Broccoli (as American dish)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Broccoli.  George Bush the Elder hates it.  It's behind the NEW YORKER's
famous phrase "I say it's spinach and the hell with it!"  (See ADS-L
archives.)
   I'm searching NEW YORK TIMES restaurateur necrology, and this one should
be noted.  He lived on the block next to me.
   From the NEW YORK TIMES, 7 March 1942, pg. 17:

_JOSEPH PANI DEAD;_
   _RESTAURATEUR, 59_
--------------------------------------
_Operated Castles-by-the-Sea_
   _for Famed Dance Team and_
   _Ran Other Noted Places_
-------------------------------------
_GAVE VALENTINO START_
-------------------------------------
_Actor, Then Bus Boy, Got Job_
   _as Dance at %50 a Week--_
   _Introduced Broccoli_

   Joseph Pani, restaurateur, whose dining establishments were not only a
forerunner of the present-day night club but whose delectable dishes were
known to the city's gourmets, died on Wednesday in his apartment, 112 East
Fifty-sixth Street, after a month's illness.  He was 59 years old.
   Familiarly known to the devotees of "good eating" as Joe Pani, he was
credited with introducing broccoli in this country, which at that time sold
for $1 a pound.  Three years ago in an interview he jocularly remarked: "Now
broccoli sells for 2 cents a pound."
(...)

(A Google search for "broccoli" and "Joseph" or "Joe Pani" turns up zero
hits.  Another Popik rediscovery?--ed.)