TAD’S STEAKS, West 34th Street

by Kevin Walsh

I’ve never been desperate enough to eat at Tad’s, and believe me, I’m no snob when it comes to fast food. To me, Tad’s has always been associated with the worst of Times Square sleeze, which I avoided like the yellow-livered coward I am through its worst (or at its peak, as some of my associates would have it) in the 1980s. It always impressed me as the kind of joint you had to hold your nostrils shut from the scent of ammonia (I have walked out of diners after getting the merest whiff of the cleaning fluid).

However, I always liked its neon signs that decorated its many outlets in Midtown beginnning in 1974(? some remember Tad’s in the 1960s) when the chain was founded. I’m still searching for background information on Tad’s but as the now-defunct sign on West 34th near 7th says, it also operated in Philly, Chicago and San Fran, though I never spotted a Tad’s in any of those towns (maybe there was a Tad’s in the Tenderloin?)

Fashion Herald has a few views of Tad’s with the neon signs lit up, and Midtown Lunch has an actual review:

Whether it’s the already poured glasses of wine, stacked on the counter, covered in saran wrap; or the interior that hasn’t been changed (or probably cleaned) since 1974, Tad’s is not very welcoming.  Even the $7 steak lunch special, which should be selling point enough (for its cheapness), ends up doing the opposite. Why is this so cheap? How can they make a steak so cheap?  You know what?  Scratch that. I don’t want to know.

There were two additional locations uptown in the Times Square area on 7th, last I knew.

What’s taking Tad’s place on 34th Street? Apparently, a huge store selling Crocs, the world’s ugliest shoes. Anyone who wears or sells those things should be prosecuted by the esthetics police. So, Crocs will replace saran-wrapped cocktails at Penn Station.

In 2006, I explored the last gasps of The Deuce.

5/16/13

 

54 comments

Eliot May 16, 2013 - 10:47 am

I started going to Tad’s around 1962 or 63. The price had just gone up to $1.19 (from $1.09). For that price, you got a steak (with a lot of bone in it), baked potato, garlic bread and a salad. The interior was done up in red wallpaper with velvet on it. The Tad’s I remember from that time was on 42nd Street, someplace between Madison and 3rd Avenues. That was just short distance from the Automatic on the corner of 42nd and 3rd.

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Sal M. August 1, 2017 - 1:47 am

I didn’t realize the price was that low. I remember it at $1.29. The steaks were cooked in the front window of the restaurant .

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Sondra August 19, 2020 - 8:11 pm

My Mom worked for Tad’s Steakhouse in San Francisco. She worked in the corporate office in Oakland for Neil Townsend. I have eaten many a meal a Tad’s and it wasn’t about the food it was the experience. I visited the SF location just before the moved. Tad’s brings back so many happy memories

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phillywilli November 24, 2023 - 1:16 am

my boyfriend and i would go to tad’s in the 1960s….wasn’t that bad when we were 17 yr ols…….

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Neil F. May 16, 2013 - 10:53 am

In San Francisco, Tad’s is located at 120 Powell Street. I’ve got a photo of it all lit up at night. I’ll put it on photobucket tonight and send you the link.

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Glen Norman May 16, 2013 - 12:21 pm

The San Francisco Tad’s is still in operation at 120 Powell Street, near Union Square. The signage is in good repair, and there’s a nice view of the place on Google Street View. The Yelp reviews are pretty mixed.

I’ve never eaten at Tad’s, but there used to be a competing steak joint (steak house being too lofty of a term) almost directly across Powell. That one I ate at a couple of times–the steaks were lousy, but they did put together a fairly decent breakfast. That joint vanished decades ago.

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Dan May 16, 2013 - 1:11 pm

The Tad’s chain has been around since the 1960s at the very least.

My family never visited restaurants when I was a kid (big family, so my parents couldn’t afford it). But once I hit high school and scored my first after-school job? I decided it was time to introduce myself to the World of Fine Dining. At the Tad’s on East 14th Street, east of Union Square, to be precise.

