CATEGORY: Event TYPE: Obituary NOTE: Andrew F. "Sonny" Hoenig, 81, a member of the ??Greatest Generation, ? died Thursday, Oct. 2, in UMass Memorial Hospital after a brief illness. His wife of 40 years, Gretchen M. (Redlitz) Hoenig, died in 2001. He leaves two sons, Paul A. and his wife Judith A. Hoenig and Thomas R. Hoenig, all of Thompson; two sisters, Anna Steele and Elaine Krommer, both of Webster, MA; two grandsons, Matthew Hoenig and Timothy Hoenig; a close friend, Theresa Arter; nephews and nieces. He was predeceased by his brother, William Hoenig, and by 2 sisters, Philomena Morse and Margaret Ziako. He was born and raised in Webster, MA, a son of Christian and Anna (Zimmerer) Hoenig. He later lived in THOMPSON. He graduated from Bartlett High School in 1944; he excelled in all sports and was the captain of his high school basketball team; he also played varsity baseball. He then graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He served as a ship's cook in the U.S. Navy Seabees during World War II, spending 1944-1946 in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. Mr. Hoenig was head chef for 45 years at the Colonial Restaurant in Webster, MA, retiring in 1990. He was a member of Saint Louis Church in Webster, MA and of the Serra Club of Southern Worcester County. He was a founding member of the Nipmuc Ski Club in Webster, and is fondly remembered for the many summers spent teaching his nieces and nephews to ski at the camp on Webster Lake. Both he and his wife traveled extensively. The funeral will be held Monday, October 6, from the Scanlon Funeral Service, 38 East Main St., Webster, MA, with a Mass at 10:00 AM in St. Louis Church, 14 Lake St., Webster, MA. Burial, with military honors, will be in Calvary Cemetery, Dudley, MA. Calling hours are from 5:00 to 7:00 PM Sunday, October 5, in the funeral home. Donations may be made to the Saint Louis School Endowment Fund, 15 Lake Street, Webster, MA 01570. www.scanlonfs.com
CATEGORY: Event TYPE: News Article DESCRIPTION: Retirement DATE: 1990 NOTE: Copyright New York Times Company Mar 4, 1990
M ore and more people are going to restaurants, eating out. Considering cost, the bother of cooking at home, it makes sense. ANDREW F. HOENIG
W hen we started, we cooked in what is now the coat room. It was originally a part of the kitchen. ANDREW F. HOENIG
WEBSTER - For the first time since August 1946, when Eudore "Ted" Morse hung an "open" sign in front of the Colonial Club Restaurant, Andrew F. Hoenig wasn't in the kitchen Tuesday. It was the veteran chef du cuisine's first day in retirement.
Although Hoenig heard "compliments to the chef" from well-known personalities, entertainers, professional athletes and politicians, including President John F. Kennedy, his objective was always the same: to satisfy everyone.
"We didn't do it every time, all the time, but we did all right," Hoenig said. "They (the restaurant owners) have always bought quality, the very best. You have to go out of your way to spoil it."
STARTED AS A LARK
A lark led to Hoenig's career, he said. Back in 1943, Hoenig and a half-dozen other seniors at Bartlett High School looked for an easy, 2 1/2-credit course without homework. The answer seemed obvious: cooking and baking.
"We were kind of the jocks of our time," said Hoenig. The students got more than they bargained for. They learned how to cook and bake. The school's culinary arts teacher, Laura Smith, saw to that. It wasn't the boil-an-egg kind of thing the fellows imagined, as Hoenig recalled on a recent morning, but "it was a lot of fun."
Cooking and baking credits popped up like a red flag when Hoenig enlisted in the Navy. "It was there on my record. They sent me to Cook and Bakers School. I transfered to the Seabees." He spent the last months of World War II at Seabee bases in Endicott, R.I., and on Guam. "I wound up cooking for officers." Fresh out of the service, Hoenig learned that a new restaurant, the Colonial Club, was about to open.
MANY CHANGES
"It was all apprenticeships in those days," said Hoenig. He worked in the Thompson Road restaurant for two years before enrolling at the Culinary Institute of America. "It was in New Haven in those days, one of the first in the country. That's before they moved it to Hyde Park (in New York). Now it's a big operation."
Hoenig worked weekends in the restaurant while at culinary school. "When I went there, CIA was the forerunner to what they have today. I had a choice. It was that, or a school that Fanny Farmer ran out of Boston."
"The Club," as the restaurant is known hereabouts, was all but rebuilt through the years, Hoenig said. "When we started, we cooked in what is now the coat room. It was originally a part of the kitchen. Some good-sized additions changed the place. The lounge was added first, the skyroom (so-called because it is reached by a couple of steps from the main dining room) was made much bigger and we got a new kitchen."
The restaurant is pretty much a family business, said Hoenig. Eudore "Teddy" Morse, one of the founders, ran the place for decades. His son, Richard E. Morse, moved into the manager's chair a few years ago.
"It's a well-run operation," said Hoenig. "Ted ran a good business. He was a promoter. Dick's doing a good job, too." Managing a restaurant is a difficult job, according to Hoenig.
MORE ARE EATING OUT
"It's a changing business as well. We used to do a lot of parties and banquets. You'd have a wedding most every Saturday, except during Lent. The industries, Cranston, Stevens, Packards and some of the others, ran a lot of parties. The (Webster-Dudley) Business Bureau would have meetings every month. They'd have 150 to 200 people. The trend has changed."
People in this area seldom went out to eat, said Hoenig. "Now, it has turned around. More and more people are going to restaurants, eating out. Considering cost, the bother of cooking at home, it makes sense."
Tastes have also changed, according to Hoenig. "When I first started, seafood was probably 10 percent of the business. Now it is about 60 percent, with a lot of it scallops and scrod." Health reasons have "a bearing on it, but it goes back much further," said Hoenig.
Years ago, when the Roman Catholic Church had a fish-only edict on Fridays, the seafood industry was keyed to this day. "When the church changed its rule, they said it was going to be the end of the fish industry," Hoenig recalled. "The opposite happened. Suddenly, fresh fish was available through the week, instead of mostly on Fridays, and people took advantage of it."
Hoenig ran a training table for U.S. Coast Guard Academy teams at one time. "Their teams would always stop at The Club when they played in Worcester and other places. Otto Graham (athletics director) was there then. We'd feed them about 11 in the morning. There'd be milk, ice cream or anything like that. But, let me tell you, those boys sure could eat."
A lot of "big names" in entertainment and industry filtered through the Colonial when Thompson Speedway held training and competitive races. "Paul Newman, the movie actor, was one of them," said Hoenig. Skitch Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Doc Severinson, all musicians, were Saturday-night diners. "They all raced sports cars," said Hoenig.
Hoenig hasn't any retirement plans. "We've always had to vacation in the winter," he said. "We've been to almost every island in the Caribbean, but now we want to go somewhere else." Hoenig and his wife, Gretchen (Redlitz) Hoenig, have this year's travel itinerary in place. It includes a visit to Germany to attend a Passion Play.
CATEGORY: SSN DESCRIPTION: 019-20-6509
CATEGORY: Burial PLAC: Calvary Cemetery, Dudley, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA
