Beefsteak Charlie's
"I'll feed you like there's no tomorrow", "You're gonna get spoiled"
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| Industry | Restaurant |
|---|---|
| Founded | ~1914 (original); 1976 (chain) |
| Defunct | 1987 (chain); c. 2009 (last known individual shop) |
| Headquarters | Manhattan, New York |
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Key people
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Charles Chessar (original); Larry Ellman (chain) |
| Parent | Beefsteak Charlies, Inc. (-1985); Lifestyle Restaurants, Inc. (1985-87); Bombay Palace Restaurants (1987-?) |
Beefsteak Charlie's was a well-known Manhattan restaurant in the early 20th century, and later a restaurant chain based in the New York metropolitan area, which grew to over 60 locations in the early 1980s.
Charles W. Chessar was a New York City restaurateur who was nicknamed "Beefsteak Charlie" by Howard Williams, a sports editor for the New York Morning Telegraph. Chessar opened his first restaurant around 1910, and moved to 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in 1914, which he operated until 1934. The restaurant was filled with horse racing photographs and frequented by sports enthusiasts, and the specialty of the house was a steak sandwich. A fire in March 1933 destroyed many of the racing pictures, though some still remain in the family of the subsequent owner, William Soshnick.
After Chessar left, his namesake restaurant was owned and operated by William Soshnick, who migrated to the U.S. along with his family to avoid anti-semitic oppression in Russ-Poland. Soshnick was one of five immigrant brothers that eventually owned and operated small markets, butcher shops as well as the White Rose bars in New York City. William Soshnick sold Beefsteak Charlie's upon his retirement in the late 1960s and moved to Tucson, Arizona. During Soshnick's ownership the restaurant became a popular hangout for jazz musicians in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Beefsteak Charlie's restaurant chain was started in early 1976 by restaurateur Larry Ellman, whose Steak & Brew chain (part of the Longchamps organization) had filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in fall 1975: Steak & Brew, Inc., was renamed Beefsteak Charlies, Inc., many Steak & Brew locations were converted into Beefsteak Charlie's. As the chain first filed for a trademark on the "Beefsteak Charlie's" name in March 1976, and no prior trademark existed, it appears there was no direct connection to the namesake restaurant which inspired the chain.
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Wikipedia