Tom’s Restaurant on 112th and Broadway was famous well before it became the hang-out spot in Seinfeld. In fact, it’s first brush with pop culture stardom was in Suzanne Vega’s 1987 song “Tom’s Diner.” Most importantly, the restaurant is a stable neighborhood spot where thousands of locals and students have sustained themselves for decades. Minas Zoulis’ family has owned it since the 1940’s
A new documentary traces that history and interviews regulars about what makes Tom’s special. Check out the trailer below and learn more here. It’s set to be released next year.
thought Ms. Vega’s song referred to Tom’s Diner in Brooklyn, on Washington Avenue and Sterling Place. there is a church, st. teresa of avila, furnished with a chime of 10 bells from the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, N.Y.with bells.
The bells on the cathedral are from the cathedral of St. John the Divine, a block away.
No, the Suzanne Vega song is about the diner on Broadway. She was a Barnard College student in the late 1970s, pretty famous at Columbia University. She wrote a piece about it (kinda long-winded) for the Times:
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/toms-essay/