A familiar and beloved fixture of Baltimore’s restaurant scene for decades, Leonard Uriah Kaplan died at his home at Inn at The Colonnade on Saturday, Nov. 12, surrounded by his family. The North Baltimore resident was 85.
Along with Gail, his wife of 63 years, Lenny Kaplan co-owned and ran such local restaurants and food service operations as the Pimlico Hotel, the Polo Grill, Lenny’s Chophouse, the Owl Bar, the 13th Floor, Restaurant 3900, the John Eager Howard Room, the Other Place and The Classic Catering People.
In a 2002 article, the Baltimore Sun called Kaplan “an elite name on the Baltimore restaurant scene.”
“Lenny’s warmth and care … guaranteed a great time for all,” longtime patron Ronnie Footlick wrote on the memorial page of the Sol Levinson & Bros. website. “Lenny brought so much to the table and to all of our lives for which an entire community owes him a big hug.”
A native of Jackson Heights, New York, Kaplan was a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he was a member of the Crimson Tide basketball team from 1955 to 1959.
Kaplan first entered the restaurant business in 1959 after marrying his wife, whose father, Leon Shavitz, owned the Pimlico Hotel on Park Heights and Hayward avenues. (With Nates Herr, Shavitz was also the co-owner of the well-remembered Nates & Leons delicatessen on West North Avenue.)
In a Baltimore magazine article from 2016, patron Larry Yumkas said of the Pimlico Hotel in its heyday, “When you walked in, Lenny Kaplan was there to greet you. He knew every customer and made you feel special.”
In their 2019 book “Lost Restaurants of Baltimore” (The History Press), Suzanne Loudermilk and Kit Waskom Pollard interviewed Charles Levine, owner of Pikesville’s Citron restaurant and a longtime local caterer, who worked at the Pimlico in his youth.
“The Pimlico was the first upscale neighborhood restaurant that existed,” he said. “I served Arnold Schwarzenegger. They all came — Jack Benny, Johnny Carson. People came to Baltimore and went to the Pimlico.'”
In The Sun, columnist Michael Olesker wrote in 1985 of the Pimlico Hotel, “It was an oasis of culinary sumptuousness and schmoozy elegance that somehow lingered … long past time any wise-guy tout would have wagered it would last.”
Kaplan retired from the restaurant business on New Year’s Eve 2002.
He served on the boards of The Park School, the National Restaurant Association and TurnAround, a rape crisis center in Towson.
In a tribute on the Sol Levinson website, Kaplan’s family wrote, “Opera, basketball, cards, steamed crabs, coaching, and Rehoboth were a few of his passions, but nothing gave him greater joy than his family. The family would like to thank the community for their ongoing love and support.”
Kaplan is survived by his wife; his children, Jeffrey (Julie Burman), Laurie Freeman and Amy Kaplan (Erik Selz); his grandchildren, Emily, Jackson, Carli, Rachael, Eli and Avery; and his sister, Judith (Dennis) Brodkin.
He was predeceased by his parents, David and Gertrude Kaplan, his in-laws Leon and Minna Shavitz, and his brother, Max Kaplan.
Funeral services will be held at Sol Levinson’s Chapel, 8900 Reisterstown Rd. in Pikesville, on Monday, Nov.14, at at 9:30 a.m. Interment will be at Oheb Shalom Memorial Park, Berrymans Lane in Reisterstown.
Donations in Lenny Kaplan’s memory can be sent to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore, Maryland 21210 (bsomusic.org), or the charity of your choice.
The family will be in mourning at Inn at The Colonnade, 4 W. University Parkway, on Monday and Tuesday.
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