Sardi's, New York 1960s

The comedy and tragedy masks on this 1960s Sardi's menu cover represent the restaurant's deep connection to New York’s theatre scene, highlighting its role as an historic hangout for actors, producers, and theater-goers. 

So closely entwined is Sardi’s with Broadway that it was name-checked in the Rodgers and Hart song ‘The Lady is a Tramp.’  

In the musical The Producers,’ Mel Brooks has a would-be showman dream of ‘lunch at Sardi’s every day.’

Vincent Sardi and his wife Jenny opened their first restaurant on West 44th street in 1921. When that building was being demolished to make way for the St James Theatre, the couple moved their business to a new building down the block in 1927.

Famously, they hired Russian refugee Alex Gard to draw caricatures of Broadway celebrities in exchange for one free meal every day.  Vincent’s son Vincent Jnr continued the tradition, using other artists after Gard died, and the restaurant’s walls became a Who’s Who of Broadway with about 700 famous patrons displayed at any one time.

Over the years Sardi’s has hosted too many Tony and Oscar winners to count in its red leather banquettes, and the restaurant is where the Tony Awards was conceived.

Several outposts of Sardi’s were attempted. In 1932. Eddie Brandstatter opened a Los Angeles location on Hollywood Boulevard and caricatures of stars such as Shirley Temple, Clark Gable. Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart adorned the walls. It was destroyed by fire in 1936.

Like all restaurants, Sardi’s fortunes have fluctuated over the years but, more than a hundred years on, this venerable restaurant remains a cornerstone of New York’s theatre district. It is now owned by businessman Max Klimavicius.