Locations
The original location was on Pitt Street in Manhattan, but the restaurant moved in 1918 to its better-known location at 138 Delancey Street, where it would remain until its closing. There was also a location on Second Avenue, operated by other members of the family. 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, while gangsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky frequented the Delancey location.
Prior to the closing of the Delancey Street location, a back room at Ratner's was opened as a bar called "Lansky's Lounge," named after the then-deceased gangster who, according to Robert Harmatz, told the owners he was there so often that he deserved to have his own room. The lounge has since closed as well, though another bar continues to exist in the space.
The Ratner's located at 111 Second Avenue, run by Abraham Harmatz, actually surpassed the Delancey Street restaurant in popularity for many years, especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the Lower East Side gradually became known as "The East Village" -- 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.
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