I briefly reported recently that NYU may push the Met Foods grocery store out of its spot on 2nd Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets. A CB3 meeting will be held on April 15 to give the community a chance to speak out against this act of aggression. (Read The Villager for the full scoop and sign the petition here.)
In my post, I mentioned that Ratner's used to occupy the spot. A commenter wondered if there was, indeed, a Ratner's at 111 2nd Ave and if it was connected to the 97-year-old restaurant on Delancey. I began wondering about it myself and decided to do a little research--discovering a New York family mystery in the process.
Ratner's 2nd Ave was next to the Fillmore East (now a bank) and as such became a nighttime hangout for rock-n-roll legends like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and The Grateful Dead. The "R" is still embedded in Met Foods' floor.
It's hard to find images of this long-lost Ratner's, but if you search for the better-memorialized "Fillmore East" you will see its neon sign shining next door. In this photo, you can see Ratner's awning--and that's Block Drugs on the far left.
photo link
My search led me to street photographer Tony Marciante's amazing flickr page featuring many photos of New York in the 1960s and 70s, including a set from 1969 of a fire across the street from Ratner's. The fire is in a place called Hoagie's and So Forth, which is now the defunct Bamboo House (also check out the pet shop, Fish and Cheep's!).
photo link
The Met Foods/Ratner's site is located in the Saul Birns Building, seen in the photo below as the big, white building with many windows, bookended by Fillmore East and little Moishe's Bakery. Saul Birns, also known as Saul Birnzweig, ran the Atlantic Talking Machine Company where he sold record players, many in the shape of baby grand pianos.
He was indicted in 1915 as a "phonograph swindler" for running a fraudulent mail order scheme that, according to the Times, "promised foreigners an opportunity of hearing their native songs produced on a talking machine, which would be sent them on free trial." But after Mr. Birns got his deposit money, he would pull a switcheroo, sending a cheap phonograph to the foreigners instead of the quality machine he'd promised. The Saul Birns Building is now part of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and, as we have seen, NYU can also be a master of the swindle and the switcheroo.
photo link and click for close up
But back to Ratner's of 2nd Ave and the question of why it's been mostly forgotten and was it connected to the Delancey place.
It was owned by Abraham Harmatz, who died on May 29, 1974, the very day after his landmark dairy restaurant closed. In the Times article it says that "Ratner's had been a Second Avenue fixture for more than 50 years, a gastronomic diadem in the crown of what years ago was called the Jewish Rialto." It also states that "it is not connected" with the one on Delancey, "although they share common ancestors and have been run by different branches of the same family."
The first Ratner's opened on Pitt Street in 1908 under brothers Jacob and Harry Harmatz and brother-in-law Alex Ratner. Ratner left the shop and "The brothers went their separate ways as the business expanded" -- Jacob opened the Delancey Ratner's in 1918 (yes, this year would have been its 100th birthday, had it survived hipsterification) and Harry went to 2nd Ave around the same time. Harry begat Abraham, cousin to Jacob's son Harold who continued to run the Delancey location and who considered reopening the 2nd Ave site after Abraham's death, but this did not come to fruition.
Ratner's Delancey, similar neon typeface
In the extensive 2004 obit for Harold Harmatz, there is no mention of uncle Harry, after whom Harold was clearly named. It says only that father Jacob opened the Delancey place with brother-in-law Alex Ratner. Even in a correction at the end, the Times says they omitted other co-owners, some Zankel brothers, but again where's uncle Harry? This Wikipedia article also omits him.
So there is a mystery within this mystery. What does it mean that Jacob and Harry went their separate ways? Why has Harry and Abraham's 2nd Ave Ratner's been, in some weird way, stricken from history? I have to wonder, did they have a rift much like the Manganaros? If it was a family feud, the Delancey branch definitely won the claim to Ratner's fame.
Other than photographs, the only concrete evidence we have of Harry and Abraham's 2nd Ave restaurant is that R embedded in the floor of Met Foods. If NYU gets their way, even this will be erased.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Ratner's of 2nd Ave
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23 comments:
Excellent job here. I love the Tony Marciante photos. Especially the last one in the fire series with the woman comforting a distraught parrot.
Bravo, Jeremiah. Excellent stuff.
I'm curious about the brothers now too.
Fantastic post Jeremiah. I sent it to a friend whose father worked at Ratners although I'm not sure which location.
- Tim (Stupefaction)
On the next block was Rappoports, also dairy and my grandfather's favorite. A victim of the 60's...sigh.
thanks everybody--i am rather in love with this story, too--if you do know anyone who can shed light on the Harmatz brothers and their story, please do let me know.
This was fascinating! But do you think that in the future, people will write and readers will be fascinated by the stories of Trump et al who managed to destroy NYC? Will the short fingered vulgarians and their starchitectural combovers leave histories to merit any interest by the golden children of the future?
