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Joe
Scognamillo (right) runs Patsy’s with son Sal.
Photo
by Jules Peimer
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OLE
BLUE EYES’ FAVORITE
Sal Serves Superb
Stuff
Spiced with Sinatra Spirit
By JULES PEIMER
 HENEVER
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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