The Cattleman
 |
|
| Industry | Steakhouse |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1959 |
| Defunct | c. 1989 |
| Headquarters | Manhattan, New York City |
|
Key people
|
Larry Ellman (owner) |
The Cattleman was a steakhouse in New York City founded in 1959 by restaurateur Larry Ellman. During its heyday, The Cattleman attracted media attention as an early example of a theme restaurant, and it became the inspirational basis for the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes.
In his twenties, Larry Ellman became the New York distributor for Automatique, a Danish firm that manufactured Wittenborg brand food-vending machines "similar in appearance and operation to the Automat." Proceeds from the sale of his business enabled him to pursue his first restaurant venture. The Cattleman opened at Lexington Avenue and East 47th Street in Manhattan, New York City, in 1959, with sales reaching $450,000 that year. By 1967, The Cattleman had relocated to 5 East 45th Street (also known as 551 Fifth Avenue, the Fred F. French Building), with sales of over $4,000,000 a year at the 400-seat restaurant.
By 1972 at the latest, Ellman had additionally opened The Cattleman West at 154 West 51st Street, at Seventh Avenue. The restaurants closed circa 1989.
Starting in 1961, Ellman introduced sing-along sessions every evening from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m., led by Bill Farrell. As The New York Times described in 1967:
The sing-along trend ... has acquired a new cabaret convert. It is the Cattleman, at Lexington Avenue and Forty-seventh Street, a restaurant and saloon designed to create the atmosphere of nineteenth-century San Francisco. According to its owner, Larry Ellman, the nightly sing-along sessions have created a 20 percent increase in business. ... Every evening from 9 o'clock to 2 A.M., Mr. Farrell, a night-club entertainer for thirty years, sits at the piano in a dimly lit corner ... and tries to whip the customers into a singing frame of mind. ... The customers who sit at cozily grouped tables and order their steaks and drinks from waiters wearing colored vests, string ties and garters on their sleeves can stare at a large painting of a nude that hangs on one wall, or guess the age and authenticity of the rifles and longhorns that decorate the long, mirrored bar.
...
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