Sardi's

We are getting to the center of the Theatre District, which might be obvious from all the marquees that you see on this block. There are seven Broadway houses on 44th St, two of which are east of Broadway…The Lyceum and the Hudson. And on this side of Broadway we have The Shubert, The Broadhurst, The Majestic, The St James, The Helen Hayes and The Minskoff. Remember the Helen Hayes, as we’ll be talking about that theatre later. Now, in the middle of it all is Sardi's Restaurant. At one point, Sardi's was synonymous with Broadway. It opened in 1927. After the stock market crash of 1929, the owners, in an effort to bring in customers, decided they needed a gimmick. They made a deal with Alex Gard, a Russian immigrant artist. If he would supply caricatures of the Broadway stars, he could get one free meal a day. During the Depression that was actually a really good deal. The caricatures were wildly successful and it became a point of pride to have your caricature on Sardi’s walls. It became a hangout for the Broadway community, pre- and post- show. It also became the location for opening night parties as you waited for the newspaper reviews to come in, especially from the New York Times. A good review from the New York Times was like a blessing from the pope. But a bad review from the Times was often the death knell for a show. The early edition of the Times came out at around midnight. Since the Times Building was right down the block, someone would be staked out to get the first newspapers off the presses and race them back to Sardi's. The party was over pretty fast if the Times review was not good. Sardi's is where the Tony nominations are announced each May. (The Tony Awards are Broadway’s version of the Oscars) and the restaurant has a special discounted menu for actors available in their upstairs dining room on matinee days. Sardi’s received Landmark Status in 1973 and has won two honorary Tony awards, one in 1946 and one in 2004 for excellence in the theatre.