Palm West 250 W. 50th St.
(between Eighth
Avenue and Broadway)
(212) 333-7256
Palm West – the third incarnation in New York of the famous food chain -has been open for less than three months and already the walls are being covered with its trademark caricatures of notables. There is still space, though -between the drawings of Mayor Giuliani and wife, Donna Hanover, who are positioned a good 2½ feet apart. (That request reportedly came from the missus.)
New York’s other first couple, Gov. George and Libby Pataki, are a lot closer at Palm West. Actually, not since the early ’70s, when Palm Too opened, has there been any room for new faces in a Palm restaurant.
The original steakhouse on Third Avenue started as a speakeasy back in the Roaring ’20s. But it wasn’t until the Depression that the caricatures began, as a way for down-on-their-luck newspaper illustrators to pay for their meals with sketches of celebrities.
Since then, famous faces are everywhere – on the walls and at the tables. Even Calista Flockhart was sighted shoving quantities of food down her dainty gullet.
The not-so-bony Brian Dennehy hosted a party at the surf-and-turf mecca to mark the 100th performance of “Death of a Salesman.”
And just before stories surfaced that bad boy rocker Tommy Lee and ex-wife Pamela Anderson were rekindling their romance – word is they will remarry in an all-nude ceremony on New Year’s Eve – Lee was spotted at the restaurant having an uncharacteristically quiet dinner with friends.
Much more voluble – not to mention voluptuous – was “Third Rock from the Sun” cut-up Kristen Johnson. She was there celebrating her Emmy win with Sarah Jessica Parker and designer Randolph Duke.
Seen last week dining even farther apart than the drawings of Mayor Giuliani and Donna Hanover were Calvin Klein, Sandy Duncan, Meredith Baxter (formerly Birney) and Helen Gurley Brown.
ORDER IT: If you’re looking for spa cuisine, you won’t get it here. This is stick-to-your-ribs-fare.
Start with the fresh lump crabmeat cocktail, served with a spicy sauce, or the chopped tomato and Bermuda onion salad. For the entree, perhaps you’d like a lobster. And you’d better be hungry – the crustaceans start at 4 pounds.
Or you can have another humongous house specialty: the 36-ounce double-sized New York strip steak for two.