Tom's Restaurant | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Street address | 2880 Broadway Morningside Heights, Manhattan |
City | New York City |
State | New York |
Coordinates | 40°48′20″N73°57′56″W / 40.80556°N 73.96556°W |
Tom's Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway (on the corner of West 112th Street) in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. [1] It is on the ground floor of Columbia University's Armstrong Hall, home to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Frequented by Columbia students and faculty, it was founded by Tom Glikas in the 1940s and after a sale at some undetermined point has been owned and operated by the Greek-American family of Minas Zoulis, who retained the original name. [2]
Senator John McCain often ate at Tom's when he visited his daughter Meghan when she was a student at Columbia. [3] Likewise, Barack Obama frequented the restaurant as a student at Columbia. [4]
Tom's Restaurant was the locale that inspired Suzanne Vega's 1987 song "Tom's Diner." [2]
Later, its exterior was used as a stand-in for the fictional Monk's Café in the 1989–1998 television sitcom Seinfeld , where comedian Jerry Seinfeld's eponymous character and his friends regularly convened to dine. [1] [2] The interior shown on the television show, however, looked very little like the real Tom's, as indoor scenes were filmed on a set in Los Angeles. [2] Early Seinfeld episodes showed the entire neon sign; later, the "Tom's" portion was cropped out, or dimmed, showing only the "RESTAURANT" wraparound. Even though the interior and exterior have undergone minor remodeling since the show, the distinctive sign has remained the same. Tom's is featured in "Kramer's Reality Tour" conducted by Kenny Kramer.[ citation needed ] Tom’s can also be spotted in the background of Adam Sandler’s 2000 movie, Little Nicky .
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American singer-songwriter of folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s she released four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the UK, "Marlene on the Wall", "Left of Center", "Luka" and "No Cheap Thrill".
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of 180 episodes. Its ensemble cast stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and focuses on his personal life with three of his friends: best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes, and neighbor from across the hall, Cosmo Kramer.
Lawrence Gene David is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the NBC television sitcom Seinfeld, of which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons. He gained further recognition for creating and writing the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which he also stars as a fictionalized version of himself. David's work on Seinfeld won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in 1993, for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Comedy Series; he was nominated 17 other times.
Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside Heights borders Central Harlem and Morningside Park to the east, Manhattanville to the north, the Manhattan Valley section of the Upper West Side to the south, and Riverside Park to the west. Broadway is the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, running north–south.
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West Side is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen to the south, Columbus Circle to the southeast, and Morningside Heights to the north.
Morningside Park is a 30-acre (12-hectare) public park in Upper Manhattan, New York City, United States. The park is bounded by 110th Street to the south, 123rd Street to the north, Morningside Avenue to the east, and Morningside Drive to the west. A cliff made of Manhattan schist runs through the park and separates Morningside Heights, above the cliff to the west, from Harlem. The park includes other rock outcroppings; a human-made ornamental pond and waterfall; three sculptures; several athletic fields; playgrounds; and an arboretum. Morningside Park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, although the group Friends of Morningside Park helps maintain it.
The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in New York City. It was named after Robert H. Goddard, American engineer, professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket.
"Tom's Diner" is a song by American singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega. Written on November 18, 1981, it was first released as a track on the January 1984 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine. Originally featured on her second studio album, Solitude Standing (1987), it was released as a single in Europe only in 1987 following the success of her single "Luka". It was later used as the basis for a remix by the British group DNA in 1990, which reached No. 1 in Austria, Germany, Greece and Switzerland.
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Monk's Café is a fictional coffee shop from the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. The exterior of Tom's Restaurant on the corner of West 112th Street and Broadway, near Columbia University, which first appears in season 1 episode 3, "The Robbery," is often shown on the show as the exterior of Monk's, though the interiors were shot on a sound stage. The restaurant consists of a number of booths, tables, and a counter. Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer normally sit in the first or second booth from the entrance.
Norms Restaurants is a regional chain of diner-style restaurants in Southern California, plus one in Las Vegas, NV. Founded in 1949 by used-car salesman Norm Roybark, some restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As of September 2024, the company operates 23 locations in Greater Los Angeles, as well as a newly opened one in Las Vegas.
Alfred Lerner Hall is the student center or students' union of Columbia University. It is named for Al Lerner, who financed part of its construction. Situated on the university's historic Morningside Heights campus in New York City, the building, designed by deconstructivist architect Bernard Tschumi, then dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, opened in 1999, replacing the previous student center, Ferris Booth Hall, which stood from 1960 to 1996. The cafeteria in Lerner Hall still bears the name of Ferris Booth, and unlike the other large cafeteria on campus in John Jay, Ferris Booth utilizes only plastic silverware and paper plates. The building attempts to both conform to its context of neoclassical McKim, Mead, and White buildings as well as break out of their mold. In so doing, Lerner Hall features redbrick cladding and proportions that hold the street wall of university buildings along Broadway, but reveals a vast glass wall to the campus fabricated by Eiffel Constructions Metalliques, descendant of the firm that built the Eiffel Tower. Behind the wall are a series of escalating ramps that give the building a unified sense of space and are meant to act as a social meeting place much like the steps of Low Memorial Library.
116th Street runs from Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River, to the East River, through the New York City borough of Manhattan. It traverses the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Spanish Harlem; the street is interrupted between Morningside Heights and Harlem by Morningside Park.
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Hogan Hall is a dormitory of Columbia University primarily reserved for fourth-year undergraduate students. The dorm is popular for its suite configurations as well as its central location. Built in 1898 as a nursing home, the building was converted to graduate student housing in 1977. It was named after Frank S. Hogan. It was converted into an undergraduate residence in 1994, then renovated in 2000 with the completion of a new entrance connecting it to Broadway Hall, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Located at the corner of 114th Street and Broadway in the Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, the building is named for former New York District Attorney Frank Hogan.
Broadway Residence Hall is a postmodern dormitory at Columbia University in New York City. The building is commonly referred to by students as "Broadway". The building is nominally located at the corner of Broadway and 113th Street, though it shares its main entrance, which opens onto 114th Street, with Hogan Hall. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, it opened in 2000. Originally supposed to blend with the redbrick McKim, Mead & White buildings of the Columbia campus, Broadway Hall's design was changed to placate neighbors who wished to see it blend with local apartment buildings. In addition to housing students, its lower levels are home to a hardware store and a branch of the New York Public Library system.
The Church of Corpus Christi is a Catholic parish church in the Archdiocese of New York, located on West 121st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The parish was established in 1906. In 2022, the parish merged with the nearby Church of Notre Dame.
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