One of Manhattans oldest and greatest steakhouse institutions Keens has stood on 36th Street since 1885, and it remains one of Midtowns best restaurants. And if not, well, you were probably missing out. But in New York before the mid-1980's, such a simple, clean preparation of fish was not the manner of most ambitious restaurants. It wasn't until 1970 that .css-gegin5{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#9a0500;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-gegin5:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}McSorley's admitted its first woman customer. Mr. Vongerichten, of course, would go on to do his mentor one better, to draw on his own extensive travels in Asia and to integrate more thoroughly that continent's seasonings and traditions into haute Western kitchens. This is the one with the ancient mahogany bar, the old jukebox, and the taxidermied dog at the bar. The award-winning room, with its vaulted, tiled ceilings is one of the main attractions here, and one of the best seats for slurping more than a dozen kinds of oysters is at the bar. It served as competition to other taco fast-food chains like Taco Bell, with its burritos, nachos, enchiladas, and six sauces. The restaurant still offers a wholesale distribution service and one other store located in Las Vegas, Nevada. 5. Anyone who lived in middle America and grew up in the '80s likely knows the odd name G.D. Ritzy's. This small watering hole was featured prominently in Scorsese's classic Goodfellas, among other film and TV projects, but still remains off the radar for many New Yorkers. We forgive its lack of progressiveness in lieu of the fact that you can still order a pint of the house beer for $5 and enjoy a bare-bones cheese plate for $4, which comes with crackers and the bars infamous mustard (a homemade mix of Colmans hot mustard powder and dark ale). Get the best food tips and diet But by the modern era, the restaurant had slipped from its earlier heights. Long clay pipes line the ceiling, a relic from the days when patrons could join a Pipe Club and keep their own stored at the restaurant. That means a little bit more cheese and a top-notch crust. Lombardis is the first pizzeria in New York City and, supposedly, the country. Could this beautiful red brick building near Battery Park legitimately be the actual oldest restaurant/bar in New York City? "Danny felt he could teach anybody the technical skills," said Paul Bolles-Beaven, who waited tables in the beginning and is now a partner in Union Square. 10. The neighborhood wasn't the only wild card. One of most significant openings of 1985 and one of the hottest restaurants for the next half decade was Arizona 206, which lent cachet to Southwestern cooking, putting it on the map. Come for the meat, but stay for the incredible single malt scotch list, one of the deepest and most comprehensive in the entire city. Although it was a regional chain (it was mostly centralized to California), All-American Burger was made famous with anyone who came of age in the '80s, thanks to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Its opening belonged to an important chapter in the story of fine dining in New York City, and its 20th anniversary is also the anniversary of a period in this city's restaurant business, with 1985 at its center, when a great many assumptions were questioned, corners turned, and careers made. Funk, jazz, rap, painting, literature, sci-fi, race, film, historythe extraordinary writer could explicate and elevate any subject under the sun. By 1991, salsa had surpassed ketchup as the nation's best-selling condiment. 21 Club Katzs has stood on the corner of East Houston and Ludlow streets since 1888, and the pastrami alone is a New York icon. } else { Howard Johnson's. Jordan Smith/Flickr. Like Union Square and Gotham, the restaurant he was describing, Montrachet, is still open. Nowadays its not hard to find a deluxe burger with all the fixings, but step back in time a few decades and youll behard-pressed to score one as delicious as Corner Bistros. ONeals Baloon. var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); Its said to have been a mobster hangout and still attracts plenty of Williamsburg old-timers. Tschirky was also big on ostentatious service, with many dishes being finished table-side, using fire whenever possible. And the wine director -- Union Square has never used the word sommelier -- weaved a mini-narrative, laced with humor, about the producer of a red wine from Tuscany that we ordered. This category has only the following subcategory. This is especially astounding considering the East Village watering hole has been around since 1854 (or so they claim, historical records are unclear). All of these dishes can still be found on the menu at this luxurious, old-school downtown restaurant, an elegant relic of NYC's storied history. In doing so, Lianides influenced countless of todays chefs, beginning with James Beard, who could often be seen at the bar eating a bowl of the restaurants famous sherry-laced black bean soup. But '80s kids rejoice: A revived Naugles has been in Fountain Valley, California, since 2015. 