menu ran the gamut, from caviar to quail eggs and fresh Chatham oysters on the half shell to mushroom caps stuffed with snails.
There was king crab; jumbo shrimp; stuffed artichoke bottoms with crab curry; oyster shells filled with shrimp mousse; roast rib eye; scallops wrapped in bacon; egg rolls, and smoked salmon.
And to top it off, Chef Wilson created a gourmet showpiece Bushe De Homard, a lobster tree with lobster medallions and coquilles, garnished with truffles.
The $1.5 million restaurant facility has distinctively different dining areas appointed with a mix of antique and new items.
Other Captain Alexander's dinner houses, the Moonraker and Wharf, are located in Fort Wayne, and a third is located in Memphis, Tenn. Plans call for another facility to be built in -Indianapolis.
OFFICIAL OPENING - With sons Dave, left. and Alex Azar right lending encouragement, their mother prepares to christen the new Captain Alexander's Moonraker Tuesday night during a preview party. Among those in attendance was Philip J. Faccenda, second from right, president of the South Bend-Mishawaka Area Chamber of Commerce. Tribune Staff Photo by Ron Ryback
If you race to restaurants and track the tables in town, Captain Alexander's Wharf is a winner.
The spectacular ship restaurant, moored on Castle Lake in Castleton, has a heritage of hamburger; but the fresh fish is the dining delight.
Alex and David Azar of Fort Wayne the grocery store brothers who parlayed a "Big Boy"* sandwich into a $30 million food and lodging business - are the brains and bundle behind the eating enterprise. They started with a single drive-in franchise in Fort Wayne in 1954 and now claim 27 Big Boy restaurants in Indiana and Colorado, five Charky's in the Fort Wayne area, Moonraker restaurants in Fort Wayne and South Bend, a Fort Wayne Wharf and the Fort Wayne Marriott Inn, housing their MacTavish's restaurant.
The $3 million Captain Alexander's Wharf brings together the best of the Northern Indiana Azar theme restaurants. Walk the plank into the ship and wend your way upward to Davy's Locker for a peak or a pause in the cocktaildisco room, vibrantly alive with shocking purples and blues. Victorian antiques meet pulsating disco lights in the offbeat multi-purpose setting, where luncheon buffets, cocktail-hour hors d'oeuvres and discreet disco are served in succession.
Downstairs, the bridge of the ship, constructed from a massive San Francisco church pulpit, is the pausing place to view the chandelier, shimmering with Czechoslovakian crystal. Originally hung in 1927 in a Detroit theater, the piece was purchased from a Los Angeles antique dealer and meticulously taken apart, transported and reassembled.
Carpeted stairs lead down from the bridge to two dining wings as well as to the Singapore Lounge in the hull of the Moonraker, the ship center of the sprawling restaurant.
Cocktails On Deck
When weather permits, cocktails will be served above, on the deck of the Moonraker overlooking the lake. Here you can see the authentic riggings of the three-masted ship that were assembled by professional sailors.
If you wish, select a Colorado brook trout or a Maine or Newfoundland lobster from the two tanks below the bridge, before proceeding into the dining areas. The two dining wings are dubbed Chinatown and Golden Gate, and here a profusion of turn-of-the-century San Francisco memorabilia creates the atmosphere. Both wings are divided into tiered and separated seating sections - with such names as Cable Car, Barbary Coast, Jade Shadows, Peking Meditation, Fisherman's Wharf and Telegraph Hill - to create an ambience of privacy, quite a feat in a restaurant with 433 dining seats. Lighted mural vignettes depict four San Francisco scenes.
Lee Harper, vice president of Azar's specialty restaurant division and the recognized figure of Captain Alexander, is presiding over the Wharf during its opening weeks. Starting in the restaurant business in 1929 as kitchen help in the Floridian Hotel in Miami Beach, Harper's career has included executive positions with John R. Thompson Co. one of the country's largest restaurant chains Hilton Hotels, S & W Fine Foods and Robert Wian Enterprises, the Big Boy founder. He met Alex Azar when Wian sold Big Boy to the Marriott Corp. and joined Azar 7 1/2 years ago. Swathed in sailor whites and chivalrous charm, he is visiting with guests during his supervisory stay.
