Ratner's

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Ratner's was a famous Jewish kosher dairy (milchig) restaurant on the Lower East Side of New York City. Since it did not serve meat in deference to the kosher rule about not mixing milk and meat products, it was often regarded as a complement to Katz's Deli.

Ratner's was founded in 1905 by Jacob Harmatz and his brother-in-law Alex Ratner, who supposedly flipped a coin to decide whose name would be on the sign.^[1] Ratner sold his share in the restaurant to Harmatz in 1918, and it remained in the Harmatz family from then on. Jacob's son, Harold Harmatz, took over the business in the mid-1950s, dying a year after the restaurant ceased operation in 2002. The original location was on Pitt Street, but the restaurant moved in 1918 to its more well-known location at 138 Delancey Street where it would remain until its closing. As of 2006, the business is run by Harold's sons Robert Harmatz and Fred Harmatz.^[2]

Until 1975, it was open 24 hours a day and therefore part of the late-night city scene popular with Jewish performers, actors, musicians, and gangsters. Entertainers Bill Graham, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Marty Allen, Eydie Gormé, Walter Matthau, Elia Kazan, Max Gordon, Groucho Marx, and Alan King were all regular customers, as were gangsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky.^[2]

Brunch was the main meal at the dairy restaurant, and up to 1,200 people were served daily at the peak of its popularity. Noted menu items included cheese blintzes, potato pancakes (latkes), hot onion rolls, and split-pea soup.^[2]

Prior to the closing of the restaurant, a back room was opened as a bar called "Lansky's Lounge," named after the then-deceased gangster who, according to Robert Harmatz, told the owners that he was there so often that he deserved to have his own room. The lounge continues in operation.^[2]

A number of products are manufactured using the Ratner's name by King Kold which owns the brand, including Blintzes & Crepes, Potato Pancakes, Veggie Pancakes, Pirogen, Matzo Balls and Soups, which are distributed wholesale to supermarkets.^[3].

The Ratner's located at 111 Second Avenue actually surpassed the Delancey Street restaurant in popularity for many years, especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the Lower East Side morphed into "The East Village," and became a hip and creative Mecca. In fact Sam Jaffe, the longtime night manager of The Second Avenue Ratner's, worked with Fillmore East impresario, Bill Graham, in stocking the Fillmore's mezzanine food concession with Ratner's baked goods.