1982 Having introduced nouvelle cuisine at Ma Maison in Los Angeles, Chef Wolfgang Puck presents "California cuisine" to patrons of his new chic-casual Sunset Strip restaurant, Spago. Just tell it like it is and was. P.J. The modern restaurant as we know it was invented in 1831 south of Wall Street at Delmonicos, based on Swiss and French models. Its Art Deco design is still one to be admired, with chocolate-brown leather banquettes, nickel-trimmed glass tabletops, a black granite bar and, 24-karat-gold-leaf-covered ceiling and distinct murals on the walls painted by Bemelmans himself. He employed amateur and professional singers as waiters. Museum of the City of New York. The opulence of Rector's, as shown on a contemporary postcard. Subtracting the cost of a main course that a diner didn't like from the bill, or trying to find diners a table if they walked in without a reservation. Adam Gopnik's new book, 'At the Strangers' Gate,' examines New York's downtown food scene of the 1980s. Gotham was a cradle for Tom Valenti, Bill Telepan and Gary Robins. The company sold most of its locations in the '90s, though, before they all fizzled out. In late-1980s New York, Dorsia is the city's hottest restaurant. Two years later, they added six pine tables and began serving hot meals. The music is a backdrop but not intrusive. They vary in style, cuisine, atmosphere, and clientele, and often vie for bragging rights as the oldest in the city. What made New York New York? food and drink and health, as well as entertainment, beauty, and other lifestyle A violent noreaster wrecked the restaurant in December 1992. 8. There aren't six degrees of separation between the cluster of restaurants that dawned or came of age around 1985 and the most prominent restaurants and culinary figures in New York today. But suddenly fine dining hit town. But the name was re-franchised in 2003, and there are still some Roy Rogers in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He and other restaurateurs, all interviewed by telephone, said they were rebelling against the excesses of the early 1980's, issuing a populist retort to the extravagances and the velvet-rope ethic of the era. It operated almost continuously for 157 years, pausing for the time right before and during the Civil War, and again from 1982-1983 as the landmark building underwent restoration. The aromas of smoked fish, such as sturgeon, salmon, and sable, is undeniable upon entering this appetizing joint on the Upper West Side. Although younger generations may know of Howard Johnson's thanks to Mad Men, '70s kids will remember actually visiting the orange-roofed restaurant chain. The Whitneys exhibition gathers iconic work from near and far to remind us how much the painter loved Gotham. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Here is a collection of some the oldest and the greatest of New York's classic restaurants, all of them decades-old and some dating back more than a century. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th floor; rainbowroom.com, The 21 Most Stunning Wedding Venues in NYC. Coach House, 110 Waverly Place (1949-1993) Owned by Greek immigrant Leon Lianides, this intimate Greenwich Village restaurant took its inspiration not from French cuisine but from sturdy American fare, and thus launched a movement that is still being felt today. Geoduck chawanmushi with uni and soft-crunchy sea beans in pork dashi, langoustine and buttery leeks in uni sauce americaine that tastes like New Orleans, slightly smoked sea trout tartareyou book a reservation at Le Bernardin primarily to get your hands on these. Dine downstairs, and your food might just be delivered to the bar via dumbwaiter from the kitchen upstairs. It's located in the James Brown House near the Hudson River, registered as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Buildings, so it has that credibility working for it. Aspirations for this Off-Off-Broadway show took the cast higher, but the streets were not golden. The Ear Inn claims to be "the oldest working bar in NYC"another salvo in the battle to claim the title of Oldest New York Watering Hole. First founded in Ohio in 1980, the 1950s-style restaurant grew quickly, with about 100 locations at its peak. The critical mass of talent in New York in the mid-1980's pushed ideas forward and encouraged risk-taking because, Jean-Georges Vongerichten said, "Everybody at the time was watching each other and trying to make their mark.". The suspicious behavior that prompted such skepticism? Dining innovations: French chef S.B. Bank Coffee House (Only Nom Wah Tea Parlor, started in 1920 and also on this list, is older.) Beefsteak Charlie's was a Manhattan stalwart from the early 20th century to the late '80s. Located in the new Theater District around Times Square, it catered to actors, musicians, and theatergoers, offering the core of French cuisine that was to be expected, but also turning out effete versions of dishes that represented the incursion of Italian (chicken cacciatore), German (wiener schnitzel), Yankee (oyster stew), Anglo-Indian (lamb curry), Lebanese (pilaf), and even Chinese food (chicken chop suey) into the popular taste. This fine-dining restaurant and event space, located on the 65th floor of 30 Rock, was originally opened back in 1934. The following 96 pages are in this category, out of 96 total. A lady cashier very unusual for that age also attracted customers. navigator.sendBeacon('https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', payload); Johns another classic coal-oven pizzeria founded by a veteran of Lombardis opened in 1929 and today serves a pie that Eater critic Robert Sietsema found to be lusher than its coal-oven peers. 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