Historic Broadway restaurant Sardi’s will change owners, renovating the century-old dining room
At Sardi’s, the show must go on.
A popular theater district restaurant known for its collection of celebrity caricatures has found a new owner in theater behemoth The Shubert Organization, The Post has learned.
The popular 44th Street site will close briefly over the summer for renovations, 71-year-old owner Max Klimavicius told The Post.
Shubert reps have vowed to preserve the century-old charm of the Great White Way watering hole — including its more than 1,200 rare photos of past and present customers from Barbra Streisand to George Clooney, he added.
Popular caricatures alone are projected to collectively cost nearly $7 million in 2020, he said.
“Shubert’s purchase of the restaurant will ensure its continuity: they are not in the food business, they are in the theater business,” Klimavicius, who plans to retire later this year, told The Post.
“Owners and custodians of this property ensure the next 100 years,” he said.
Sardi’s will continue to operate until June 24 under Klimavicius, after which it will close for several months of “renovation” of the front house, as well as ventilation and plumbing upgrades.
Klimavicius argues that the restaurant’s old-school deals will also remain intact, and Shubert will keep the Sardi’s name.
“The character of the restaurant will not change at all – I mean, the taste and the ambiance – people are very concerned about that,” he said.
“It’s rare these days for an institution like this to continue with the same character.”
Sardi’s was first introduced as “The Little Restaurant” in 1921 under Vincent Sardi Sr. and his wife Eugenia at a nearby building owned by the Shubert Organization, spokespeople said.
The current location on 44th Street opened in 1927, and has since cemented itself in Broadway history as the birthplace of the Tony Awards and the scene of many a lavish party.
The collection of pictures of the restaurant began under the Russian artist, Alex Gard, – who was promised food twice a day to draw caricatures of the guests – in a way that continues today.
Klimavicius, who came from Colombia and started working at Sardi’s as a kitchen assistant in 1974, bought the business in 2007 when the son of the original owner, Vincent Sardi Jr., died in 2007.
The dining room received renewed interest this year — and a media frenzy — with the release of the Oscar-nominated movie “Blue Moon,” which takes place inside Sardi’s, Klimavicius said.
At first, “I didn’t really know what Sardi was all about,” cried the owner of The Post, “but over time, I fell in love with the place.
“This love continues today, I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
Although he received other offers from other businessmen to continue the Sardi name, the owner argues that the Shubert Organization was a clear choice from the beginning, since “their role is to protect and defend this popular institution that is rare these days in New York.
“This was not about money for me,” he said. “This has been my life, and what’s important is that the legacy continues forever.”
Ordinary people who heard the news flocked to Sardi on Sunday afternoons, recounting the nocturnal tales told on its white tablecloths.
“I used to come here to have lunch all the time with the actors,” said Upper West Sider Elizabeth Marner-Brooks, who remembers the lunch discount she got by showing her Actors Equity card.
“Producers, directors, they used to come here during intermission, on opening night,” added Marner-Brooks, 81. “It was a unique place.”
Manhattanite Annette Pica told The Post that the 44th Street center made the Big Apple feel like a “small town” where “everybody knows everybody.”
“I hope they don’t really change too much, because they will lose,” said the 66-year-old retired nurse, but she admitted “you have to pass on to the new generation.”
“I mean the food is fine, but it’s really the atmosphere,” he recalled.
“And the pictures are great.”
