{"id":366225,"date":"2026-03-30T18:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/366225\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T18:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:02:12","slug":"why-is-sardis-in-nycs-theater-district-closing-and-when-will-it-reopen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/366225\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Sardi’s in NYC’s Theater District Closing and When Will it Reopen?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few people know that Sardi\u2019s, the Theater District restaurant known for its walls plastered with over 1,000 celebrity caricatures, was actually where the Tony Awards were first conceived. In the decades that ensued, the eatery has become a Broadway institution\u2014serving as a gathering place for actors, producers, theater insiders and pre-show dining\u2014by many considered to be the industry’s unofficial clubhouse of sorts.<\/p>\n

\"Sardi's
\nPhotograph: Leonard J. DeFrancisci <\/p>\n

After 99 years in business, though, Sardi\u2019s is getting ready for its next chapter. As first reported by the New York Times<\/a>, the restaurant will close for renovations on June 24, just as current owner Max Klimavicius\u2014who once worked there as a kitchen expediter\u2014steps down after 33 years at the helm. Klimavicius recently sold the business to the Shubert Organization, the theater company that is also his landlord.<\/p>\n

First things first: although Sardi\u2019s will undergo a revamp, Klimavicius has been assured that the space will not be redesigned and, most importantly, those famous caricatures and burgundy banquettes will stay put. The restaurant’s name will also remain the same.<\/p>\n

\"Sardi's
\nPhotograph: Luigi Novi <\/p>\n

No official timeline has yet been revealed, but the New York Times notes that a “freshened-up Sardi’s should be ready to reopen” by the time the new musical Galileo will start previews at the Shubert\u00a0Theatre across the street on November 10.<\/p>\n

Although this is not a permanent closure\u2014and it doesn\u2019t sting quite as much given that a theater organization deeply aware of the restaurant\u2019s legacy, and its importance to the industry, is taking the helm\u2014the news still tugs at the heartstrings of New Yorkers\u00a0who are to a constantly dealing with a shifting city.\u00a0The\u00a0announcement also\u00a0follows a string of recent losses, including the shuttering of Elmo<\/a>, one of the city\u2019s longest-standing gay restaurants, and Barbetta, among its oldest Italian institutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the very least, there\u2019s some solace in the fact that places like Sardi\u2019s have been immortalized in film and television\u2014from The Muppets Take Manhattan to Smash and, most recently,\u00a0Blue Moon (though the restaurant was recreated as a replica in Ireland)\u2014ensuring their legacy lives on, even as the city around them continues to evolve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few people know that Sardi\u2019s, the Theater District restaurant known for its walls plastered with over 1,000 celebrity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[38789,146,85,46,92180,189],"class_list":["post-366225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-categories-restaurants","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news-eating","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}