- Thanks for staying with us
for this latest episode of "The Broadway Show."
So glad you're here.
(light piano music)
Sardi's, it's been the toast of Broadway for 100 years.
A New York city institution
in the heart of the theater district,
known for the iconic characters on the walls.
Let's send it out to Perry Sook.
- Thanks, Tamsen.
I'm here just steps away from Shubert Alley,
surrounded by countless can't-miss Broadway shows.
But something else that shouldn't be missed
on a trip to New York is a trip to Sardi's.
Let's head inside
to learn more about this historic restaurant.
(light piano music)
Now, the first face you see when you walk into Sardi's
is that of the maitre d', Ivan.
Ivan, how long have you worked here at Sardi's.
- 29 years.
- We're here in a very spacious main dining room.
How much does this fill up on an average night?
- Well, you know, we are a pre-theater restaurant,
so what happens is usually like,
a couple hours before the show,
the dining room be from being empty, it literally fills up.
- Really?
- Yeah, everybody's running around,
everybody's serving their food,
everyone wants to check at the same time-
(Perry laughing)
And then 10 minutes, half an hour before the show,
it empties out again.
- Any special memories, you know, any that stand out to you?
- Patricia Neal, she would walk in
and she would sit at this table
right here. - Wow.
- So she couldn't walk very well, and she would see me
and grab my hand and say, "Hello, darling."
You know, moments like that, like Rue McClanahan.
She used to hang out here all the time, this was her place.
You know, a lot of times, actors,
we try to keep them safe and make them
feel comfortable. - Sure.
- And we don't want the people
to bother them while they're eating.
However, Rue told me, never stop a guest to come and see me
or ask for an autograph or for a picture.
- Oh, wow.
- She always said yes to everybody.
There is other moments,
like when one time Catherine Zeta-Jones walked in
and she asked me to show her caricature of her husband,
Michael Douglas. - Yeah?
- Of course, everybody's dining,
middle of dinner, everybody's talking,
and as we are walking through, you can hear the silence.
- Really?
- And you hear the whispers,
"Oh my god, that's Catherine Zeta-Jones."
(Perry laughing)
And then you have, I don't know, George Clooney once.
- Right.
- Quite the opposite.
He was walking outside, and as he walked through,
people stood up and started clapping like crazy, you know.
So moments like that, yeah.
- Quite the clientele list and the history here at Sardi's.
Do you mind showing me around a bit?
- No, absolutely.
Come on. - Perfect, let's go.
(light piano music)
Now obviously,
we see the famous Sardi's caricatures all around us.
About how many of them are there?
- [Ivan] There's probably about 17 or 1800 of them.
- [Perry] Wow.
- [Ivan] Not all of them on the wall.
Some of them have been stored in a vault.
- [Perry] Wow.
- You know, out of the frame.
But yeah, probably 800 of them at any given time
on the walls between first, second, and fourth floors.
And how you get a caricature on the wall,
you have to be a Broadway actor, a star on Broadway,
and you have to create a relationship with the restaurant.
I think there's like a symbiotic relationship
between Broadway and theater and Sardi's.
(light piano music)
- All right, so where are we now?
- Well, this is the second floor dining room, club room,
filled with caricatures just like downstairs, of course.
And there's one of my favorite, Kermit.
Probably the most popular among adults
and the kids. - Oh, sure.
- Everybody loves Kermit,
And that's why he screwed into the wall.
- [Perry] Screwed into the wall.
- [Ivan] For safety,
yes. - Wow.
That's amazing, of all these.
And there are so many.
It is really remarkable how many there are.
- And they go all around even into the bar.
You wanna take a walk to the bar?
- Yeah, sure.
(light piano music)
- There's Max, the owner.
- (chuckling) Perfect, awesome.
- Well, thank you so much for the tour.
I think I gotta catch up with Max.
- You're welcome, thank you.
- All right, I'm here with Max Klimavicius,
the owner here at Sardi's.
What an institution this is, really.
Really a backbone of the theater scene.
Can you tell me a little bit about the history?
- The history begins back in the early 1900s.
The restaurant was founded by two Italian immigrants,
Vincent and Eugenia Sardi.
They opened a restaurant here on 44th Street down the block,
where the St. James Theatre is today,
and they called it The Little Restaurant.
It was in the bottom of a brownstone in 1921.
In 1927, the brownstone was torn down
to build the theater that is today the St. James.
- St. James, yeah.
- Okay.
So they had to move.
By then, they had met the Shubert brothers
who owned The Shubert Theatre,
and they owned the building here,
and he offered them the ground floor for the restaurant.
And that's how they came to this location in 1927.
They met a Russian immigrant here at the restaurant
who was sitting at an event,
and he was doing the drawings of the people at the table.
And it was at this event that the idea came up
that why Vincent wouldn't use Alex to do the drawings
of the famous people that came into the restaurant.
And Vincent, though he liked the idea,
he didn't have money to pay Alex,
so they struck a deal where Alex would draw the caricatures
of the famous people that came into the restaurant
in exchange for two meals a day.
And the deal had a stipulation
that Vincent didn't have the right to criticize Alex's art.
(Perry laughing)
And Alex didn't have the right to criticize Vincent's meals.
(Perry and Max laughing)
Many of the subjects back then
hated the drawings. - Really?
- Or the caricatures.
- Wow.
- And the way Alex worked
was that he would approach the celebrity,
he would do a rough draft of the person.
- Mm-hmm.
- He would have them sign, and then he would finish them.
But in the finishing, he would add either a crooked nose-
(Perry laughing)
Or a spaghetti hanging from their mouth,
or something that the celebrity wouldn't approve.
So that's why later on,
it became that we approach the celebrity,
and we have more of a handle as to how they would look.
And so that's why it has evolved more into a portrait.
- Now I've heard, you know,
as far as the participant side of the show go, actors,
I've heard a story that when Sardi Sr. passed,
they opened up his desk and there were quite a few IOUs
to actors who had run up quite the tab at Sardi's.
Is that true? (chuckling)
- It is true, it is true.
- Wow.
- You know, we've had house accounts here.
- [Perry] Mm-hmm.
- I mean, probably one of the very few restaurants
in New York that has house accounts.
A lot of these house accounts were for actors.
And if the actors were struggling,
and Vincent would just wait on collecting.
- Wow.
- And yes, when he passed away,
there was a chest full of IOUs that were never redeemed.
But that was the kinda man he was.
And that's why the love between Broadway and Sardi's.
- All right, I'm here at one of my favorite places in Sardi,
up at the upstairs bar,
with one of the longtime bartenders, Jeremy.
Jeremy, how you doing today?
- I'm doing very well.
Thank you, Perry, good to see you.
- Now what would you say
is the most famous drink here at Sardi's?
- The martini is really still.
It's a classic bar.
- Well, Jeremy, my wife is from Russia,
so do you mind making me a vodka martini?
- Absolutely.
- That's phenomenal.
Well, while we got the drink going,
can you tell me a little about the menu here at Sardi's?
- The menu, it's a continental menu.
It's changed over the years.
Was French inspired for a little while.
Couple of traditions, the cannelloni,
which was part of the original menu,
different meats wrapped in a crepe
with a cream sauce and melted cheese on top.
- You're making me hungry over here, Jeremy. (laughing)
- A few salads, a few sandwiches.
Some appetizers and some entrees.
(light piano music)