Mad Men returns for its final season tonight, and the show has several references to the Upper West Side — perhaps most notably ad director Peggy Olson buys a brownstone here that she alternately seems to love and hate.
There are other references — among them a scene from an episode in Season 4 titled “The Beautiful Girls” set in a restaurant called The Tip Toe Inn on the Northwest corner of 86th street and Broadway, featuring Roger Sterling and Joan Harris. Roger says he took her there during their affair because there was “no chance of running into anyone, and of course, the cherry cheesecake.” Eater, which highlighted the scene and delved into this in greater detail a few years ago, notes that the cheesecake had a shiny cookie-like crust unlike any other cheesecake in the world.
The Tip Toe Inn at its core was a classic Jewish delicatessen. A 1970 New York magazine listing described it as “haute Jewish cuisine.” Philosopher and writer Alan Watts wrote in his book In My Own Way: An Autobiography of “the gourmandise of kosher dills, smoked sturgeon, cheese cake, lox, gefilte fish, and borscht.” Mimi Sheraton wrote in her memoir Eating My Words: An Appetite For Life: “Another splurge was to take the subway up to the old Tip-Toe Inn on Upper Broadway and buy turkey sandwiches on rye with coleslaw and Russian dressing, then eat them in a taxi going back to the Village.”
Restaurant critic Hungry Gerald wrote: “The jewel of the West Side was the Tip Toe Inn (on Broadway near 86th Street). A huge place with a huge menu. Everything was delicious and inexpensive.”
A menu from 1954 is here, courtesy of the New York Public Library. It’s filled with heavy-duty meat and seafood dishes and sandwiches advertised as “a meal in itself.” You could even get “Tip Toe Inn Special Spaghetti With Chicken Livers, Garden Peas And Grated Parmesan Cheese” for $1.75. Oh my!
Tip Toe Inn, founded by Russian emigre Aaron Chinitz, opened in 1915, according to the Times. It’s not clear when it closed — presumably sometime in the late 60’s or early 70’s, but we haven’t found a definitive answer. If you do know, or have memories of the place, let us know in the comments.
For more of our Upper West Side “weekend history” series, click here.
I used to go there as a kid, and I spent part of my youth on west 86th. What I remember is a huge puffy apple pancake, probably served with sour cream, but that is what I would want now, not what I remember. Anyone else remember this?
I remember it well. Does anyone remember the name of the coffee shop on 84th Street and Broadway on the south west corner?
I do know it was open at least until June 1972 since I celebrated my graduation from Barnard with my family and now-husband there!
Tip Toe Inn was at one time at 2131 Broadway, at 74th Street.
OMG, brings back memories! When I was very young, we used to go to the legendary Tip Toe Inn for our Thanksgiving dinner, driving all the way from eastern Long Island where we lived. My grandmother, who lived across the street at the Bretton Hall (a residential hotel back then), couldn’t cook to save her life, so every year we at the Tip Toe, her favorite eatery. Not sure I liked the food, though.
I have a vague memory of an article about Sarabeth of Sarabeth restaurants and bakery – indicating that she is from the family which owned the Tip Toe Inn.
Closed in 1965. Most memorable Proustian moment for me was the oh so thinly sliced rye from the front deli section that gave you paper cuts. Abd the tuxedoed maitre de. And the dark mahogany interior.
What a menu !!! Sorry I missed it..
Is this the site of the present FrenchRoast ??
No it was on the west side of Broadway, mid-block, with a large street frontage.
Saturday “lunches” (a misnomer for those copious meals!) there were a family ritual throughout my childhood and early teens. My favorites were the wonderfully bland, unauthentic-in-any-way Chicken Chow Mein and the glorious Turkey Croquettes with Cream Sauce, Carrots & Peas, and Mashed Potatoes–both of which I still LUST after! Tip Toe Inn was also where I tasted–and I use the word advisedly–my first Cherrystone clam when I was 5-ish. My dad was about to tackle his half-dozen when I said I wanted one. After explaining I wouldn’t be able to chew it, he reluctantly parted with one–which of course I couldn’t really chew, and which wound up being spat more or less discreetly into my mom’s napkin. (No hint there of 10 years later at the San Gennaro festival, where my “personal best” was 20!)
