Tom's Restaurant (Manhattan, New York) P001

Tom's Restaurant is a diner 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 neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is on the ground floor of Columbia University'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 ...

. 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 family of Minas Zoulis, who retained the original name. Tom's Restaurant was the locale that inspired Suzanne Vega's 1987 song "

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 St ...

." 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," i ...

in the 1989–1998 television sitcom '' Seinfeld'', where comedian Jerry Seinfeld'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. 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 John McCain 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'' episode "Long Live the King" at around the 27 minute mark of the DVD release.

References

External links

Tom's Restaurant Official Homepage

Video shows Suzanne Vega talking about the Tom's Restaurant

Google 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

See also

References

External links