Ratner's

Ratner's
Location within Manhattan
Restaurant information
Established	1905
Closed	2004
Food type	Jewish kosher dairy (milkhik) restaurant
Street address	138 Delancey Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan
City	New York City
State	New York
Coordinates	40°43′6.56″N 73°59′12.77″W / 40.7184889°N 73.9868806°W / 40.7184889; -73.9868806Coordinates: 40°43′6.56″N 73°59′12.77″W / 40.7184889°N 73.9868806°W / 40.7184889; -73.9868806

Ratner's was a famous Jewish kosher dairy (milkhik) restaurant on the Lower East Side of New York City. Since it did not serve meat in deference to the kosher rule about not mixing milk and meat products, it was often regarded as a complement to Katz's Deli.

Ratner's was founded in 1905 by Jacob Harmatz and his brother-in-law Alex Ratner, who supposedly flipped a coin to decide whose name would be on the sign. Ratner sold his share in the restaurant to Harmatz in 1918, and it remained in the Harmatz family from then on. Jacob's son, Harold Harmatz, took over the business in the mid-1950s, dying a year after the restaurant ceased operation in 2002.

Brunch was the main meal at the dairy restaurant, and up to 1,200 people were served daily at the peak of its popularity. Noted menu items included cheese blintzes, potato pancakes (latkes), hot onion rolls, and split-pea soup. Other key items were gefilte fish, poached salmon-in-aspic, kasha varnishkes, and vegetable borsht. and many recipes survive in print. According to "The World-Famous Ratner's Meatless Cookbook", the winner and undisputed champion at Ratner's was its famous onion roll which were featured on every table with every meal. More than fifteen hundred onion rolls were baked daily, three thousand on Sundays.

The original location was on Pitt Street in Manhattan, but the restaurant moved in 1918 to its better-known location at 138 Delancey Street, where it remained until its closing. There was also a location at 111 Second Avenue, operated by other members of the family. Until 1975, it was open 24 hours a day and therefore part of the late-night city scene popular with Jewish performers, actors, musicians, and gangsters. Entertainers Bill Graham, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Marty Allen, Eydie Gormé, Walter Matthau, Elia Kazan, Max Gordon, Groucho Marx, and Alan King were all regular customers, while gangsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky frequented the Delancey Street location.