Reading, Pa — Michael Leifer is the third-generation owner of Jimmie Kramer’s The Peanut Bar Restaurant. “This is my grandfather, Isadore, but he went by Jimmie, Jimmie Kramer,” says Leifer. “My grandfather was very much the good-time guy.” Leifer says Kramer opened the bar as a speakeasy in 1924 in nearby Wernersville, PA. “It was right in the middle of Prohibition and for the first nine years of our existence we moved around quite a bit,” he says.
The bar moved to its current location in Reading, PA in 1933, with Michael’s father, Harold Leifer, taking over in the 1950s. “I’ve been actually working full time in the business since 1978,” says Leifer. “We’re very family focused.” He says the restaurant is a place that people find as “a home away from home.” “People start coming here as strangers and they become friends, and later family,” says Leifer. “The people are what make us what we are.”
True to its name, peanuts are plentiful, with bowls on every table. “The peanuts on the floor here started in 1935,” he says. “And we’ve been doing it ever since.” He says it was his grandfather’s idea to “let people relax and throw those shells right on the floor.”
Food was first introduced by Leifer’s grandmother, Annie,. “My grandmother was really the backbone of the business,” he says.
“The thing I enjoy most about our business is interacting with our guests, making memories all the time,” he says. “And that’s what keeps me going.”
He says as the business moves into its 101st year, there’s “immense pride” for what his family and staff have done over so many years.
