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Lily and Hy Gnee dancing at Ratner's closing party
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Ratner's, the Lower East Side kosher restaurant that has served everyone from politicians to movie stars to gangsters, celebrated its 100th anniversary on Tuesday evening. Even though the establishment officially closed two years ago, the owners hosted one last hurrah before the famous Ratner's neon sign is removed and the space is transformed.
As a band played klezmer music, guests sampled a buffet featuring classic items --cheese blintzes, potato latkes, and split pea soup -- and Ratner's regulars reminisced about the glory days in one of New York's oldest family-run restaurants.
Hy Gnee had been a Ratner's customer since the 1930s, when he was living in the East Village. "It was a typical, old-time Jewish restaurant," he said. As a teenager, he used to come with a group of friends about once a month. When he married Lily, his wife of 58 years who he met at a downtown social club, they kept up the monthly tradition. "The food was always so good," Lily said.
"Ratner's was such a fixture of the Lower East Side," said Laurie Tobias Cohen, executive director of the Lower East Side Conservancy. "On a Sunday, we would come here from the suburbs and bargain for clothes in the area, then go to Ratner's. This was a pilgrimage, something critical you did to reaffirm your roots."
Since the restaurant didn't serve meat, which usually draws a dinner crowd, Ratner's was the "brunch scene" of its time. Serving up to 1,200 people every Sunday during its heyday, customers would line up behind velvet ropes, waiting to taste the hot onion rolls, Ratner's specialty, served by the no-nonsense waiters. Evie Gorenstein and her family came from the Bronx every Sunday for more than two decades. Last Tuesday, Gorenstein and her husband drove in from New Jersey to have one last look at the place that holds so much meaning for them. "I can see my parents in front of me," she said as her eyes began to well up with tears. "Ratner's was my youth." For Gorenstein, Ratner's is a piece of her life story -- true for many other longtime customers as well.
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| Evie Gorenstein and Robert Harmatz reminisce about growing up in Ratner's |
"And the food was terrific," Gorenstein says. "Hot gefilte fish, perogies, vegetarian chopped liver, and the onion rolls were the best!" Since her father knew the owner, they cut ahead of the growing line outside Ratner's as VIP guests. Inside, their waiter, Jimmy, a veteran of the establishment, took the family to their table in the back room. At the closing party, Gorenstein reminisced about the lively Ratner's scene with Robert Harmatz, who used to stand outside with his father greeting guests as they arrived.
Harmatz, who grew up in his family's restaurant, remembers being awed by politicians like Robert Kennedy and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller who would pop in for some quality noshing and schmoozing. Ratner's was a place where public officials would stop in before Election Day for a good-luck blintz. Mobsters like Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky held court in the back room, and entertainment celebrities of their time could also be found there: Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Marty Allen, Edie Gormé, Walter Matthau, Elia Kazan, Max Gordon, Groucho Marx, and Allan King, to name a few. Ratner's was also the "official office" for music impresario Bill Graham, who would bring everyone from Jimi Hendrix to the Grateful Dead to Janis Joplin to his table after shows.
The final closing was "an emotional experience" for Harmatz. The restaurant has been in his family for three generations. And the Ratner's story is more than simply the story of his family -- it captures the history of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants in the Lower East Side.
In 1905, Robert's grandfather, Jacob Harmatz, founded the restaurant on Pitt Street with a brother-in-law, Alex Ratner, and started serving kosher meals to the area's large Jewish population. To decide whose name would appear on the sign outside, they flipped a coin. In 1918, Alex sold his share and moved to California. That same year, Harmatz moved the restaurant to 138 Delancey Street, its current location.
Harmatz's son, Harold took over the business in the mid-1950s, expanding production by selling menu items like blintzes, latkes, and soups to supermarkets and, until 1975, keeping the store open 24 hours a day. Harold, who passed away this year, continued working at Ratner's until it closed in 2002.
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| The famous Ratner's neon sign will be taken down |
As the Lower East Side's population of Jewish immigrants dwindled, the restaurant's popularity faded. Hoping to attract a new generation of customers, Harold allowed his sons, Robert and Fred, to open Lansky Lounge seven years ago in the back of the restaurant. The hipster bar takes its name from the mobster who frequented the restaurant so often that he told the owners he thought he deserved a dedicated room, Robert said. When the restaurant closed, the lounge took over the entire space. Now, it will return to its original back room spot.
In coming months, Ratner's, which was comprised of three buildings totaling 10,000 sq. ft., will be renovated, except for the area occupied by Lansky Lounge. The main restaurant area is expected to be leased out, and the kitchen space will be turned into apartments, Robert Harmatz said. However, the legacy of Ratner's will live on with its line of frozen kosher food, sold in supermarkets nationwide.
And, of course, the good memories will never fade.
Related Links:
The Cuisines of Lower Manhattan
Neighborhood Spotlight: Lower East Side
Opening Doors and Minds at the Tenement Museum
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