South of Union Square logo
South of Union Square
Place
1472 Broadway

Posts & Stories(1)

1480 Broadway image

1480 Broadway
Post

"The Busiest Restaurant on the World's Busiest Corner." Toffenetti's was opened in 1940, by Italian immigrant Dario Toffenetti. Restaurant mogul had first encountered success in the Midwest, where he opened six restaurants on the Chicago Loop. He opened a seventh temporary location at the 1939 New York World's Fair before establishing a brick and mortar restaurant in Midtown. He purchased a valuable lot in Times Square and commissioned building designed by Walker & Gillette clad in sleek glass, with an escalator, stainless steel kitchen, lavish washrooms, phone booths with air conditioning, and walls covered in surrealist murals by Hugh Troy. Patrons would never guess that Toffenetti found his humble beginning selling baked potatoes in Wisconsin. His 1,000 seat restaurant describes their menu item not as mere potatoes, but "Idaho Potatoes," "bulging beauties, grown in the ashes of extinct volcanoes, scrubbed and washed, then baked in a whirlwind of tempestuous fire until the shell crackles with brittleness." His canny marketing was all the range at the time, and other snippets from his menu included: "Sugar Cured Ham - These hams are cut from healthy young hogs grown in the sunshine on beautifully rolling Wisconsin farms where corn, barley, milk, and acorns are unstintingly fed to them, producing that silken meat so rich in wonderful flavor," and "Spaghetti - one hundred yards of happiness." On the back of the menu, an illustration of Toffenetti - bald head and all, with the motto: "Your satisfaction is our constant inspiration." Toffenetti's served the world's busiest corner 24-hours a day until 1968. The building was demolished in the 1990s to make way for 4 Times Square.

Photos(8)

143 West 42nd Street image

143 West 42nd Street

Townhouse and businesses on W. 42nd Street, New York City, 1910.
153 West 42nd Street image

153 West 42nd Street

Postal Telegraph sign at 153 W. 42nd Street, New York City, November 1, 1916. Photographed for Lawrence L. Strauss.
1476 Broadway image

1476 Broadway

Broadway and 42 St., N.E. cor.
Schrafft's, 141 West 42nd Street image

Schrafft's, 141 West 42nd Street

Frank Shattuck and Company (Schraffts), 141 West 42nd Street. View at night.
1480 Broadway image

1480 Broadway

162 East 83rd Street. Duplex apartment, living room.
142 West 43rd Street image

142 West 43rd Street

142 West 43rd Street. Restaurant building formerly Schrafft's, taken for Paramount Caterers.
1480 Broadway image

1480 Broadway

View of Times Square from 1501 Broadway
1476 Broadway image

1476 Broadway

Schrafft's Walnut Room, 141 West 42nd Street, Near Times Square, New York Primary subject: Interior View of Schraffts Restaurant
Privacy PolicyTerms of Service