Order Up! Learn About the 100-Year History of Iconic Broadway Restaurant Sardi's

When it comes to planning a trip to Broadway, there's one restaurant that makes the top of many lists:  Sardi's, the 100-year-old institution on West 44th Street. Broadway.com correspondent Perry Sook sat down with owner Max Klimavicius and longtime employees to talk about the resturant's long history with Broadway, its famous caricatures and more. 

When patrons walk in the door, the first face they'll greet is Ivan Lesica, who has been a maitre d' at the restaurant for 29 years. "We are a pre-theater restaurant," he said. "What happens usually is a couple hours before the show, the dining room goes from being empty to literally filling up. Everybody's running around and serving their food. Everyone wants their check at the same time. Then, 10 minutes to a half an hour before the show begins, it empties out again."

Once sitting down at one of Sardi's three available floors, diners won't be able to find a spot of wall not showcasing a caricature of stage and screen stars. The long-time tradition is a sought-after honor for theater actors. "You have to be a star on Broadway, and you have to create a relationship with the restaurant," Lesica said. "There's a symbiotic relationship between Broadway and theater and Sardi's."

Sardi's was first founded by an Italian immigrant couple, Vincent and Eugenia Sardi. "In 1921 they opened a restaurant here on 44th Street down the block and they called it The Little Restaurant," said owner Klimavicius. "In 1927, the brownstone was torn down to build th St. James Theatre. By then, [the Sardi's] had met the Shubert brothers who owned the Shubert Theatre, and they offered them the ground floor for the restaurant. That's how they came to this location in 1927."

Many events and parties took place at Sardi's, and that's how Russian artist Alex Gard was first discovered.  "[Gard] was sitting at an event doing drawings of the people at the table," Klimavicius said. "And that's where the idea of having Alex do the drawings of the famous people that came into the restaurant first came up. Vincent, though he liked the idea, didn't have money to pay Alex, so they struck a deal. Alex would draw the caricatures of the famous people that came into the restaurant in exchange for two meals a day. The deal had a stipulation that Vincent didn't have the right to criticize Alex's art, and Alex didn't have the right to criticize Vincent's meals."

Watch the interview below to learn more about Sardi's. Head here to check your local listings for The Broadway Show. Hosted by Tamsen Fadal, it is the only nationally syndicated weekly theater news program.