Recalling the Danziger Dynasty

          Some years ago I wrote that a family of Austrian refugees here were “the Chapel Hilliest” people I knew. It all began when “Papa D” Edward G. Danziger opened his candy kitchen and local cultural oasis here in 1939. There was a sentimental reprise of it all lately at a Chapel Hill Historical Society program that featured recollections of the “Danziger Dynasty.”

         Papa, as devoted to Chapel Hill as anyone who ever lived here, had to flee the Hitler regime in Vienna and found his way to this community with the aid of local Quakers. Few people today recall the great civic and business legacy that he and his family which followed him here have left us.

           Papa’s Old World Restaurant and Gift Shop was for several decades a popular replica of the fabled “Viennese Candy King’s” place in his native land. (The Oasis Restaurant occupies Danziger’s downtown location today.

           A hearty and tireless baker, restaurateur and candy maker, Papa D was always involved in good works. His son, Ted, my closest friend until his death here in 1969 even outdid his father. Ted founded and opened the Rathskeller and three other popular establishments, and was vigorously active in community affairs. In fact, in his final days he was planning a grand new restaurant – one on a scale of the Triangle’s Angus Barn. This was to be on the site of the present Patterson Place strip mall off Durham Boulevard. 

         At the heart of all of this were the inseparable “Ted’n Bibi.” – Ted and Mary Alice (Bibi) Hoover Danziger, his Carolina classmate. Their two sons grew up here with our three sons and have made successful careers for themselves.  In the hectic post-War segregationist era of Chapel Hill the Danzigers were quietly courageous in opening their restaurants to everybody. When a noble endeavor needed a push “Ted’n Bibi” were inevitably behind the scene to help.

          That idea is one of the great things about Chapel Hill. It’s the people who chose to come here – as about 99 pct. of our population has – who have made and continue to enhance this place.