Sparks Steak House

733 3rd Avenue | also 220 East 46th Street, 210 East 46th Street, 200 East 46th Street | Turtle Bay | built 1960

Open on the map3 entries

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. 1977

    Sparks Steak House moves to its larger East 46th Street home

    Brothers Mike and Pat Cetta, who came from Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi in Italy in the early 1930s, took over the Sparks pub on East 18th Street in 1966, buying it from Don Sparks. In 1977 they moved the steakhouse to a larger space on East 46th Street near Third Avenue, the building it still occupies. Their father Rocco, a butcher, had taught them the meat trade.

    Source: tastingtable.com

  2. 1985

    December 16

    Gunmen kill Gambino boss Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti outside Sparks

    At 5:16 p.m. on December 16, Castellano stepped out of the passenger side of his car in front of the restaurant and was shot several times. His underboss and driver Thomas Bilotti tried to return fire from the other side but was shot from behind. The gunmen wore beige trench coats and Russian-style hats and slipped into the crowd. John Gotti and Sammy Gravano watched from a car across the street.

    Source: themobmuseum.org

  3. 1985

    December

    Gotti drives past the bodies, then is elected Gambino boss two weeks later

    Before leaving the scene on East 46th Street, John Gotti drove over to look at the bodies of Castellano and Bilotti. Castellano was buried in Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island after the Archdiocese of New York refused him a Catholic funeral because of his notorious life and death. Two weeks after the shooting, Gotti was elected the family's new boss.

    “Before leaving the murder scene, Gotti drove over to view the bodies.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 32 buildings with stories in Turtle Bay