Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse, the eatery on the uptown side of 45th Street diagonally across from the Golden Theatre, served its last New York strip Dec. 26. The restaurant, which has fed theatregoers in that brownstone location since 1926, moved to make way for office space for its landlord, Broadway's Shubert Organization.
The restaurant itself will go on in a new location, a block uptown and a half block over at 320 West 46th Street, part of the block known as Restaurant Row. The precise date of the January 2016 reopening has not been set.
Another departure will follow this week. The flagship Toys 'R' Us store at the corner of 45th Street and Broadway opened with fanfare in 2000 owing to the 60-foot indoor Ferris wheel. The wheel will take its final turn 6 PM Dec. 30, according to spokesperson Elizabeth Gaerlan, after which the store will close to make way for a GAP retail outlet.
According to Brad Mendelson, vice chairman of retail services at Cushman & Wakefield, the company has not renewed its lease for the 110,000-square foot space.
The site, located at 1514 Broadway, was occupied by Broadway's Olympia Theatre from 1895-1935, built by Oscar Hammerstein, grandfather of the lyricist of the same name.
Criterion Center Stage Right stood at the corner of 44th and Broadway from 1988-1999. It was leased by Roundabout Theatre Company from 1991-1999 before Toys 'R' Us took over in 2000. Such performances as the 1993 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, starring Liam Neeson and the late Natasha Richardson, and the 1995 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company played in the space.
