A down-and-out Frank Sinatra was the only one who ever got the legendary Patsy's Italian Restaurant to break tradition and open on Thanksgiving, the chef at Sinatra's favorite eatery tells
Newsmax TV.
In an interview with "The Steve Malzberg Show" Friday – the centennial of Sinatra's birthday – Sal Scognamillo, chef at Patsy's Italian Restaurant in New York City, recalled his favorite story about the crooner and the day he booked "a table for one."
"In the early 1950s… people may not remember, Frank Sinatra was down and out, he had lost his record contract, he'd lost his voice, he had lost Ava Gardner. No one wanted to be his friend, everyone thought he was washed up and finished," Scognamillo said.
"The day before Thanksgiving, he said to my grandfather, he says, 'Hey Patsy, I want to come in tomorrow, book me a table for one.' My grandfather did not have the heart to tell him we were closed, so he opened especially for him."
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Sinatra and the chef's grandfather, Pasquale, met in 1942, introduced by band leader Tommy Dorsey, who told the owner, "''Hey Patsy, I got this skinny kid from Hoboken, I want you to fatten him up for me,'" Scognamillo said.
The relationship lasted five generations.
"What a great relationship throughout the years that extended over 50 years," he said. "Nancy Sinatra said it best, she said, 'The family legacy of the Scognamillo family is in the food, and the Sinatra family's is in the music.'"
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