It was That’s A Some Italian Ristorante. Look forward to going back, fell in love with a couple of the items in Sluy’s. I would be in real trouble if we had a bakery like that on this side of the sound.
Yeah, and none of them picked up the check, either.
If a restaurant ever tries to place me at a table with banquette seating and a sign saying that Rick Pitino once used it, I’m going to demand a whole bunch of Handi-Wipes first.
I’ve related this before, so my apologies to all those Dopers who’ve already read it. Some years ago, I was at the Roebuck on Richmond Hill having lunch when a world-famous rock star - not Mick Jagger though he lived nearby at the time - walked in. Now, the Roebuck is just along from where Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger’s ex, lived (maybe still does). I have little interest in rock music myself, but my father pointed him out to me. I just said something along the lines of, “Let him enjoy his pint in peace.” and said rock star threw me a grateful glance. Come to think of it, I’ve forgotten the name of said star - as I said, I’ve little interest in rock music. Orchestral works are my thing.
I was next to Elvin Bishop in a buffet line once.
My husband and I were dining in a NYC restaurant, talking about how Joan Baez was performing at a club in the city when he noticed that she and a few others had just entered the restaurant. They were seated quite near us. We didn’t want to be gauche, but asked our waiter to send a round of drinks to their table on us. We spoke briefly on the way out. The following day when I came home from work there was a message on our answering machine that there was a place for us at the club that night if we wanted to attend. The message was from Joan herself. I still have the tape.
Many years ago, the one and only time I ate dinner in a nice little Italian place in Westwood (a suburb of LA), Richard Pryor was sitting at the next table. I opted to leave him alone and let him eat in peace.
My sister has tended bar in Fells Point in east Baltimore for over 30 years, and every once in a while, I’ll stop in to chat and watch her work. No, I don’t score free drinks - I don’t drink when I drive.
One afternoon, Maya Angelou came in and was seated at the far end of the bar with a group of friends. I didn’t recognize her, but someone pointed her out. For the most part, they were left to enjoy themselves, but one of the regulars who was perhaps a bit tipsy, had to go over and gush a bit. Fortunately, he kept it short, then backed off.
Can’t remember the actor’s name, but one day, my sister remarked to a customer “Did anyone ever tell you that you sound just like <actor>?” Turns out that’s who it was. Also, **Homicide **exteriors were shot across the street from the bar, so she’d have occasional interactions with cast and crew, but that was long ago…
I was born, raised and still live in the Los Angeles area. I went to elementary school across the street from MGM Studios. I’ve seen celebrities IRL all the time. They’re every-freaking-where. And since this is where they live, too, it means they’re just going about their lives when I see them. Etiquette demands I leave them alone, so I do.
Once a billion years ago, my sister and her husband (who grew up in Maine) were in a restaurant where Cloris Leachman was eating with her family. He (my BiL) got up TWICE to talk to her. Of course, he’d had some to drink, but my poor sister was mortified.
I wouldn’t have gone over to talk to her, but I would have said (to the people I was sitting with) "Blucher!"whinny whinny whinny
Uh, I’ve eaten at that restaurant. It’s actually not a bad place, as far as that city goes.
You might remember Pete Duel, the star of the early 70 show Alias Smith and Jones who killed himself while being really drunk one night.
I loved watching the show. I was in Rochester, NY where Duel grew up. His childhood home was then two business – a coffee shop and a beauty salon. So I stopped by for a cup and a biscotti which I had in the old living room. Then I got a pedicure in the salon half.
Not sure if this counts as a celebrity but another time I was in NYC I had seen a show (it was either Cabaret or Chicago, I forget which) and afterwards we went to Sardi’s to eat and one of the stars of the show we had just seen was two tables over.
If you tell a boring story once, it’s just boring. Repeat it often enough, though, and it becomes performance art.
I saw David Brenner a couple of times inside restaurants, but once I was even in it myself. The New York Deli (apparently named for a brand of potato chips) on West 57th, in a space that was once an automat and later the Motown Cafe and later a pile of rubble and later still a construction site. He was always part of a foursome, though I don’t remember if the other three were always the same. Anyway, it’s too bad he died. I read a book recently about all sorts of comedians and he seemed like a nice guy, giving advice to younger comedians, for instance Jimmy Walker (the comedian).
Aside from that, I seem to have been at the Waverly Diner at the same time as Dave van Ronk and Holly Hunter (who were not together). In general, celebrities eat at higher class places than I do.
Oops, too late to edit. I said Holly Hunter, but I meant Heather Hunter. I guess I’m still caught up in the Christmas spirit.
I live in Omaha. It is not hard to be seated in a restaurant with Warren Buffet. He likes to eat in the same Mom and Pop places as the rest of us
As a lifelong native NYer, it happens so often that unless it is an A+ list celebrity, it’s unimportant. Heck, even if it’s an A+ celebrity that I don’t really follow or care for (such as Madonna), I still won’t pay attention. (Paraphrasing an actual conversation one morning - Mrs. D_Odds, turning and pointing, “Hey, isn’t that Madonna walking her dogs?” Me, not breaking stride or turning, “Yeah, so?” - though I did pay more attention, without bothering them, when the late Danny Aiello and Joe Pesci were drinking in the same bar some friends and I were.)
One of several times I’ve been in a restaurant at the same time as someone famous, a coworker mentioned that a guy at another table “looks a lot like Javier Bardem”. The consensus was that “nah, it can’t be him” (why? Don’t actors eat?).
I refrained from mentioning that gee, the woman sitting across him at the table looked a helluva lot like Pilar Bardem (aka Javier’s mother). Figured they weren’t particulatly interested in being hit for autographs by a couple dozen IT guys having their company Christmas lunch.
My friends and I once passed Kenneth Branagh, Robert Altman, and famous actress that I cannot now recall as they were coming out of and we were going into the lobby bar/restaurant at the Hotel Burnham in Chicago. So, we very nearly dined in the same place as a celebrity.
Also, Kenneth Branagh, it seemed to me, had an inordinately large head.
The only time we ever ate with a celebrity was when Andy Rooney was also at Soup’s On in Westport CT for lunch.