OLE
BLUE EYES’ FAVORITE
Sal Serves Superb Stuff
Spiced with Sinatra Spirit
By JULES PEIMER
WHENEVER Frank Sinatra and his
Rat Pack, including Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Joey Bishop, were in
New York, they’d hang out at the legendary Patsy’s on Midtown’s west
side. They amused themselves
to no end in the private dining room upstairs at this outstanding Italian
family-owned restaurant.
Frank and Sammy would try to
outdo each other. Frank sang. Sammy would imitate him. Then Frank would
copy Sammy.
Once, when all this was going on,
Sammy suddenly started to laugh. He took out his glass eye and said,
“Frank, let me see you top this!”
The man who related this story to
me, Joe Scognamillo, knew Ole Blue Eyes better than most other people. Joe
has been working at the restaurant all his life. His father, Pasquale
(known as Patsy), who founded the establishment in 1944, had his son
working in the kitchen since he was seven.
“Since Patsy’s beginning,”
Joe said, “we’ve had only three chefs. My father was the first. I
became second, and several years ago my son Sal became third.”
Joe was nine when he first met
America’s most famous crooner, who was at the time working with the
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra at the Paramount Theater.
“Those guys were doing six
shows a day and never had time to leave the theater,” Joe said.
“My father sent me backstage
with macaroni soup, lentil soup and an assortment of pastas. Sinatra
thanked me and said, ‘Who is that kid?’ I told him I was Patsy’s
son, and over the years we became best of friends.”
Not too many people know all the
charitable things Sinatra did. He established the Sinatra Foundation
through which he helped countless people.
“I remember sitting with him
and his employee, Henry Jenei. We were going over the many letters he got
from people asking for help. He would ask us what we thought. We would
answer yes or no.
“I remember vividly one letter.
It was just before Christmas, and it was from a woman terminally ill with
cancer. She wanted to have a last Christmas party with her children.
“Frank said, ‘What do you
think, Joey?’ I said yes. “As I’m telling you this, the hair on my
back is standing up.
“He then told Henry to send her
all kinds of food – steak and anything else you could think of. Also
give her $500. He thought a moment and said, ‘Buy her a new refrigerator
to put it in.’
“He was always helping. I could
go on telling you stories just from the letters alone.”
Joey is working with the Sinatra
family to erect a statue of Frank in Times Square, across the old
Paramount Theater.
“We have many celebrities
working on it, such as Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney. Tony is doing a
portrait of Sinatra which we will auction off to raise money for the
statue.”
Meantime Joe is writing a book
about Patsy’s titled My Father’s Kitchen. It will be a family
history plus anecdotes of the many celebrities that have passed through
the restaurant, such as Enrico Caruso and Xavier Cugat. Daughter Nancy
Sinatra will write the forward.
“The
book will include the favorite recipes of the stars,” Joe said.
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