page_title: Sardi's
section_title: Height of popularity
hierarchical_section_title: Sardi's / Height of popularity
caption_attribution_description: English: The neon sign above Sardi's restaurant on West 44th Street in Manhattan.
context_page_description: Sardi's is a continental restaurant located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. Sardi's opened at its current location on March 5, 1927. It is known for the caricatures of Broadway celebrities on its walls, of which there are over a thousand.
  Sardi's was founded by Vincent Sardi Sr. and his wife Jenny Pallera, who had previously operated a restaurant nearby between 1921 and 1926. To attract customers, Sardi Sr. hired Russian refugee Alex Gard to draw caricatures in exchange for free food. Even after Gard's death, Sardi's continued to commission caricatures. Following the death of Vincent Sardi Sr. in 1969, Sardi's started to decline in the 1980s, eventually being sold off in 1986. After closing temporarily in 1990, it reopened with new staff.
  The restaurant is today considered an institution in Broadway theatre. Over the years, the restaurant became known as a pre- and post-theater hangout, as well as a location for opening night parties, and was where the idea of the Tony Award was devised.
context_section_description: Frequent mentions of the restaurant in newspaper columns by Walter Winchell and Ward Morehouse added to Sardi's growing popularity. Winchell and Morehouse belonged to a group of newspapermen, press agents, and drama critics who met for lunch regularly at Sardi's and referred to themselves as the Cheese Club.  Heywood Broun, Mark Hellinger, press agent Irving Hoffman, actor George Jessel, and Ring Lardner  were also Cheese Club members. In fact, it was Hoffman who first brought Alex Gard to Sardi's for lunch at the Cheese Club table. Gard drew caricatures of the Cheese Club members, and Vincent Sardi hung them above their table. It was then that Sardi recalled the drawings at Zelli's and made his deal with Gard.
  The restaurant became known as a pre- and post-theater hangout, as well as a location for opening night parties. Vincent Sardi, a theater lover, kept the restaurant open much later than others in the area to accommodate Broadway performers' schedules. Sardi's grossed about $1 million in annual revenue by the late 1950s. Vincent Sardi died in 1969, aged 83, and control of Sardi's passed to his son Vincent Jr. Under Vincent Jr.'s leadership, food reviewers started to criticize the eatery as being "sooty". Mimi Sheraton, a New York Times food writer, said in 1981 that "food, service and housekeeping at Sardi's leave almost everything to be desired".
  The Sardi family owned the restaurant for six decades, until 1984, when Sardi's was sold to Show Biz Restaurant Inc. At the time, George Lang Corporation was planning a renovation of the restaurant in the near future. However, in June 1985, Vincent Sardi Jr. indicated that the deal had not been approved and that he still owned the restaurant; according to industry experts, he was asking for at least $7 million from a potential buyer. Vincent Jr. sold Sardi's to Ivan Bloch, who headed Sardi's Inc., in September 1986. After Bloch failed to make payments and defaulted in April 1989, his debt was restructured. Ownership was transferred to Broadway Holdings Inc., which acquired Sardi's Inc. When the owners defaulted again in June 1989, Sardi's filed for bankruptcy, and in June 1990, temporarily closed. The restaurant reopened in November 1990 with new staff. Following the reopening, reviews of Sardi's tended to be more positive.
  While the Sardi family was Italian, their restaurant's cuisine is not; rather it tends toward "English food", a Continental menu. In 1957, Vincent Sardi Jr. collaborated with Helen Bryson to compile a cookbook of Sardi's recipes. Curtain Up at Sardi's contains nearly 300 recipes ranging from a grilled cheese sandwich to a Champagne cocktail. By 1987, however, Zagat was describing the food as "a culinary laughing stock." One customer who was surveyed called Sardi's "the longest running gag on Broadway."
caption: Sardi's neon sign
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