Alan Canter, owner of Canter’s Deli, a Los Angeles fixture for decades, has died at 82. He passed away Friday from natural causes, according to his family.

“He kept his family legacy alive and built an LA landmark,” his family wrote in a tribute on Facebook. “He worked 18 hour shifts and took pride in hand-cutting each fruit cup. He taught his children how to run this business just as his father taught him. We are deeply saddened by this loss.”

A memorial is scheduled for Monday at 12:30 p.m. at Mount Sinai Memorial Park, in Los Angeles, the restaurant said.

Alan Canter’s father, Ben Canter, along with his brothers, opened the first Canter’s in the 1930s in Boyle Heights, when that neighborhood’s Jewish residents sought the meat-heavy, rye bread sandwiches popular on the East Coast. In 1953, Canter’s moved into its present home, the old Esquire Theater building at 419 N. Fairfax, and became a 24-hour restaurant, one of the first in the city. In 1961, the Kibitz Room opened as a cocktail lounge that has attracted all sorts of scene makers through the years, from Jim Morrison to Courtney Love.

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