{"id":104001,"date":"2023-05-09T17:05:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T15:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=104001"},"modified":"2023-05-01T06:56:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T04:56:43","slug":"09-09-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=104001","title":{"rendered":"Sammy\u2019s Roumanian, iconic Lower East Side Jewish restaurant, mounts a comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Sammy\u2019s Roumanian, iconic Lower East Side Jewish restaurant, mounts a comeback<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Lisa Keys <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse owners David, left, and Stan Zimmerman, outside their restaurant at 157 Chrystie St. in 2005. (Julian Voloj)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The iconic Sammy\u2019s Roumanian Steakhouse \u2014 the Lower East Side eatery famous for chopped liver prepared tableside, carafes of schmaltz on the tables and its shticky, in-house entertainer, Dani Luv \u2014 is mounting a comeback.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Eater New York, the Ashkenazi-influenced restaurant \u2014 which shuttered in January 2021 during the pandemic  \u2014 has a lease \u201cin the works\u201d at 191 Orchard St.<\/a>, between Houston and Stanton streets. The restaurant is \u201cpursuing a liquor license application\u201d with Community Board 3, according to the online publication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liquor \u2014 specifically vodka \u2014 was an essential part of the Sammy\u2019s experience; it was not for nothing that it was known as a place \u201cwhere every night was a bar mitzvah<\/a>.\u201d As New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells<\/a> wrote in his 2014 review: \u201cKnown for selling vodka bottles encased in ice, Sammy\u2019s is New York\u2019s original bottle-service restaurant, and still the only tolerable one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Notably, in that same review, Wells dropped two of the three stars awarded by one of his predecessors, pioneering restaurant critic Mimi Sheraton<\/a>, who wrote of owner Stan Zimmerman in 1978: \u201cMr. Zimmerman has made Sammy\u2019s a huge success, lively, Bohemian, with a mixture of customers that include judges and politicians, union officials and artists in blue jeans, uptowners dressed to the teeth in Gucci trademarks and a double\u2010parked row of white Lincolns and black Cadillacs that can be seen almost any night of the week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2014, Wells described it thusly: \u201cSammy\u2019s is still loudly, raucously, endlessly, embracingly Jewish, a permanent underground bar mitzvah where Gentiles can act like Jews and Jews can act like themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Located in a \u201cdark and dingy<\/a>\u201d basement at 157 Chrystie Street, Sammy\u2019s had been in business for 47 years \u2014 most recently run by Zimmerman\u2019s son, David, until its abrupt closure. \u201cAll the years of devouring chopped liver with our special schmaltz, schmeared on rye bread with a side of pickles and a shot (or glass) of frozen vodka to wash it down will be remembered fondly,\u201d the restaurant said in an Instagram post announcing its closure \u2014 where it also vowed to return one day. \u201cWe may be closed now, but when all this is over and we feel safe enough to hold hands during the hora, we will be back stronger, louder, and tastier than ever before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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