J.G. Melon
1291 3rd Avenue | also 201 East 74th Street | Lenox Hill | built 1915
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1868
Charles Huber has a row of five brick houses built with shops at street level
Friends of the Upper East Side traces the corner building to a row of five brick houses commissioned by Charles Huber and designed by the architect George Just. Built in 1868, each had a store at street level and one apartment on every floor above. By the turn of the century No. 1291 held a delicatessen owned by Anna Claypool. The group notes the building still stands much as it did, with modest stone lintels and a galvanized iron cornice.
Source: friends-ues.org
- 1972
Two former Joe Allen bartenders open J.G. Melon on the corner
The restaurant opened in 1972 under Jack O'Neill and George Mourges, whose initials form its name, after the two had tended bar at Joe Allen. They found the place stripped of everything but its dark wood bar and a tiny watercolor of a cantaloupe left by the previous tenant. That painting inspired the Melon in the name, and watermelon decor has since filled the walls.
“The "Melon" in the restaurant's name was inspired by a tiny watercolor painting of a cantaloupe melon left hanging on the wall by the prior tenant…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1979
Dustin Hoffman smacks a wine glass against the wall in a Kramer vs. Kramer scene here
A tense scene between Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in the divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer, where Hoffman strikes his wine glass against the wall, was filmed in the restaurant. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. A still of the scene is displayed on the wall beside the table at which it was filmed.
“A tense crucial scene with Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, in which Dustin Hoffman smacks his wine glass against the wall, was filmed at the restaurant…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2020
An Eater critic calls the famous burger dry and bland
In a 2020 Eater article, Ryan Sutton argued that J.G. Melon had lost its touch. He found the burger unseasoned and short on beef aroma and juiciness, and dismissed it as a hockey puck. Kevin Walsh of Forgotten New York, relaying the review in 2022, pointed out that Bobby Flay endorses the burger in Jef Klein's Best Bars of New York and took Sutton's verdict with a grain of salt.
Source: Forgotten New York
- 2025
Bobby Torre, the maitre d' who made luminaries wait, dies
Bobby Torre, the restaurant's maitre d' for more than half a century, died in 2025. Asked how long a wait would be, he liked to answer "Forty minutes, with connections." He sent luminaries including Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the jukebox, bar or sidewalk to wait their turn, and Grace Kelly reportedly waited an hour at the bar, drinking a Heineken from the bottle.
“When Bobby Torre, J.G. Melon's maitre d' for over half a century, was asked how long a wait would be, Torre was given to answering…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- J.G. MelonWikipedia
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