The menu at Captain Alexander's Wharf emphasizes seafood, but there are also several steaks, veal tenderloin Oscar, duckling Bourguignonne, panfried chicken, a pork chop flamed in Calvados and varying nightly specials.
This diner chose the broiled fresh filet of red king salmon with Hollandaise, an entree seldom seen here. Expertly cooked to flaked but moist doneness and delicately seasoned to enhance that incomparable full flavor of really fresh fish, the dish was outstanding.
Same Day Service
"The Columbia River salmon could have been caught last evening flown in in the afternoon to be served the same night," says Harper. All of the fresh fish including Boston scrod, brook trout and lemon sole arrives - by plane, he says.
The steak au poivre (black pepper) is a choice quality New York strip with a delightful Chablis-Cognac-mustard sauce, but the peppers are pungent and too generously stud the steak.
The with-dinner salad bar is not extensive, but offers Caesar salad and a delicious crusty rye bread. A complimentary glass of house (Petri) wine accompanies dinners.
A la carte desserts include a rich custard creme brule with a partlymelted brown sugar topping. The koko moko rum pie is a dieter's downfall with a toasted coconut crust and a chocolate sauce with Grand Marnier and Kahlua. There are also a partypretty baked Alaska, chocolate mousse, ice creams and fruit with cheese.
Entrees range from $5.95 for fried chicken or spaghetti with clam sauce and $6.50 for Boston scrod to $12.75 for the pepper steak and $12.95 for lobster tail. Fresh whole lobsters, plain or stuffed, are priced according to the current market.
Extensive Lunch Menu
The Wharf is open for dinner between 4:30 and 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday with service until midnight Friday and Saturday. An extensive luncheon menu with intriguing salads, a variety of sandwiches, omelets and quiches as well as seafood and beef specialties is available between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Sunday brunch is served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and dinner 4:30 to 10 p.m.
Mixed drinks start at $1.75, and there's an adequate wine list with impressive first- growth Bordeaux, Chateau D'Yquem and Chambertin Burgundy. Concannon, Cuvaison, Ridge and Mondavi are some of the California vineyards.
The crew at Captain Alexander's Wharf knows how to buy, store and cook fresh seafood.
The restaurant at 6220 Castleway, West Drive, on Castle Lake features at least seven fresh seafood entrees on its dinner menu - including sole, scrod, flounder, salmon, Maine lobster and a "daily fisherman's catch." A recent sampling of fresh sea scallops, the captain's feature of the day, showed the crew knows how to treat the treasure from the sea.
The tender, succulent scallops had that wonderful sweet flavor, found only in really fresh seafood. Lightly floured and quickly sauteed in clarified butter with a little white wine, the scallops in the delicate dish were a delight.
"We cook fish at the highest heat possible to keep their moisture," explains Wharf manager Bill Clazmer.
But the procedure that produces a good feast of fish starts long before the catch reaches the chef. The restaurant contacts its markets at Boston, on the West Coast and in the Great Lakes region and orders fresh fish three times a week.
"It is ordered the day it is caught," Clazmer explains.
The fish is shipped by truck, or in case of the Maine lobster by plane. Thus the fresh fish is usually about three days from the sea by the time it is served to the captain's customers, he says.
"We check the fish for freshness when it arrives. If the eyes aren't bright and red, we send it back," the manager says. While some fish, such as salmon, are bought whole, others arrive in fillets. Bones and heads are used to make fish stock for sauces.
When it arrives at the Wharf, the fish is placed in a 20 by 16-foot cooler, especially designed for fresh seafood and thawed frozen seafood, such as the shrimp, crab legs and whitefish (cod) on the menu. The value of the daily inventory averages $15,000 to $16,000, Clazmer says.
