Latin Quarter

The story

The room where Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Mae West all performed began its life as the Palais Royale in 1900, then housed the Cotton Club after it left Harlem. Concert promoter Lou Walters — father of Barbara Walters — bought the space and reopened it in 1942 as the Latin Quarter, giving it a French New Orleans theme and filling the stage with big-name acts, chorus girls, and a closing can-can. Decades later it shifted toward hip hop, reggaeton, and salsa, one room holding nearly a century of what New York wanted to hear.