Monday, May 16, 2011

NYC Image: Toffenetti Restaurant, 'Famous For Ham & Sweets'

Toffenetti’s, the "Cathedral of All Restaurants," at the corner of Broadway and 43rd, "where glamour sparkles forever," opened in 1940, serving an astounding 8,500 meals in its first day. Established by Austrian immigrant Dario Louis Toffenetti, the restaurant became a staple in Times Square for nearly 30 years.

Born in 1889, Toffenetti came to the U.S. in 1910, selling baked potatoes at a Wisconsin mining camp, before becoming a bus boy at Chicago’s Sherman House. In 1914, he opened his first restaurant there, followed by a second in 1921 and six by 1937.

As advertising, marketing and public relations advanced, the entrepreneur offered elaborate descriptors for his menu items. Ham was “Roast Sugar Cured Ham” with accompanying copy, a la “These hams are cut from healthy young hogs grown in the sunshine on beautifully rolling Wisconsin farms, where corn, barley, milk and acorns are unstintingly fed to them, producing that silken meat so rich in wonderful flavor.”

His potatoes were “bulging beauties, grown in the ashes of extinct volcanoes, scrubbed and washed, then baked in a whirlwind of tempestuous fire until the shell crackles with brittleness.”

Following the New York World's Fair in 1939-1940, he outbid Louis B. Mayer for a premiere spot in Times Square, and designed a a two-story, glass-fronted modern building, with an escalator and open  stainless steel kitchen. There, Toffenetti became famous for his Old Fashioned Louisiana Strawberry Shortcake, "topped with pure, velvety whipped cream like puffs of snow."

To build trust, he featured himself in his ads. When Prohibition ended, he announced he would serve beer, but not "in any fashion that might offend our most fastidious women patrons." Toffenetti died in 1962 and his sons, lacking the charm and drive of their papa, closed the iconic locale in 1968.
Toffenetti’s in New York, The Heart of the Great White Way. The Finest of Food and Liquor at Popular Prices.

15 comments:

  1. My Mom Ruth Mallanda (waitress) and future husband Everett "Buckie" Reuss (waiter) both worked there early 40's. I was born 1945, thanks for memories..I remember the windows full of strawberries,ha.

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  2. I remember there was a piano, my little brother gave a "performance".

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  3. I came across a menu that dates back to 8/31/56 which was signed by the staff of Toffenetti. The woman who had this in her possession died and had kept this as a momento. I was in awe to see the menu and the cost for meals. I was so amazed that I had to show it to everyone.

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  4. My mother was from Florida and had moved to New York city. My father had been in the Merchant Marine at Sheepshead Bay when they met (Manhattan Church of Christ). He got down on his knees and asked her to marry him in Toffineti's at 2am and shipped out for Operation:Torch.
    He passed away in 2014. They were married and had a wonderful life together.

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  5. I remember the place and the windows with cakes and pies on turntables , then as teenagers we would go in sit at the counter and order tea and cake, pie, the best place for kids with a sweettooth

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  6. Growing up in New York my parents who both waited tables there told us about how Mr. Toffenetti would invite all the families for Thanksgiving so the kids could watch the parade from the second story windows. My older sister even remembered it. We also heard of under ways he was a wonderful man and great employer. I'm sorry I never got to see to place.

    I was watching the third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel episode 7 and Midge does a commercial for the restaurant. She pronounced the name as toe fa netty but my parents called it tuff a netty. Not sure which is correct but assume people who lived and worked there would know how it was pronounced.

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    1. My grandfather worked as a sous chef there and pronounced it Tah-fuh-netti

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    2. My grandfather worked as a chef there and pronounced it Tah-fa-netti

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    3. My grandfather worked as a chef there and pronounced it Tah-fa-netti

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  7. I've inherited a bunch of post cards. one of them is on this web page. its the one with his picture on the upper left corner and its got a print of his signature on the back.

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  8. My aunt had this cup and saucer but Im not sure it was from the restaurant.

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  10. I was there as a young teen-ager on a Broadway show trip from Pa. They served a set menu for everyone on our bus. When they brought out the dessert, I asked, "What kind of cake is this." The waiter said "It's not cake." So I said, "So what is it?" He said "It's not cake." I said, "I know, but what is it?" The waiter had a heavy accent and was telling me "It's nut cake."

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  11. My Dad, Ray Martínez, worked there until 1959. Still remember the unique taste of their baked Idaho potatoe and pumpkin pie a la mode.

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