Rumor: Sammy’s Roumanian Closes Chrystie Street Dining Room
Jan. 2016
It certainly isn’t a happy new year here on the Lower East Side if rumors prove true that Sammy’s Roumanian is closed for good.
The Chrystie Street restaurant closed back in mid-March with the rest of the city during the initial pandemic lockdown. And now it appears they didn’t survive.
Photographers James and Karla Murray noted on Instagram that all the photographs and ephemera hanging in the entrance and on those storied walls were gone.
In operation since 1975, the kosher-style steakhouse was known for its boisterous dining room. From the beginning, when Saturday Night Live stars were known to frequent. “Sammy’s is still loudly, raucously, endlessly, embracingly Jewish, a permanent underground bar mitzvah where Gentiles can act like Jews and Jews can act like themselves,” The New York Times noted back in 2014.
I never got to go to Sammy's Roumanian. Every time I passed the place, I'd tell myself to go before it's too late. And now, we hear, it's too late and I'm kicking myself, the way I knew I would.
— Jeremiah Moss 🌹 (@jeremoss) January 2, 2021
Recent Stories
Uncapped: The Making of The Unauthorized Biography of Ree 2
Boogie Fam! It sure has been a while. Have you checked out the Bowery Boogie Uncapped (BBU) Podcast? Launched during the pandemic, we are now three seasons deep and chock full of interviews with graffiti pioneers, street artists, Boogie affiliates and most recently, a song debut. You know that country we emancipated from in 1776? […]
Teenager Attacked by Panhandler Asking for Dollar in East Broadway Station
The East Broadway subway station bolsters its reputation as haven of crime this week with reports that a teenager was attacked by an aggressive panhandler. According to police, at 8:15am last Sunday (September 12), an unknown man approached a 16-year-old boy asking for a dollar. When the teenager refused, the suspect followed, and muttered racist […]
Woman Threatens Customers with Stool at King Dumplings on Hester Street
Wednesday evening, a woman was spotted harassing customers at King Dumplings on Hester Street. Our tipster says that the belligerent demanded $10 from the group, and when she was ignored, grabbed a stool and threatened violence. Prior to that incident, the woman jumped on the hood of a livery cab. She also grabbed a person […]
The Ten Bells Rings in New Bushwick Bar
The Ten Bells is ringing in a new outpost – this time, not on the Lower East Side, but in Brooklyn. Bushwick, specifically. The natural wine bar has taken over a space that previously housed a Breaking Bad-themed coffee shop, Walter’s Coffee Roastery. The OG at 247 Broome Street is still alive and kicking, though […]
Graffiti Sheathed Burger King on Delancey Street Looks Burned Out [Updated]
Don’t call it a BK bust just yet. The Burger King on Delancey Street continues its devolution, but we are assured it remains operational. Despite its looks. Enveloped in graffiti and plywood boards for the majority of the pandemic (owing thanks to a car that landed inside the restaurant) the fast food joint had nevertheless […]
