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.
And, of course, below, the taxis of today, though Bloomberg's approved "green" cabs of the future, which look like hunchback bugs, will soon make NYC even more of a laughing stock than he's already accomplished (i.e.: "Don't you dare smoke out of doors. It's dangerous!").
Sadly, this is one vintage image we are reliving again. Despite news reports that have termed the economic collapse of 2007 as a "recession," statisticians recognize that is pure bunk. Indeed, we are now enduring the Second Great Depression. 
buildings of that height in Manhattan. The best known skyscrapers are the Singer Building, the Metropolitan Building and the Woolworth Tower, which towers above them all and rises to a height of 790 feet. The proposed Pan American Building is to be 801 feet high."
American photographer Walker Evans, best known for his iconic images documenting the Great Depression, surreptitiously shot portraits of passengers in the New York subway between 1938 and 1941, riding with a camera concealed under his coat, fitted with a shutter release running inside his sleeve. In 1959, Evans assembled 16 of the images into "Subway Portrait," which in 1966, were exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Toffenetti’s, the "Cathedral of All Restaurants," at the corner of Broadway and 43rd, 
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.
Wisconsin farms, where corn, barley, milk and acorns are unstintingly fed to them, producing that silken meat so rich in wonderful flavor.”
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."
I've had the best possible reason to return to the southern tip of Manhattan in the last couple days, following previous posts covering Trinity Church and Bowling Green: It's work, cool cats! I'm delivering written content for a soon-to-launch webbie that not only has great potential, but focuses on one of the great loves of my life: New York City. Nothing more to say for now... so let's return to the Trinity memorial park. Last post was on the south side of the historic church; now we shift to the north.
A glorious 1941 interior shot showing hustle and bustle at 1:35 p.m. in the original Penn Station at West 33rd Street and Broadway, from The Herald Tribune. Note the soldiers in uniform, women in festive traveling hats and men in suits and hats.
In 1877, wealthy merchant A.T. Stewart commissioned the handsome Stewart's Hotel for Working Women at Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue) between 32nd and 33rd Streets, to provide safe housing for the influx of single working women into New York City. That certainly didn't last long: It was opened in April 1878, closed in May and reopened in June as the Park Avenue Hotel.
How about that boffo bedroom?!
