Ratner's was a famous

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

(''milkhik'') restaurant on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

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 ...

. Since it did not serve meat in deference to the kosher prohibition against mixing milk and meat products, it was often regarded as a complement to

Katz's Deli Katz's Delicatessen, also known as Katz's of New York City, is a kosher-style delicatessen at 205 East Houston Street, on the southwest corner of Houston and Ludlow Streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

Ownership

Ratner's was founded in 1905 by Jacob Harmatz and his brother-in-law Alex Ratner, who supposedly flipped a coin to decide whose name would be on the sign. Ratner sold his share in the restaurant to Harmatz in 1918, and it remained in the Harmatz family from then on. Jacob's son, Harold Harmatz, took over the business in the mid-1950s, dying a year after the restaurant ceased operation in 2002.

. Many recipes survive in print. According to ''The World-Famous Ratner's Meatless Cookbook'', the winner and undisputed champion at Ratner's was its famous onion rolls, which were featured on every table with every meal. More than fifteen hundred onion rolls were baked daily, three thousand on Sundays.

Locations

The original location was on Pitt Street in Manhattan, but the restaurant moved in 1918 to its better-known location at 138

Delancey Street __NOTOC__ Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of New York City's Lower East Side in Manhattan, running from the street's western terminus at the Bowery to its eastern end at FDR Drive, connecting to the Williamsburg Bridge and Bro ...

, where it remained until its closing. There was also a location at 111 Second Avenue, operated by other members of the family. Until 1975, it was open 24 hours a day and therefore part of the late-night city scene popular with Jewish performers, actors, musicians, and

gangsters A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and r ...

. Entertainers Bill Graham,

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jews, Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-bi ...

Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedienne, illustrated song model, singer, and theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. S ...

Marty Allen Morton David Alpern (March 23, 1922 – February 12, 2018), better known as Marty Allen, was an American comedian, actor, and philanthropist. He worked as a comedy headliner in nightclubs, as a dramatic actor in television roles, and was once ca ...

Eydie Gormé Eydie Gormé ( ; born Edith Gormezano; August 16, 1928 – August 10, 2013) was an American singer who had hits on the pop and Latin pop charts. She sang solo and in the duo Steve and Eydie with her husband, Steve Lawrence, on albums and telev ...

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), ''King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...

, Max Gordon,

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

, and

Alan King Alan King (born Irwin Alan Kniberg; December 26, 1927 – May 9, 2004) was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious ac ...

were all regular customers, while gangsters

Bugsy Siegel Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947) was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish Mob, but along with his childhood frie ...

and

Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...

frequented the Delancey Street location. Before the Delancey Street location closed, a back room opened as a bar called "Lansky's Lounge," named after the deceased gangster, who, according to Robert Harmatz, told the owners he was there so often that he deserved to have his own room. The lounge has since closed as well, though another bar continues to exist in the space. There was also a Ratner's soup cart that operated on only on weekdays and served a selection of meatless soups. The cart was located at the corner of 6th Avenue and 46th Street and operated until sometime in the late 1990s. The Ratner's located at 111 Second Avenue, run by Abraham Harmatz, surpassed the Delancey Street restaurant in popularity for many years, especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the part of the

that is above Houston Street gradually became known as the East Village—a hip and creative Mecca. Sam Jaffee, the longtime night manager of the Second Avenue Ratner's, worked with

Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. ...

impresario Bill Graham to stock the Fillmore's mezzanine food concession with Ratner's baked goods.

Products

A number of products are still manufactured using the Ratner's name by King Kold, which owns the brand, including blintzes, crepes, potato pancakes, veggie pancakes, pierogies, matzo balls, and soups, which are distributed wholesale to supermarkets.

Cookbooks

In 1975, Jacob Harmatz's daughter, Judith Gethers, and her niece, Elizabeth Lefft, published ''The World Famous Ratner's Meatless Cookbook''. Ms. Gethers authored seven cookbooks and assisted other chefs with their publications.

In popular culture

An exterior scene of Ratner's is shown in the movie '' The French Connection'', where Angie and Sal Boca have a sunrise breakfast. Ratner's was also featured at the end of the " Christmas Waltz" episode of ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fict ...

'', first broadcast on May 20, 2013. The exterior of the Second Avenue Ratner's is briefly visible in a 1962 episodes of the '' Naked City'' TV series entitled "The Face of the Enemy" and "A Horse Has a Big Head - Let Him Worry!" The distinctive red letters and font of the Lower East Side location is briefly visible during the race scene in ''

Ready Player One ''Ready Player One'' is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality ga ...

''. Ratner's was also seen in the 2000 movie, '' Boiler Room'' where the main character Seth, (Giovanni Ribisi) has a meal with his family. An exterior shot shows the front of the restaurant. The interior scene that immediately follows shows Ratner's famous onion rolls on the family's table. A scene in ''

Bringing Out the Dead ''Bringing Out the Dead'' is a 1999 American psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the novel of the same name by Joe Connelly. It stars Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving ...

'' was also filmed there. Theodore Peck, the great grandson of Jacob, spilled whiskey on a camera.

References

{{Restaurants in Manhattan Cookbooks Defunct restaurants in New York City Jewish American cuisine Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Milchig restaurants Restaurants established in 1905 1905 establishments in New York City