I myself have always thought that the period we're living in now (roughly 1999-to ?) will be of great histoical and sociological interest to future generations. Whether this interest will take the form of fawning admiration (as I'm sure the yunnie and his parents imagine it will) is somewhat more up in the air. ;)
In regards to the photos of Ratner's, isn't it a shame that locating photos of a decades-old neighborhood fixture is so difficult? To me, this really says a lot about the importance of photographic documentation. I'd recommend that everyone who can ought to take photos of the ordinary things they like in this city, especially now that personal cameras are so widespread, as the yunnie's flip-flopped footprint can come down hard on a neighborhood without very much advanced notice.
I wonder if this 1969 fire was the same one which saw a plainsclothes cop take the stage at the Fillmore to clear the place out while the Who were premiering "Tommy" to American audiences. Seeing an interloper onstage, Pete Townshend reacted with his usual sang froid by kicking him in the balls (this was the same year he pounded Abbie Hoffman into the crowd at Woodstock with his guitar), and was arrested. He later pleaded to a lesser charge.
The fact of the matter is that the 2nd Ave Ratner's was not a step child of the "survivor" on Delancey Street. When my father was night manager from the late
50's until closing, the 2nd Avenue Ratner's did much better business than Delancey Street! And my father stocked the Fillmore's mezzanine food concession with Ratner's baked delicacies. (Ratner's free standing bakery was located a few doors north on 2nd Avenue). I became a "gansa macher" in the music industry and Bill Graham always referred to me as "Sam Jaffe's son," as if I never had a first name, no matter how many times we came in contact.
hey "sam jaffe's son," thanks for the insider info! feel free to share more. and what do you think, why the weird omission of harry and abraham in ratner's history?
I'm glad, Jeremiah, that we were both right!
thank you baha--i wouldn't have done that research without your query!
Jeremiah-
I don't know anything about the Harmatz family history other than the two branches of the family which separately owned both Ratner's did not speak to each other- right up to the very end.
Let me refer you to the photo book "Live at The Fillmore East" by Amalie R. Rothschild (c) 1999)Page 133 for a picture of the Fillmore Crew having breakfast at Ratner's 2nd Avenue at 5AM (Date unknown). My father is standing in the center nearest the bus boy. Page 125 also features a great elongated photo of 2nd avenue between 6th & 7th Streets showing The Fillmore, Ratner's, and The Dry Dock Savings Bank.
-Sam Jaffe's Son
Bravo Jeremiah! I am posting Tony's flicker site on my blog and praising you.
I am a huge Janis Joplin fan and I remember seeing some pic of her at Ratners.
My Dad and I would eat at the other Ratner's before it closed. Thanks for the research.
I did not attend the phony NYU public relations meeting because I am sick of the "non action". Could you imagine if they responded to us with the rapidity of tearing down historic New York and supersizing it with hideous NYU mega domination?
NYU is a mega-predator that waits for buildings to empty out so they can buy, lease them and they only thing John Sexton, Amanda Burden and the mayor have not done is provide buses, NYU trolleys and trains to move us out.
I was so glad the turn out for the NYU meeting was huge and outraged...the usual large turn out.
I heard some moving feedback including an elderly handicapped woman who asked where is she going to shop for food?
Well done as usual!!!!!
Suzannah
I wonder if the 2nd Avenue Ratner's was a deli, as opposed to the dairy restaurant on Delancey. Any idea?
Wow this is one of the best posts so far! I love the depth of the research and the conjectures - it's great to follow your mind down this path. And it seems like others are digging it too:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/04/state_senators_theyre_just_lik.html
Thanks also to the more eloquent "Anonymous" for the first person insights and clarifications.
My father proposed to my mother in the Ratner's on Delancey--back in 1952.
So without Ratner's...where would I be? Thank you for writing this!
I could've saved everyone a lot of trouble if I had knocked off John Sexton when he was the debate coach at my high school...
Moishes bakery next door
Moshies bakery used to be called Ratners bakery when I was a kid.
Absolutely phenomenal research. You should write a book. (But don't sell it at Barnes & Noble...gotta keep them in the suburbs!)
I used to live in the EV in the late 60s and to us hippies, who, in those days, never went as far as Delancey, and hardly south of Houston, Ratners on 2nd was THE Ratners.
I never even knew there was a Delancey Ratner's until I passed it in the 70s.
Ratner's on Second was, I believe, a dairy restaurant, as was Rappaport's, and, indeed, there as a Ratner's bakery next door.
Ratners on Second used to stay open quite late, say, midnight, maybe even beyond on weekends.
What is now Moishe's Bakery next door to the 2nd Ave Ratner's was indeed still Ratner's Bakery when I moved to the area in 77. It was Ratner's for 10-15 more years, I think. As Moishe's it has changed little from its Ratners days.
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