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Jonah Kaufman likes to say that he’s got ketchup flowing through his veins.
But it wasn’t always like that.
Born in The Bronx, Kaufman studied accounting at City College. He landed an internship at an accounting firm in Manhattan, and was hired upon graduation.
Then he became a CPA, and he absolutely “hated the profession.”
“I didn’t like sitting at a desk in a small office with a pencil and a pad all day, every day,” Kaufman said.
Looking for a change of scenery at 24 years old, Kaufman interviewed for a position with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first interview with the FBI went well.
There was no second interview, because in the meantime, his father-in-law, Irv Klein, offered him a job.
“I heard you’re unhappy,” Klein told him. “Come work for me” at McDonald’s.
And so he did.
That was in 1977.
For Kaufman, now 71, it’s been “a heavenly run” ever since.
“It’s 48 years later and I’ve put in a lot of hours, but I don’t think I worked a day in my life,” he said.
Kaufman just opened Long Island’s newest McDonald’s last year, this time in Blue Point.
Between Kaufman and his son, Josh, they operate 20 locations across Nassau and Suffolk counties, which now includes two in Brooklyn.
This is one McFamily’s story.
Blue Point
Long Island is today home to over 100 McDonald’s franchise locations, with openings happening fewer and further in between since the big buildup of the 1970s.
The last location locally, Kaufman believes, opened in Bay Shore in 2012, and is operated by his son, Josh.
Kaufman wasn’t banking on opening another location. He just happened to get a phone call from McDonald’s corporate, based in Chicago.
Corporate wanted to build a new restaurant on Montauk Highway, where a Burger King had recently closed.
“They said, if we open a restaurant there, would you like to be a franchise?” he explained.
The answer was, emphatically, yes.
So is that common, to get asked?
“That’s the only way it works,” Kaufman said. Before the company does anything, McDonald’s Corp. lines up an operator, typically an operator that it knows and trusts. (And the Klein-Kaufman family has been at it for 65 years.)
Once the agreement is inked, the process begins. About two years later, the brand-new Blue Point location opened at 32 Montauk Highway on Saturday, Nov. 2.
McDonald’s built the building, then handed Kaufman the keys. It’s the latest version of a McDonald’s, and the same model you’ll see for future locations and upcoming renovations of existing ones.
But it won’t last.
Kaufman explained that McDonald’s dining rooms now need to be updated and modernized every 10 years.
“Every restaurant is in various stages of that period,” he said.
Last year, for instance, he had to update two of his locations’ dining rooms.
“So 10 years from now [in Blue Point], we’ll sit, we’ll talk and we’ll be under construction for a brand-new dining room,” he said. “Again, that’s McDonald’s corporation always upping the ante, always upping the standards of the brand.”
Of course, Kaufman was on hand at the opening.
Oddly enough, he said that every time he’s a little nervous no one will come.
“A very nice, red-haired woman, her name was Janet, she was the first to arrive,” he said. “Right after her, a lot of families came. That’s when I knew this particular location would draw a lot of families. A lot of school kids coming in. And a lot of people like to ride their bikes there; we’re going to need another bike rack.”
Three McGenerations
Irv Klein’s McDonald’s location on Jericho Turnpike in East Northport, which Kaufman now operates, was among the first couple-hundred to open in the U.S.
It was also just five years after what’s considered the company’s founding, the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc in Des Plaines, Ill., in 1955.
To be precise, the East Northport location was Store No. 242.
To put that in perspective, McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, today counts over 40,000 locations in more than 100 countries
“It was 242 in the world when my family became an operator,” Kaufman said. “It’s a long history and we’re among the original McDonald’s families and I wear that with a badge of honor.
“And I’m proud of that.”
Come 1977, when Kaufman got involved as director of operations, Klein was operating three locations. Kaufman helped grow that number to 17 before his father-in-law retired in 1996 and Kaufman took over the company. (He later handed six to his son.)
During that time, there were a lot of changes.