I’d never eaten in a restaurant before. As I recall, the steak was virtually unchewable. The baked potato was shriveled and dry. But the flocked, faux-velvet 1890s wallpaper was definitely spectacular. Especially since — along with my intrepid dining companions — I’d smoked a joint and dropped mescaline about 45 minutes before wandering in and sitting down.

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Ed Sacjs May 16, 2013 - 2:30 pm

Tad’s is older than that. You must be off by at least10 years. I can remember Tad’s in the 1960s (I moved from New York to Chicago, and it was in New York when I lived there). I also remember seeing a Tad’s in San Francisco around 1963 or 1964.

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Mark Wilner May 19, 2013 - 7:25 pm

I grew up on the Lower East Side and Tads was around in the late 1950’s, if not earlier. The steak cost .99 cents. Oh yes the food sucked.

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Deirdre May 16, 2013 - 2:36 pm

When I worked at Macy’s in the late 70’s and then again in 2006 I could never bring myself to eat there either and was always mystified by those who did. Of course cheap as it was I still couldn’t really afford to eat there on my Macy’s/Federated wage. I almost wet myself reading that hysterical Midtown Lunch review.

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Kevin Walsh May 16, 2013 - 11:33 pm

I worked at Macy’s as acopywriter from 2000-2004. I liked the idea of working at the World’s Biggest Store, but my supervisor despised me and she made sure I was uncomfortable every day I was there.

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Scott May 16, 2013 - 3:44 pm

All’s I can say is that when I was a preteen, I felt like a king because I had enough coin in my pocket to get myself a $1.29 steak dinner at Tad’s. And, I love my Mario Battali orange crocs. And yet, despite our differing tastes, I read and enjoy every word of Forgotten NY.

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larry prusak May 16, 2013 - 3:49 pm

They were there way before 1976..I ate there, to my shame, when a student at NYU in the late 1960’s and I dont think they were new then…$1.17 for a papaya enzyme injected steak with potato and bread and some pass at a salad…
Ah wilderness…

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Kilroy May 16, 2013 - 4:15 pm

Here’s the photo of Tad’s in San Francisco:

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bernie May 16, 2013 - 4:24 pm

I may be wrong, but I believe I actually ate at one back in 1965.

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John Brandt May 16, 2013 - 4:24 pm

I am thinking Tad’s was around before ’74. I remember taking a trip to experience “the slease” when I was about 15 (which would have been 1968) along with my cronies and eating at one of the Tad’s on 42nd St. That location had obviously been there for a while when we “visited.” There was also the Beef and Brew (we called “bark and scarf”) chair that started in the early 70’s and I visited a few of those while in college (’70-’75).

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Tal Barzilai May 16, 2013 - 5:38 pm

You can always go to the on in Times Square assuming it’s still there if you really want to try Tad’s Steaks, and I have been there one time.

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antfaber May 16, 2013 - 6:11 pm

There was at least 1 Tad’s Steaks and perhaps 2 when I arrived here in 1998. One was at 120 Powell Street. It closed around 10 years ago, I think.
http://www.tadssteaks-sf.com/

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chris May 16, 2013 - 7:37 pm

I read that the founder of Tad’s,whoever he was,died recently and his business motto was-
“Sell the sizzle,not the steak”
Evertime I passed the place in times sq. they always seemed to be making a show of their flaming steaks in the window.Did it so passerby would see.
Gross

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David Alvarez May 16, 2013 - 8:18 pm

Ate once at a Tad’s on 42nd Street, the steak special was $2.99. The steak was gross and all gristle. I got exactly what I paid for. Would never eat there again and now cannot.

