He had an appetite for entrepreneurship

Henry Kristal, co-founder of Embers restaurants, now found in Minnesota and four other states, has died.

The entrepreneur, once a star of a series of playful television commercials promoting Embers, was 75. Kristal died Saturday at his winter home in Scottsdale, Ariz., after suffering complications from surgery.

Embers restaurants, serving the likes of steak and eggs and the Emberger Royal around the clock, often served as neighborhood hangouts in the age of national fast-food chains with many more outlets and much deeper pockets.

Embers always had a diverse clientele. In mornings, the restaurants would be crowded with early risers ordering eggs, pancakes or cinnamon rolls while reading the paper. At night, after the bars closed, patrons often simply ordered coffee. "They went there and sobered up," recalled one of Kristal's sons, Adam.

It started with one Minneapolis restaurant, on Lake Street near Hiawatha Avenue S., in 1956.

Kristal, a native of Joliet, Ill., developed an affinity for preparing food while working in his father's butcher shop in St. Paul.

As a restaurateur, Kristal often experimented with new recipes at home or the family cabin. In a boast impossible to verify, he later would claim to have invented the bacon cheeseburger. The Emberger Royal became a staple of the menu.

"We were the ultimate guinea pigs," said son David, now Embers' chief executive. "We used to experiment by covering just about any kind of food in pancake batter and deep-fat frying. They tasted delicious, but not one made the menu."

Kristal insisted that his children work in Embers restaurants, sometimes late at night or early in the morning, sometimes in the back office or flipping pancakes in the kitchen.

"He taught us to work hard," said son Adam. On slow days, the elder Kristal intentionally would drop paper clips on the office floor.

"We had to pick them up," he said. "That was our job."

Starting in the 1980s, Embers went through a period of spotty performance, and suffered five years of sales decline in the 1990s.

Kristal countered with TV commercials and a move to sell franchises for the first time.

In one commercial, Kristal and son, David, trekked to an ice house to tout the Embers menu and money-back guarantee. In another, the elder Kristal sported a powdered wig and a colonial costume.

Kristal is survived by his wife, Cheryl, Mendota Heights; daughters, Jody Sigal, Chicago, and Marissa Kristal, New York City; sons, Adam, Golden Valley, David, St. Paul, and Danny, Minnetonka; a brother, Herb Kristal, Sacramento, Calif., and nine grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. today at Temple of Aaron Synagogue in St. Paul.

Mike Meyers • 612-673-1746