Whether one thinks of New York institutions that have survived since the 1800’s or famed restaurants that are as much a “must-experience” as the food they serve, Delmonico’s is near the top of the list. Delmonico’s has been closed since the start of the covid pandemic, but the grandson of the restaurant’s owner appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to declare a comeback in the foreseeable future, as well as plug his book about the legendary eatery, The Delmonico Way.
“My grandfather took it over in 1926, as a speakeasy,” Max Tucci told Berman and Riedel. “By 1933, it came back, and then we fast-forward, wars and September 11th, and this thing shut down and reopened and shut down and reopened. So, what I know for sure is (that) this breath of culinary history will be coming back shortly, I think this fall.”
Tucci’s book has recipes for some of the classic dishes and cocktails made famous by Delmonico’s chefs, but Tucci also recounted the charm of growing up in the restaurant. “My fondest memories [are when] my sister and I were in charge of the coat room, and celebrities and socialites like Ivana Trump would come in, in her full-length chinchilla coat during the winter. My mother put us in charge of hanging up the coats, and my sister and I turned that coat room into our fort… and my mother was furious because we’d be laying on them.”
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