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The sizeable foreign press corps camped outside the Jerusalem hospital where Ariel Sharon is clinging to life have been deprived of a congenial spot in which to unwind after hours by the much lamented closure of Fink's Bar & Restaurant.
This pleasantly raffish establishment was part of the fabric of the city for more than seven decades, comfortably pre-dating the birth of the modern Jewish state. Besides thirsty journalists, its cramped premises - six tables and a few stools - attracted visiting film stars (Kirk Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman), cultural icons (Marc Chagall, Gunter Grass, Artur Rubinstein) and political bigwigs.
Early in my own warm relationship with Fink's, I discovered that my father, also a foreign correspondent, had scrawled an approving message on the wall for comments.
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After 70 years, foreign correspondents in Jerusalem will have to find another bar, says philip jacobson |
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To the best of my knowledge, the menu never changed - the food certainly never improved - and if the eccentric decor was ever refurbished, it didn't show. Fink's wasn't cheap, but it served the best whisky sours east of Suez and, in any case, the bill was usually going on expenses.
Fink's owner for many years was Dave Rothschild, a gentlemanly yekke (German Jew) who treated his regulars like royalty. On one memorable occasion, he refused Henry Kissinger's demand for the place to be cleared in order that he could dine in solitary splendour, while VIPs trying to jump the queue for a table got short shrift. When Dave died, his son-in-law, Mouli (left) took over but the rash of bombings in central Jerusalem hit business hard: a few weeks ago, with tears in his eyes, he pulled down the shutters for the last time. 
FIRST POSTED JANUARY 12
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