![Tom's Restaurant (Manhattan, New York) P001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Tom%27s_Restaurant_%28Manhattan%2C_New_York%29_P001.jpg)
Tom's Restaurant is a
diner
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...
located at 2880
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
(on the corner of West
112th Street) in the
Morningside Heights
Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
It is on the ground floor of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
's Armstrong Hall, home to the
Goddard Institute for Space Studies
The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute.
The institute is located at Columbia University in Ne ...
. Frequented by Columbia students and faculty, it was founded by Tom Glikas in the 1940s and after a sale at some undetermined point has been owned and operated by the
Greek-American
Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest es ...
family of Minas Zoulis, who retained the original name.
Tom's Restaurant was the locale that inspired
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...
's 1987
song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
"
Tom's Diner
"Tom's Diner" is a song written in 1982 by American singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega. It was first released as a track on the January 1984 issue of '' Fast Folk Musical Magazine''. Originally featured on her second studio album, '' Solitude S ...
."
Later, its exterior was used as a stand-in for the fictional
Monk's Café
Monk's Café is a fictional coffee shop from the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld''.
The exterior of Tom's Restaurant on the corner of West 112th Street and Broadway, near Columbia University, which first appears in season 1 episode 3, "The Robbery," is ...
in the 1989–1998
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
'', where
comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing
Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a Jerry Seinfeld (character), semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which he ...
's
eponymous character and his friends regularly convened to dine.
The interior shown on the television show, however, looked very little like the real "Tom's", as indoor scenes were filmed on a set in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Early ''Seinfeld'' episodes showed the entire neon sign; later, the "Tom's" portion was cropped out, showing only the "RESTAURANT" wraparound. Even though the interior and exterior have undergone minor remodeling since the show, the distinctive sign has remained the same. Tom's is featured in "Kramer's Reality Tour" conducted by
Kenny Kramer
Kenny Kramer (born May 1943) is an American former stand-up comedian, who was the inspiration for the character of Cosmo Kramer from the television sitcom ''Seinfeld''.
Early life
Kramer grew up in New York City, in the Tremont section of the ...
.
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
often ate at Tom's when he visited his daughter
Meghan when she was a student at Columbia. Likewise,
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
frequented the restaurant as a student at Columbia.
Prior to ''Seinfeld'', Tom's exterior had been seen on television in the 1978 ''
The Bionic Woman
''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel ''Cyborg'' by Martin Caidin, starring Lindsay Wagner that aired from January 14, 1976, to May 13, 1978. ' ...
'' episode "Long Live the King" at around the 27 minute mark of the DVD release.
See also
*
List of restaurants in New York City
This is a list of notable restaurants in New York City. A restaurant is a business which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money, either paid before the meal, after the meal, or with an open account. New York City is ...
References
External links
Tom's Restaurant Official HomepageVideo shows Suzanne Vega talking about the Tom's RestaurantGoogle Street View: 112th Street and Broadway
{{Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Coffeehouses and cafés in the United States
Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Restaurants in Manhattan
Columbia University campus