Gallagher's Steakhouse (New York City, New York)

 restaurant, steakhouse, interesting place, commercial building

5-story commercial building originally completed in 1874 as a townhouse. In 1927, a 2-story projecting commercial base was added, extending across to the lot where the upper floors of the neighboring house were razed. It is clad in black-painted stone with black cast-iron fluted piers at the ground floor, which has large plate-glass windows and globe light fixtures on the piers. The ground floor is divided into seven bays, with the main restaurant entrance in the 2nd bay from the east, with a peaked, red canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. The 2nd floor has five bays of triple-windows with red canvas awnings.

The original upper floors are set back, now faced in black-painted stucco, and used mainly for storage. They have three bays of single=windows with full stone surrounds, including bracketed sills and cornices. A projecting, vertical sign is mounted at the west edge of the upper floors, which rises above the east half of the base. The upper floors are crowned by a black metal roof cornice with brackets and modillions.

Opened as a speakeasy in 1927 by former Ziegfield Girl Helen Gallagher and her husband Jack Solomon; the restaurant's name seems to have been chosen because her late husband Ed Gallagher, as half of the team Gallagher and Shean, had been one of the biggest stars of vaudeville. With the end of Prohibition in 1933, the restaurant pioneered a less formal approach to fine dining, and claims to have introduced the New York strip steak.

www.gallaghersnysteakhouse.com/