By Dinnertime, Community Takes Center Stage at Joe Allen
The beloved Broadway safe space serves diners without much flair. However, what Joe Allen lacks in pizzazz, it makes up for with captivating ensemble effort.
Before curtains go down after a rainy Saturday matinee, Joe Allen Restaurant is calm. Though some guests are already mid-meal, the 60-year-old restaurant hums with routine. A bartender hoists himself up on the bar, swivels around, and hops off behind the dinged-up wooden counter. He puts some money in the cash register, which looks like it hasn’t been replaced in half a century, and hops back out the way he came. Taped on the cash register is a sketch of two of the bartenders as cartoon skeletons with hearts floating around them.
By the entrance, the manager, the host, and a waiter reenact a scene from the 1950 film “All About Eve.” Coincidentally, the film inspired the 1970 Tony Award-winning musical “Applause,” in which Joe Allen is a heavily featured set piece.
“The theater’s for everybody–you included,” the host quotes, pointing his mimed cigarette at a diner seated near the entrance. “But not exclusively,” he flicks the cigarette, to which the diner chuckles along.
From ushers to crew members to breakout stars, New York’s theater scene is defined by its community. As union strikes advocating for the fair treatment of entertainment workers on Broadway and beyond gain traction post-pandemic, solidarity and inclusivity are more important than ever.
However, around Times Square, where jumbotrons and marquee names are king, community spirit can get lost in commercial overload. In the restaurant scene, institutions like Hard Rock Cafe attract diners with their touristy appeal while places like Ellen’s Stardust Diner lure Broadway diehards in with singing waiters who’ve accused the restaurant of exploitation on several occasions.
With the sea of gimmicky restaurant choices that many New Yorkers are known to balk at, it may be hard to find a place to sit down for a pre- or post-show meal that mirrors Broadway’s ideals of inclusivity.
Enter Joe Allen.
Situated between 8th and 9th Avenue on 46th Street, the establishment was opened by its eponymous restaurateur in 1965. It built its reputation by being a haven for Broadway’s chorus dancers to rest their legs and grab a cheap bite after performances. And while its original 75-cent burger now costs 22 dollars, Joe Allen has tried to stay true to its claim to fame: its community spirit.
Inclusivity permeates the restaurant, where even failures are welcome. Posters of Broadway shows like “Doctor Zhivago,” which ran for 23 performances, and “Home Sweet Homer,” which closed the same night it opened, hang neatly along the exposed brick wall opposite the bar. The “flop wall” is infamous in New York theater lore, even inspiring a tribute concert next month at 54 Below, a prominent Broadway cabaret space. The wall is a reminder of the industry’s ghosts and shows that even a brief Broadway stint is worth celebrating. “Sometimes guests specifically ask to sit under the poster of a show they’ve worked on,” says manager Brian Shaffer. “It’s an interesting source of pride.”
Just after 5 p.m., guests start shuffling in. Curiously, they’re not greeted by a host stand. Perhaps that’s what makes the welcomes so warm–there’s no barrier to entry. Some guests are greeted with a “Réservation?” asked by the host in a faux-French accent, and some are greeted with a sing-songy “Welcome baaaack” if they’re one of the restaurant’s many regulars, who then proceed to make themselves right at home. “Brian, you always look so dapper,” an older guest says to Shaffer after hugging the host, her Bronx accent thick. “Save some style for the rest of us.”
Within 15 minutes, the place is packed. Unbothered by the sudden boom in numbers, waiters start gliding past each other with plates of burgers and the restaurant’s signature sautéed calf liver.
Thinly sliced and coated lightly with gravy, the liver is served with an unassuming side of mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. For four extra dollars, bacon and onions can be added to complete the dish. The perfect bite, some say, is this: a generous chunk of earthy, sweet, liver topped with some decadent bacon and wrapped in a tangy onion ring. Wash it all down with the mellower spinach and potatoes and what follows is a particular umami heaven.
On Joe Allen’s small menu (which differs daily), no dish is designed to wow, yet nothing disappoints. Each item has this in common: ingredients are mostly left alone, allowing their natural flavors to shine.