After the meal, we’d go next door to the bakery and buy some of their splendid coffee cake and cookies, and thus burdened inside and out, head home.
Including the deli and bakery, the reataurant’s whole “footprint” was so large that it had a tiny back exit on 87th, west of Broadway, next to a small barber shop, complete with rotating striped pole.
Apocryphal or not, the story goes that the future actor Jeff Chandler worked as a cashier there before going into the army in WWII.
tip toe inn? was on 2nd floor bet 73rd/74th streets where Fairway organic and cafe now presides [?]
C&L was on 74th St & Broadway. It was owned by the same people as the Tip Toe Inn. My father had a liquor store on the same block- Acker Merrall & Condit at 2373 Broadway (87/86). It was founded in 1820 & is the oldest wine & liquor store in the US. I used to hang out at Tip Toe Inn when I was in high school (Franklin- 89th off CPW. Now the Dwight School- same ownership).
When the 86th Street building was sold my brother bought a building at 160 West 72nd St that houses the store to this day.
We bought our liquor and wines at Acker Merrall & Condit — I remember it well. And tennis rackets and jodhpurs at Davega’s. And filled our prescriptions at Perla’s drugstore. Schulte’s cigar store was on the corner of the block — my father used to stop in to get a light for his cigarette. The last time I saw that block, the entire facade had been replaced.
Right–and then there was a branch of the Davega chain, which sold phonographs, etc., and even LPs in addition to the sports equipment it was mainly known for before it went bankrupt and was swallowed up by/renamed as Modell’s.
In the 50s, my husband and I went to the Tip Top every Saturday for their 99 cent lunch — corned beef hash with a fried egg on top. Those were the days…
I remember the Tip Toe Inn, I loved it as a kid. There were bottomless bowls of garlic pickles on every table. I was born in 1963 and I remember being inside plenty of times, so I would surmise it did not close until at least 1971.
The NYPL seems to have the menu from 1954 scanned up.
https://menus.nypl.org/menu_pages/55764
When I was growing up on 86th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, TipToe Inn was our auxiliary kitchen. I can just hear my mother asking me to run down to TipToe and get a seeded rye (“unsliced”), a couple of dill pickles, or a pound of mandelbrot. Their sandwiches were fabulous — thick with meat, dripping with Russian dressing and so large that they were cut into three pieces. When I heard that TipToe was closing (maybe the early ’70’s?) I drove in from our home in Stamford to buy one last rye bread — seeded and unsliced.
Slight fail by Mad Men here…Tip Toe inn was not on the corner as stated in the article, but mid-block next to DAVEGA sports and mens clothes. On the other side was Hermans, the toy store (also stationery later)
With apologies to Maurice Chevalier, “ah, I remember it well.” Always considered it a treat when my folks took my brother and I there and later on when my wife and I would shop there, circa 1970. The Inn’s counterpart was the C&L where Fairway is today but I don’t believe they were related (other than the fact both produced a great cheesecake). Other restaurants on the UWS that we enjoyed “back in the day” were Ellman’s next to the Yorktown Theatre between 88th and 89th Street and he Sterling
Cafeteria where I think Artie’s Deli is today. Does anyone recall Louie’s delicatessen on Amsterdam Avenue and 91st Street where the funeral home is today? He offered pastrami sandwiches for 10 cents and everyone got upset when he raised his price to 12 cents!
The coffee shop on the SW corner of 86th was Esquire. We all hung out there after school.
When I moved into the Bretton Hall in 1976, the Tip Toe Inn was gone – I never saw it. We had Citibank (still here), Williams Chicken (gone) and Four Brothers (now French Roast).I do remember Bridies on the Southeast corner of 85th Street (now Wells Fargo).
Balanchine and Farrell spent many evenings in tip toe inn