I know little about this "Midtown French-Continental 'time warp'," except what I read in an old Zagat. The New York Times, which reported the restaurant's passage in June 2004 (yes, it's been lying in wait that long for a favorable real estate market), added that The Leopard had "been at 253 East 50th Street since the mid-60's."
In August 1963, it so happens, the Times reviewed a movie then playing at the Plaza (not far away, at 42 East 58th), praising it as "a stunning visualization of a mood of melancholy and nostalgia at the passing of an age," noting particularly the movie's "autumnal mood of change and decay." Those words, which describe Luchino Visconti's adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's novel The Leopard, are not out of keeping with the somber brown townhouse that was the restaurant's home. Pure coincidence?
The Leopard (closed)
253 East 50th St. (Second-Third Aves.)
By email, a reader recalls:
You are correct to relate it to the Visconti film. There was a huge mural of a leopard adorning the dining room. Elsewhere (you can guess where) were copies of various film reviews. My wife and I ate there a couple of times over the years. They had only a prix fixe dinner menu, including wine and dessert. The food was fine, and the atmosphere slightly seedy, but in a good way. [My wife] always said that it seemed like a place that men took their mistresses (and that I was forbidden to do so). However, what really made the place was the waiter/host/maitre d' who ran the joint. He was huge, tuxedoed, with a deep, somewhat asthmatic bass voice, and would offer/ask "more béarnaise sauce"? (the unspoken subtext: "eat this and soon you will look like me").
Posted by: Dave Cook | January 06, 2010 at 10:12 AM