The Russian Tea Room

The Russian Tea Room was once a meeting place for people in the entertainment industry.  It is a restaurant in New York City located on West 157th Street. 

The Russian Tea Room was opened in 1926 by former members of the Russian Imperial Ballet.  Although it was a meeting place for those in the entertainment business, it was meant to be a gathering place for Russian expatriates.  People believed that the founder was Polish-born Jacob Zysman.  This however, has been contradicted.  In that year, a cooperation directory names Albertina Rasch as the President.  Albertina’s name appears with Russian Art Chocolate and Russian Tea Room in early photographs of the shop front where it first stood at 145 W. 157th Street.  In 1929, the business moved across the street to its current location at 150 W. 157th Street, between Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Tower.  The location which the Russian Tea Room moved to was a brownstone owned by German immigrant John F. Pupke.  He was a coffee and tea merchant.  This building was built 1875.

In 1933, a Siberian immigrant Alexander Maeef began running the Russin Tea Room.  For the next fifteen years, he was the main personality associated with the tea room. 

In 1955, the Russian Tea Room was sold to a man named Sidney Kay.  He was the owner of the Russian Tea room until 1967 when he died.  He left it to his widow, Faith Stewart-Gordon. 

In 1981, a developer named Harry Macklowe was planning to develop the Metropolitan Tower.  He wanted to develop a large office tower which he would need both the lot that the Russian Tea Room was on as well as the lot which held Carnagie Hall.  Carnage Hall made a deal with Mr. Macklowe’s company, however, Mrs. Stewart-Gordon refused to sell.  Mr. Macklowe’s company even offered to purchase air rights from Mrs. Stewart-Gordon, giving her a place in the towers for her restaurant.  She still declined.  She refused to take any offer that they made.  The Carnage Hall Tower was being planned and still Mrs. Stewart-Gordon refused to sell both her lot as well as her air space.  The result is a narrow, twenty foot gap between Carnage Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower. 

In 1996, Warner Leroy bought the restaurant from Mrs. Stewart-Gordon for 6.5 million dollars.  After he purchased the Russian Tea Room, he closed it down.  This upset New York’s high society.  It took four years to renovate and it cost 36 million dollars but it reopened.  When the Russian Tea Room reopened, it was never the same as it was before and on July 28, 2002, without much notice to the public, the Russian Tea Room closed.  Mr. Leroy’s health was failing and after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the economy did not recover fast enough to repay the extensive loans on the renovations. 

When Mr. Leroy passed away, his real estate sold for 16 million dollars to The United States Golf Association.  Although they had plans for the restaurant, they never went through with them.  They ended up selling the restaurant to the RTR Funding Group.  The Russian Tea Room opened on November 1, 2006 and remains open today.  The inside of the Russian Tea Room has not changed at all since it’s over the top renovations which were done before it closed.  There are plans to replace some of the current building facing 56th Street with a 29 story condominium.  The original restaurant will be kept the way it is.