54 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | JULY 2019
PHOTO COURTESY:NYCGO.COM(BAR),ED ROONEY/ALAMY/INDIAPICTURE(BUILDING)FOUR MORE MAD MEN LOCALES The Dublin House (225 W 79th St)
Keens Steakhouse (72 W 36th St)
La Grenouille (3 E 52nd St)
Grand Central Oyster Bar
(89 E 42nd St).P.J. Clarke’s
Featured in The Hobo Code
(Season 1, Episode 8)
The Sterling Cooper gang head to P.J.’s
for an after-hours shindig, where Peggy
sashays away to Chubby Checker’s “The
Twist” as her colleague Pete Campbell
gives her a spine-chilling stare.
P.J. Clarke’s opened in 1868 and
started serving booze in 1884,
predominantly to Irish immigrant
labourers. Little did the owner know
that his rusty, red brick building would
survive the rapidly changing area of
55th Street and Third Avenue to become
an anchor of old world charm, hiding in
the shade of the steel skyscrapers that
now make up Midtown Manhattan.
The laundry list of A-listers that
regularly frequented P.J.’s over the years
seems almost unfair, but then again,
you must be doing something right if
you have Frank Sinatra waiting around
till last call on Table No. 20, Nat King
Cole call your bacon cheeseburger “The
Cadillac of burgers!” and Buddy Holly
propose to receptionist Maria Elena
Santiago in your bar, who (surprise,
surprise) said yes.
Sardi’s
Featured in The New Girl
(Season 2, Episode 5)
Don drinks with his lady friend, Bobbie,
at Sardi’s, a soirée that ends with a bang
when he crashes his car.
Originally known as The Little Room
in 1921, its name changed to Sardi’s
with a move to 44th street in 1927. The
place is now decked with hundreds of
actors’ caricatures on its walls, packed
to the gills with tourists, and also serves
a mean Shrimp Sardi and Spinach
Cannoli. Dinner at this eatery is on
many an aspiring and successful actors’
bucket list.Barbetta
Featured in The Summer Man
(Season 4, Episode 8)
Don surprisingly turns down
champagne over a dinner date with his
young prospect, Bethany Van Nuys. In
walks Don’s ex-wife Betty with her new
husband and, upon spotting her former
spouse’s companion, makes no secret of
her icy disdain.
This opulent Italian restaurant
on 46th Street claims it is the oldest
restaurant in NYC that is still owned
by the original founding family. To
cover their many other laurels would
take all day. The palatialeatery serves
up Italian cuisine from Piemonte, the
northwestern-most region of Italy. Its
interiors could front as a museum, with
a decor that actually borrows from
regal influences including a Piemontese
chandelier that is believed to once have
belonged to Italian royalty.Minetta Tavern
Featured in At The Codfish Ball
(Season 5, Episode 7)
Peggy, unsure of whether her boyfriend
Abe is about to break up with her or
propose, is asked if she wants to move in
with him, over dinner at Minetta’s.The iconic tin
ceiling of Minetta
Tave r n (lef t) glows,
ancipating the
supper crowd to
arrive at 5.30 p.m.;
Barbetta’s (r i g h t)
glittering sign
beckons its many
celebrity guests.Back in the day, what P.J.’s was to
musicians, Minetta, on Macdougal
Street, was to writers. The current
proprietors of the tavern have definitely
benefited from all the legendary writers
said to have been some of the joint’s
earliest customers. Now it seems
unlikely that Lit majors will be able to
afford a steeply priced meal at the place
that once served affordable cocktails
to the likes of E.E. Cummings, Ezra
Pound and Ernest Hemingway. But the
ambience is worth the price.
Long gone are the days where a
bohemian, homeless celebrity like Joe
Gould (who coincidentally graduated
from Harvard with a degree in
Literature) could hold court in the
saloon accompanied by artists such as
Franz Kline who drew caricatures to
sponsor their lengthy bar tabs. Now it is
a place to bask in the beauty of the days
of yore while sucking on some succulent
Bone Marrow, a house speciality.