Joe Allen

326 West 46th Street | Hell's Kitchen | built 1920

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1965

    Joe Allen opens a restaurant on West 46th Street, west of Eighth Avenue

    Joe Allen opened his namesake restaurant at 326 West 46th Street in 1965, when a restaurant west of Eighth Avenue was a risky bet and the block was long from being known as Restaurant Row. A hamburger cost 75 cents, and the priciest Broadway ticket was $7.50. Many of the servers were actors earning a paycheck between jobs.

    Source: ktul.com

  2. 1965

    The cast of a one-performance show gives Joe Allen a poster, starting the flop wall

    In 1965, the year the restaurant opened, the cast of the show Kelly gave Allen a poster of their production, which ran for only one performance. That poster began the restaurant's custom of framing flops on its walls. The wall of posters from Broadway failures is still among its best-known features.

    Source: ktul.com

  3. 1968

    Scenes of the film No Way to Treat a Lady are shot at Joe Allen

    The 1968 film No Way to Treat a Lady includes scenes at the restaurant. Joe Allen appeared on screen again in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda, released in 2004. Wikipedia calls the restaurant an industry institution for working actors and theater people.

    “The restaurant featured in scenes in the films No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda (2004)…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1972

    Two Joe Allen bartenders leave to found J.G. Melon on the Upper East Side

    In 1972 two of the restaurant's bartenders, Jack O'Neill and George Mourges, left and founded J.G. Melon on the Upper East Side. The J and G in the new restaurant's name stand for their first names. Joe Allen itself had opened in 1965.

    “In 1972 two of its bartenders left and established the Upper East Side restaurant J.G. Melon; Jack O'Neill and George Mourges, the "J" and "G…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2021

    February

    Joe Allen sits shuttered in the pandemic days after its founder's death

    Joe Allen died at 87 in early February 2021, and a column days later found Restaurant Row quiet, with many spots boarded up. Joe Allen and Orso, the restaurant he opened next door in 1983, were both shut because of the pandemic. The column noted that Joe Allen, with its walls of posters, planned to come back.

    Source: westsidespirit.com

Further reading

Nearby

All 46 buildings with stories in Hell's Kitchen