Rao's
265 Pleasant Avenue | also 455 East 114th Street, 263 Pleasant Avenue, 261 Pleasant Avenue | East Harlem | built 1900
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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.
- 1896
Joshua Anthony Rao opens a small restaurant in Italian Harlem
Rao's dates to 1896, when Joshua Anthony Rao, who had moved to the United States with his parents from Italy, bought a small shop in East Harlem's Italian-American neighborhood and opened a restaurant. He ran it until he died in 1909, and his sons Vincent and Louis then took over the business, which stands at the corner of East 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue.
“The restaurant was started in 1896 by Joshua Anthony Rao…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1977
A three-star Times review prompts Rao's to start assigning regulars standing tables
After a three-star New York Times review in 1977 brought a flood of reservation requests, the restaurant began time-sharing its few tables and booths. Regulars were assigned a fixed night, some weekly and some monthly, and many of the earliest still hold those seats. Private eye Bo Dietl has had an eight-top every Thursday since 1977, and his table, the largest in the room, is nicknamed the Earth.
Source: nypost.com
- 1984
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow dine at Rao's, and Mrs. Rao inspires a character in Broadway Danny Rose
In the 1980s Woody Allen and Mia Farrow ate regularly at Rao's, the Italian-American restaurant on the corner of 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem. Mrs. Rao became the inspiration for Tina Vitale, a character in Allen's 1984 comedy Broadway Danny Rose.
“Woody Allen and Mia Farrow regularly ate at Rao's in the 1980s. Mrs. Rao inspired the character Tina Vitale…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2003
A bar dispute at Rao's ends with Louis Barone fatally shooting Albert Circelli
On December 22, 2003, three days before Christmas, Louis Barone, 67, shot Albert Circelli, 37, of Yonkers, at the bar around 10:30 p.m. In Barone's telling, Circelli had insulted a woman singing for the room and then threatened him. Circelli was hit once in the heart and fell near the front window. A second shot wounded diner Al Petraglia in the foot, and an off-duty police officer eating there helped stop Barone outside.
Source: nymag.com
- 2009
Jay-Z shoots the video for D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) inside Rao's
Jay-Z filmed the music video for D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) inside Rao's in 2009. The small East Harlem restaurant, founded in 1896 at 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue, is known for how hard it is to get a table, and its patrons have included John Gotti, Rudy Giuliani and Robert De Niro.
“In 2009, Jay-Z shot the music video for "D.O.A." (Death of Autotune) at Rao's…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
A banker who won a night at Bo Dietl's Rao's table struggles to claim it
In late 2015 the New York Post reported a feud over the table Bo Dietl has held at Rao's every Thursday since 1977. A banker who paid $6,000 at a charity auction for a night there said Dietl cancelled a July date eight days out and that a November date was unavailable. Dietl told Page Six he would not give up the table, and said that if the man showed up at the restaurant he would punch him.
Source: nypost.com
Further reading
- Rao'sWikipedia
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