Sardi's

The story

The idea for the Tony Award was devised inside a continental restaurant on West 44th Street. Vincent Sardi Sr. and his wife Jenny Pallera had run a place nearby since 1921 before moving to this location on March 5, 1927. To draw customers, Sardi hired Russian refugee Alex Gard to sketch caricatures of Broadway celebrities in exchange for free food. The walls now hold over a thousand of them. Actors still come before curtain and after, and opening nights land here. The Shubert Organization took ownership in 2026.