In 1960, there were just a few McDonald’s restaurants on Long Island, maybe three, “the lines would just stretch down the block. Today, you wouldn’t want that. That means your service is no good,” Kaufman said.
The 1970s saw indoor dining introduced, then the drive-thru arrived.
What never changed, was Kroc’s commitment to the McDonald’s business philosophy: QSC.
“McDonald’s has a reputation for QSC, that’s quality, service and cleanliness,” Kaufman explained. “That is the standard we were all taught back in the 70s by the founder, Ray Kroc. That has never gone away, that feeling of striving for excellence was passed down from Ray Kroc.”
Kaufman, who’s currently grooming his son-in-law, Terryl Dozier, to take over his side of the family business one day upon Kaufman’s retirement, said that QSC is what’s always put McDonald’s ahead of its competition.
But the family-run component plays a big part as well, he said.
“To be successful, you really need to be hands on,” Kaufman. “The myth that McDonald’s is owned by one corporation, belies the facts.
“But you could not do this successfully, I believe, if it was a corporate brand, all corporate ownership. With the families, we’re here all the time. You have a staff that represents your philosophies, your ethics, your morals, your standards of operation.
“So I think the fact that they’re individually owned is a big part of McDonald’s’ success.”
And if you’re not doing a good job, then McDonald’s doesn’t renew your 20-year lease.
“If you’re not a good operator, you don’t get renewed,” Kaufman said. “That’s one of your incentives, to always be renewed, and it’s worth doing.”
Going on 65 years, he and his family are on their third round of renewals.
“It’s about being part of a legacy,” he said.
The love
You can’t fake passion.
Not on a daily basis. Certainly not in an interview.
So trust us, Jonah Kaufman absolutely loves everything about McDonald’s.
That’s how it was from the start, when Klein invited him in. Kaufman thought he’d be managing the books. He was put on the fry station.
From there, he learned every in and out of the kitchen, from the back of the house, to the front of the house.
“My father-in-law just wanted someone to run the stores and I think I was fresh meat,” he said with a laugh. “But to run a restaurant it takes a lot of energy. I didn’t know anything about the industry, but from Day 1, I loved it. I loved the people. I loved being part of a team. I loved leading a team. I loved the camaraderie. I loved being able to motivate people.”
“And I know we started to bring a certain spirit into our small, little company,” he added. “It was a magical time.”
The family garnered its share of awards out of Chicago, too, the biggest being the Golden Arch Award of 1986.
“Back then it was the people who ran the best two operations,” he said. “That was a milestone. I still have that award; it’s in my office.”
He also loves the food, to be sure.
Kaufman’s go-to order after all these years remains the same: a regular burger, small fry and a Diet Coke.
“I’ve always liked just a regular burger,” he said. “That’s the classic, pure McDonald’s taste.
“Many times you’ll also see me walking out with an ice cream cone; that’s my dessert.”
Ray Kroc meeting
Today, according to Kaufman, McDonald’s “probably” sells more chicken than beef.
Online reports corroborate this.
Kaufman couldn’t say the percentages, as he didn’t know, but the shift from burgers to chicken over the combined decades reminded him of something Kroc said in the 1970s, in response to a question about what changes the next 20 years might bring to the company.
“I don’t know what we’re going to be selling, but whatever it is we’ll be selling more than anybody else,” Kaufman said, quoting Kroc.
The two had actually met, when Kroc was in his 80s, and in a motorized wheelchair, “zipping around, creating havoc,” Kaufman recalled.
He introduced himself to Kroc, and mentioned his father-in-law’s name on a whim.
Kroc’s response: “Oh, from Huntington?”
“That to me was amazing.”
— with Mike White
Top: Jonah Kaufman stands in front of his new location in Blue Point, N.Y.
Inset: Ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Blue Point McDonald’s, featuring Kaufman’s son-in-law Terryl Dozier, his daughter Emily, and their child, Cooper. (courtesy)
