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The Super-Regular Who’s Eaten at the Same Restaurant for 31 Years
For New York’s anniversary, we are celebrating the history of the city’s restaurants with a series of posts throughout the month. Read all of our “Who Ate Where” stories here.
What makes a restaurant an institution? Longevity counts for a lot, particularly in a city with margins as punishing as New York. But perhaps one of the clearest signs of an institution is the steady presence of regulars. And not just regular regulars — any restaurant open for a year or two can have those — but super-regulars. Regulars who have been coming by for decades, multiple times a week, every week. Regulars who can recite to you all of the different blue-plate specials happening on different days of the week.
All of this is certainly the case for Gar Guttman, a retired Upper East Sider who’s been eating at EJ’s Luncheonette, on the corner of East 73rd and Third Avenue at least three times a week, every week, since the ’40s-style diner started serving comfort food in the neighborhood in 1992. Not only do he and his wife have their go-to orders, they’ve also woven EJ’s into the fabric of their celebrations and traditions, whether that’s tapping the restaurant to cater their holiday parties each year or having it serve as their gathering spot whenever their young great-nieces and great-nephews visit. Another important plus for Guttman? “They’re very, very fair about menu substitutions.”
How long have you been going to EJ’s?
Since it opened.
Was that in ’92 or so?
That sounds right. The predecessor in that space was a place called Rusty’s that was owned by Rusty Staub who played for the New York Mets at the end of his baseball career. And when he closed, EJ’s came into the space.
What are your go-to orders?
Wednesday chicken schnitzel — that’s one of their Wednesday specials.
Does it come with any side dishes?
Yeah, baked potato and sauteed broccoli. It also comes with a choice of two salads: a house salad and a Caesar salad. I get the house salad.
What other dishes do you like to order on other nights?
On rare occasions they have crab cakes, which are really quite good. I like some of their pasta specials. In fact, their pasta specials — particularly their ones with tomato sauce — are better than most of the Italian restaurants in the neighborhood. Their marinara sauce is really good. It could be rigatoni, it could be linguini, it could be spaghetti, it could be shells. Sometimes they have a ravioli special. Sometimes it’s filled with mushrooms, sometimes it’s filled with three cheeses, whatever. It depends what my mood is.
Has your order been the same throughout all these years or has it changed?
It’s changed recently because I’ve been on a weight loss drug for 18 months and I just can’t eat as much.
Do you ever order breakfast or lunch dishes, or do you mostly go there for dinnertime?
I sometimes order the breakfast dish for dinner. You know, if I’m looking for something a little lighter.
Tell me more about what you love about EJ’s and why you’re such a devoted regular.
They’re very, very fair about substitutions. For example, my wife tends to order — they have this Greek salad that comes with stuffed grape leaves. She doesn’t particularly like stuffed grape leaves, so she substitutes steamed broccoli for the grape leaves. You know, they’re just very flexible about substitutions, which, to me, is a real plus.
I like that. Over the years, have you had any particularly memorable meals or celebrations there that stand out?
I live right around the corner from the restaurant on 74th Street, and for the last three years, EJ’s has catered our building’s holiday party. Everybody in the building loves it.
What did you serve?
Pigs in a blanket, mac ’n’ cheese, the dinosaur nuggets for the kids. Robbie [Eby, the owner] changed the chicken-salad recipe. For years, the chicken salad, instead of having celery, was seasoned with tarragon. When he does the holiday party, he makes a special batch of chicken salad with tarragon for us. And I asked Robbie why he changed it, and he said, “Because a lot of people prefer celery to tarragon.” I said, “Well, who cares?” and he said, “Gar, it doesn’t work that way.”
Are you friends with the staff?
Other than Robbie, who I’ve become kind of friendly with, not really. Actually, his — Rich was one of his managers, although I think Rich is semi-retired now, but other than that, not really. Oh, and the new chef. Because I sat down with him to plan the menu for the holiday party.
Seen any famous people there?
For a while when he was playing first base for the Yankees, Jason Giambi would order there frequently and occasionally he’d come in. When the Yankees had a home-night game, apparently he had a standard order for lunch that he’d order from EJ’s.
How have you seen the Upper East Side change over the past few decades?
Basically, it’s like, How many eyeglass places or nail places can you have? Now I notice the new thing is skin treatments. I had no idea so many people under the age of 40 were getting skin treatments.
I feel like younger people are moving up there again.
Well, I’m on the board of my co-op, so I see it very clearly. I think the reason is because, you know, the Upper East Side 30 years ago was the spot. Then the west side, Dumbo, Hell’s Kitchen, and those areas became the spot, so what you have now is the Upper East Side has become the most affordable part of Manhattan. So I think people are getting much better value. One of my closest, dearest friends, his daughter just moved into my building six months ago with a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old into one of the few three-bedroom apartments in the building. And even though my building represents value, it’s still not cheap! So the young people — and when I say “young,” I mean people under the age of 40 — who’ve been moving to the building tend to be lawyers, doctors, investment-banker kind of people who make a lot of money.
I was there with my wife for lunch — this was probably like a year ago — and I noticed there were five young girls. They couldn’t have been more — they were in their early 20s. And I watched: For a whole lunch, none of them talked. They were all texting on the phone. I said, What’s going on here? And then a couple weeks later we were there and I saw a different group and apparently they had a rule: Everybody put their phone in the middle of the table and whoever picked up their phone first had to pay the bill. So you pick up all the little local culture watching that at EJ’s.
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