"We put the fish on crushed ice in pans with holes in the bottom, so the fish doesn't sit in water. This keeps the fish from absorbing water and becoming mushy," he explains.
The captain's platter a combination dinner of deep-fried shrimp encrusted with almonds, breaded fillet of sole and broiled beef brochette - is the biggest seller at the Wharf, with the daily catch and feature specials vying for second. The Danish sole - an eggwashed fresh fillet of sole with mushrooms, crabmeat and mornay sauce - is also popular. No, the sole doesn't come from Denmark. The name was coined by the restaurant to identify its particular style of preparation.
What can you expect in future seafood specials? A broiled fillet of mako shark was served one day last TABLE talk week. Mackerel, halibut, ocean catfish and ocean whitefish (cusk) have been other daily catches. Fresh water, farm-raised catfish and Great Lakes whitefish, walleye pike, lake perch and trout will be some of the summer servings.
To enjoy the freshness of the fish fully, order sauces on the side, although a recent request was not honored.
The daily captain's feature is not always fish. Sauteed beef tenderloin is featured tonight and tomorrow, and scrod with top sirloin steak will be next week's feature. The week of July 27, fillet of sole with a shrimp- shrimp-mussel-hollandaise sauce will be served; starting Aug. 3, broiled red snapper fillet stuffed with crabmeat and mushrooms in wine sauce; beginning Aug. 10, veal Oscar.
There are also steaks, prime rib and chicken entrees on Captain Alexander's menu; and dinner prices range from $7.75 to $11.95. A trip to the salad bar, which includes Caesar salad and good breads, and baked potato, rice pilaf or vegetable of the day are included in the dinner price. A recent trip to the salad bar was spoiled by hot salad plates, and the accompaniment dishes were on the salty side.
A la carte appetizers include steamed clams, oysters Rockefeller, escargot, French onion soup and shrimp de jonghe. The sampled serving of shrimp was heavy on cheese and crumbs, but light on garlic.
Most a la carte desserts - including baked Alaska, chocolate mousse, cheesecake and koko moko rum (ice cream) pie are made by the restaurant; and the koko moko pie is the winner on this list.
Captain Alexander's Wharf is open for lunch Monday through Friday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and for dinner aiter 5 p.m. seven days a week. Sunday brunch is served from 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.; and when possible, there is seating on the dock.
The Moonraker lounge has been relocated on the lower level; and there are now two banquet rooms, seating 45 and 200, on the upper level of the restaurant. Cocktails are served on the outdoor Moonraker deck; and starting Monday, there will be piano entertainment after 5 p.m. in the lounge. Mixed drinks start at $1.75.
Captain Alexander's Wharf restaurant in downtown South Bend is closed for remodeling.
Wharf restaurant will be remodeled
SOUTH BEND - The restaurant named Captain Alexander's Wharf closed Monday but its owners are not giving up on that prime river front location.
"We are going to remodel it," said Alexander Azar, chairman of Azar's Inc. of Fort Wayne, owner of the Wharf restaurant.
He admitted that the restaurant's nautical theme had not appealed to enough customers in recent years. "Everything has moved out to Grape Road and we have to figure out a way to get them back. We want to put a contemporary restaurant there," said Azar.
Numerous casual theme restaurants have been built on Mishawaka's Grape Road in recent years.
"We are thinking of a little less formal operation, little more of a fun spot," Azar said. "We property.
It's paid for."
He declined to reveal what theme the restaurant will, have when it opens in the fall. "We are just beginning the planning," Azar said.
He said the Wharf recently employed about 75 people, down considerably from what it had been in years past. "We used to have more than 100 employees but we had to reduce employment as sales fell off. We are just trying to figure out something that is more acceptable to the South Bend area," Azar said.
His company built the large restaurant, opening in early 1977, as Captain Alexander's Moonraker. The 15,000-square-foot facility is situated on the east bank of the St. Joseph River, just across from Century Center.
The restaurant was renamed Captain Alexander's Wharf in 1983, with fresh seafood as its specialty.