Leaving things alone seems to be the restaurant’s theme. Even as Broadway stars and Hollywood celebrities walk in, there’s no hubbub–a sign of the restaurant’s and its patrons’ respect for the industry. Among the stars dining tonight are Alex Vinh of the Tony Award-winning musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” and Oscar nominee June Squibb, both of whom ordered the liver.
By 5:30, the post-matinee crowd begins to mix with the pre-evening show crowd. Cocktail shakers rumble, and soon enough, what was once a lonely bar has only one free seat remaining. That’s when Merle Rubine walks in.
Rubine, a producer for Dateline NBC back in the 90s, has been a Joe Allen regular for almost 40 years. It’s now her ritual to come to the restaurant for a meal every time before she goes to see a Broadway show. “Can you do some magic and get me another stool?” Rubine asks the bartender. No sooner does she finish her question than the manager appears behind her with another seat.
Rubine insists on sitting at the bar because it’s ideal for people-watching. To her, sitting in the main dining room isn’t an option. “It’s like Siberia out there,” she explains. “It’s why Joe [Allen] used to sit at the corner of the bar. Nothing bad ever happens here.”
The corner in question is a cranny filled with the restaurant’s memories. On the wall hangs a sketch of Bugs Bunny as a Joe Allen waiter, drawn by the late Chuck Jones back when the tablecloths were still large sheets of paper. Above it is a drawing of Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” drawn by Disney illustrator Philo Barnhart dedicated to his waiter, Erin. The two sketches are joined by a sepia-toned photo of Joe’s Labrador Retriever, Alice, sitting in one of the restaurant’s signature brick arches.
One photo stands out from the rest: a staff portrait, taken directly outside the restaurant. Every person in the picture is grinning from ear to ear, Joe at the center of it all. “His staff was devoted to him,” Rubine says of the restaurant’s founder, who passed away in 2021. “I didn’t know him. I never spoke to him. But that was always crystal clear.”
Chris Persichetti, a bartender who’s worked at Joe Allen on and off for 12 years, agreed. That’s why he keeps returning to work at the restaurant in between acting jobs. He explains that the restaurant is good about keeping staff members on the schedule even if they have to leave periodically to fulfill acting contracts.
“I can leave for up to 6 weeks at a time without quote-on-quote losing my job,” he says. “But even if I go for more than that, I know I can just call and there’ll be a place for me here.”
Most of Joe Allen’s staff are performers, so Persichetti says it’s nice that they’re never punished for having a bigger passion than waiting tables, especially when acting jobs are up in the air. With SAG-AFTRA (the screen actors union) strikes in 2023 putting a hold on camera acting and an upcoming strike from Actor’s Equity (the stage actors union) pausing workshops of developmental theater, which a lot of lesser-known actors rely on for jobs, the staff says the dedication of the restaurant to their livelihoods is invaluable.
Before the pandemic, Joe Allen’s employees regularly produced and performed in tribute concerts to show their loyalty and love for the restaurant’s community. When told about the upcoming “flop wall” cabaret produced by Charles Kirsch, host of the famous theater podcast “Backstage Babble,” Persichetti wasn’t pleased. “We didn’t even know about it,” he says. “Way to include the actors who work here.”
The upcoming concert will feature the stars from the “flops’” original casts and creative teams. Performers like Tony nominees Beth Fowler (of “Orange is the New Black”-fame) and Amanda Green (lyricist for “Mr. Saturday Night” led by Billy Crystal) are set to appear.
“To do a Joe Allen tribute show without the people?” Persichetti laughs. “Good for Charles, I guess.”
By 7:15, the diners are almost all but gone. Though the excitement of the restaurant has died down, dispersed towards the several shows raising their curtains just a block away, the generosity of the community lingers.
Sitting at the end of the bar is a couple celebrating their engagement. The manager comes up to the bar and whispers to Persichetti to gift them two glasses of Prosecco. “I see it happen all the time,” Persichetti says. “The people here are magic, and the magic’s contagious.”
