Gallagher's Steak House

The story

Gallagher's was founded by a former Ziegfeld girl and a colorful gambler — an unlikely partnership that quietly made it one of Prohibition's first speakeasy gathering spots for Broadway stars, sports figures, and gamblers. Helen Gallagher and Jack Solomon opened the doors in November 1927 on West 52nd Street, just days before the Alvin Theatre debuted on the same block. When Roosevelt ended Prohibition in 1933, they pivoted without losing the spirit: an informal mix of speakeasy looseness and American country inn, its walls thick with photographs of Broadway, Hollywood, politics, and the racetrack.