Toots Shor was an Original.

Toots Shor's History

This stout, gregarious palooka reigned over his men’s club and served up food and strong drink with a heaping side of insults and put-downs. More than a host, he was a lord. And the eponymous saloon was his personal fiefdom. Toots Shor drank with five presidents, golfed with royalty, and became the toast of the town. His gin joint exerted, early on, an almost tidal pull on athletes, writers, radio men, fight promoters, bookies, not to mention actors, pols and Broadway brokers.

Toots Shor’s original establishment was razed 60 years ago, a first jolt of the changes coming to Midtown’s drinking scene. A book by Bob Considine, a fellow “bum” of long standing provides a loving and unmistakably authentic portrait, and souvenir ashtrays survive as reminders of another era. And across the street from Radio City Music Hall, a plaque attached to a modern building at 51 West 51st Street marks the spot where it all happened:

"The Original Site of Toots Shor’s Restaurant, where the ‘crumb bums’ who played sports and the ‘crumb bums’ who wrote about them got together with those who rooted for them and read them. Especially Toots.‘

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