Alfred Damon Runyon was an American journalist and short-story writer.
Arnold Rothstein, nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. He was also a mentor of future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and numerous others.
Steak 'n Shake Operations, Inc., doing business as Steak 'n Shake, is an American casual restaurant chain concentrated primarily in the Midwestern United States with locations also in the South, Mid-Atlantic, Western United States, Europe, and the Middle East. The company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Biglari Holdings. As of 2018, 628 Steak 'n Shake restaurants were in operation; of those 414 were corporate-owned, and 214 franchised. The company has since attempted to convert to a fully franchised model.
A blue-plate special is a discount-priced meal that usually changes daily: a term used in the United States and Canada by restaurants, especially diners and cafes.
Victor Riesel was an American newspaper journalist and columnist who specialized in news related to labor unions. At the height of his career, his column on labor union issues was syndicated to 356 newspapers in the United States. In an incident which made national headlines for almost a year, a gangster threw sulfuric acid in his face on a public street in New York City on April 5, 1956, causing his permanent blindness.
Gallagher's Steakhouse is a steakhouse restaurant at 228 West 52nd Street in the Theater District in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in November 1927 by Helen Gallagher, a former Ziegfeld girl, and wife of Edward Gallagher (1873–1929), and Jack Solomon, a colorful gambler with a large loyal following from the sporting element. These were the days of Prohibition and Gallagher's was one of the first speakeasy gathering places for gamblers, sports figures, and stars of Broadway. There is now a location in the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Peter Luger Steak House is a steakhouse located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York City, with a second location in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island. It was named to the James Beard Foundation's list of "America's Classics" in 2002 and is the third oldest operating steakhouse in New York City, after Keens and Old Homestead Steakhouse. On January 10 2022, Peter Luger's and Caesar's Palace announced the opening of a third location in Caesar's Palace Las Vegas, in the location formerly occupied by Rao's.
The Carnegie Deli was a small Jewish delicatessen, formerly a chain, based in New York City. Its main branch, opened in 1937 near Carnegie Hall, was located at 854 7th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It closed on December 31, 2016. There is one branch still in operation at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, and the deli still operates a wholesale distribution service.
Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant, known popularly as Jack Dempsey's, was a restaurant located in the Brill Building on Broadway between 49th Street and 50th Streets in Manhattan, New York City.
Lüchow's was a restaurant at 110 East 14th Street at Irving Place in East Village in Manhattan, New York City, with the property running clear through the block to 13th Street. It was established in 1882 – at a time when the surrounding neighborhood was primarily residential – when a German immigrant, August Lüchow, purchased the cafe where he worked as a bartender and waiter. Lüchow's remained in operation at this place for a full century, becoming a favorite establishment for people in the entertainment world, helped by its proximity to the Academy of Music, the city's opera house, as well as Steinway Hall and Tammany Hall, where other entertainment was offered.
Eli's Cheesecake is a cheesecake company based in Chicago. Eli's Original Plain Cheesecake, which has been called "Chicago's most famous dessert", is made of cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a butter shortbread cookie crust. Since the introduction of Eli's Original Plain Cheesecake, the company now offers cheesecakes with various ingredients such as chocolate, fruit, or caramel, as well as other desserts like tarts, cakes, and tiramisu.
Childs Restaurants was one of the first national dining chains in the United States and Canada, having peaked in the 1920s and 1930s with about 125 locations in dozens of markets, serving over 50,000,000 meals a year, with over $37 million in assets at the time. Childs was a pioneer in a number of areas, including design, service, sanitation, and labor relations. It was a contemporary of food service companies such as Horn & Hardart, and a predecessor of companies such as McDonald's.
Beefsteak Charlie's was a well-known Manhattan restaurant in the early 20th century, and later a restaurant chain based in the New York metropolitan area, which grew to over 60 locations in the early 1980s.
Longchamps was a chain of several upscale restaurants centered in Manhattan that consisted of twenty or more locations at its peak, including the Showboat Restaurant located in the Empire State Building. The chain's first location was opened in 1919. Longchamps restaurants were known for their natty art deco furnishings and decorations by Winold Reiss, and a number of designs for elements of their physical surroundings were drawn up by New York architect Ely Jacques Kahn, originator of a colorful version of art deco architecture.
The Cattleman was a steakhouse in New York City founded in 1959 by restaurateur Larry Ellman. During its heyday, The Cattleman attracted media attention as an early example of a theme restaurant, and it became the inspirational basis for the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes.
1552 Broadway, also known as the I. Miller Building, is a commercial structure on Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Located at the northeast corner of Broadway and 46th Street, the building was designed by Louis H. Friedland, with sculptures by Alexander Stirling Calder. The current building, designed for shoe retailer I. Miller, dates to 1926 and was combined from two 19th-century brownstone residences on the site. It contains decorative elements from several styles.
Dallas BBQ(sometimes locally referred as "BBQ's"), is a restaurant dining chain in New York City, founded in 1978 by the Wetanson family. The restaurant serves Texas-style barbecue ribs, chicken and steaks. As of 2023 the chain had ten restaurants around the New York metropolitan area.
The Riese Organization is a privately-held investment company based in New York City that is heavily invested in real estate and in franchised fast food and casual dining restaurants in Manhattan.
Tad's Steaks was a chain of low-cost restaurants. The first location, opened in 1955, was at 120 Powell Street in San Francisco. The chain eventualy grew to a peak of 28 restaurants. In 2019, the last location in New York closed, leaving just the original San Francisco location which has since relocated to 44 Ellis Street, around the corner from the original location. The chain was founded by Donald Townsend and his brother Neal, who reportedly named it after Alan Tadeus Kay, his friend and business partner.
