Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen was a
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
and
Jewish deli in
Manhattan,
New York City founded by Arnold Reuben.
History
Arnold Reuben was a Jewish-German immigrant who founded Reuben's Restaurant in 1908 at 802
Park Avenue. In 1916 the restaurant moved to
Broadway on 73rd Street before moving again two years later to 622 Madison Avenue. Thirty years after it first opened its doors, Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen finally had a formal opening at 6 East 58th Street with the mayor at the time,
Fiorello La Guardia, in attendance. Reuben's remained in that location until the restaurant was sold in the mid-1960s, when it moved to 38th Street and Madison Avenue. It operated at 244 Madison Avenue until 2001 when the restaurant was forced to close due to health code infractions.
Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen played a small part in the 1919
Black Sox scandal when the
Chicago White Sox conspired to "throw" the
World Series in the most widely condemned instance of illegal high stakes gambling in sports history. Abe "The Little Champ" Attell's initial attempt to sell the idea to
Arnold Rothstein, the most powerful sports gambler at the time, took place in a private room inside Reuben's.
Reuben would name sandwiches after celebrities, including
Dean Martin
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...
and
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
, a gimmick used by many restaurants at the time. In 1938, Reuben was interviewed about his restaurant by the
Federal Writers' Project
The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It ...
. Arnold Reuben's son, Arnold Reuben Jr., worked in the restaurant with his father until the mid-1960s when Reuben sold the restaurant to Harry L. Gilman.
wrote about the restaurant's appearance on January 11, 1986, in ''
The New York Times''. She said: "Italian marble, gold-leaf ceiling, lots of walnut paneling and dark red leather seats — to a small-town girl, it was the quintessential New York restaurant."
See also
*
List of delicatessens
This is a list of notable delicatessens. A delicatessen is a retail establishment that sells a selection of unusual or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany during the 1700s. They later spread to the United States in the m ...
*
References
Further reading
Reuben and his Restaurant, Library of Congress
External links
The Reuben Sandwich
{{Midtown South, Manhattan
1908 establishments in New York City
2001 disestablishments in New York (state)
Defunct restaurants in New York City
German-Jewish culture in New York City
Jewish delicatessens in the United States
Jews and Judaism in Manhattan
Restaurants established in 1908
Restaurants disestablished in 2001
Defunct Jewish delicatessens