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Kevin Dougherty May 16, 2013 - 9:40 pm

I actually remember eating at a Tads on 14 Street just East of Union Square in the mid to late 60’s. (Not the one that was recently there) They cooked the steaks on a grill in the window and you got a baked potato and garlic bread that was not bad. Remember this as the mid 60s and everything seemed better back then. They had a red and black felt type wall covering and the the water and glasses were at water fountain on the main floor it looked like the one at Katzs… KD

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Jenny Islander May 17, 2013 - 12:24 am

Is this one of those places that serve assorted pieces of meat stuck together with food-grade glue to make a steak-shaped object?

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Elwood May 17, 2013 - 9:12 am

Wow I never thought of Tad’s this way. My Dad made a big deal of what a treat it was to go to Tad’s on our summer day excursions in the city. What does this say about my dad then? Go figure – read an article on a chain steakhouse, come away with a family meditation and the meaning of growing up. Thanks a lot pal.

I took a friend visiting from out of town once because he also was very excited at the sight of Tad’s because he remembered the one in San Francisco.

One man’s fine dining is another man’s stink pot…or something.

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Lilly B. October 27, 2013 - 10:01 am

I too fondly remember family outings into the city and my father taking us to Tad’s. It was a big deal for us back then.

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Sherry July 21, 2014 - 2:13 pm

Having grown up poor, my mom would buy a very cheap piece of beef,which she called steak,divided it between all seven of us. With that said,as a teen playing hokey,went to Manhattan,found Tads, and thought I could afford $2.99. Thought I was in heaven, my own steak dinner.

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NY2AZ May 17, 2013 - 12:36 pm

http://www.goldencorral.com/menu/

Click this link to see a 21st century alternative to Tad’s. Even in The Era Of BO there has been progress, but you people in NYC will have to travel to Freehold, NJ to experience what Tad’s should be. All you can eat for about $12 per person & shorter waiting lines than Shake Shack. “Life can be sweet..Sh’boom”.

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Dr A. J. Lepere May 17, 2013 - 10:14 pm

I have to confess, that having passed the Tad’s on 42nd street many times in the late 1960’s, I succumbed once and ate there. My main fascination was with the baked potatoes which were prominently featured, if I remember correctly, in the window, sitting in rock salt on a grill.

Needless to say, I remember the steak being very tough and the baked potato very dry. But for the price, an almost acceptable meal.

Was surprised the learn they were still in business in the same old places@

FWIW

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Doug Douglass May 18, 2013 - 6:21 am

Tad’s New York, 119 West 42nd was incorporated on June 10, 1957.
Tad’s Steaks, Inc, 717 Seventh Avenue incorporated November 10, 1960.
Along with those locations a 1977 phone book lists –
104 East 14th, 154 West 34th, 18 East 42nd, 228 West 42nd, 200 West 50th, and 607 Lex.

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cici May 18, 2013 - 12:07 pm

Heavens to Betsy, I’ve eaten at Tad’s several times. In my mind it was the 60’s, and the price was $1.98. I used to meet my Mother in Times Square after work, eat at Tad’s, I always got a good steak My Mother always got the chewy one (we traded), and then we went to the theater with twofers or the movies. I have nothing but good memories of Tad’s, and amazed it is still in existence.

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George Cassidy May 19, 2013 - 7:20 am

Tad’s had a food concession at the 1964 World’s Fair, multiple stands. So much fat on the meat, the griddle looked like the Chicago Fire and a loud bubble/sizzle that you could track into the stand from 50 feet away. I don’t know how staff could get close enough to the meat to take it on or off without second-degree burns

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jon berger May 19, 2013 - 9:18 am

I worked in the city as a teenager early 70s. I could never summon the courage to eat there. However it seemed they were always busy. TADS was also at the 64-65 NYC Worlds fair too.

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tony z. May 19, 2013 - 10:39 am

Ah!, Brings back memories of my youth. In 1966 I was a student at the New York Institute of Photography on 34 th. St.. Ate at Tad’s quite often. Better then the Automat. At the time it was clean and fit a student budget. The steaks were marinated in large tubs.
I believe the cost was $1.29. Steak, large piece of Garlic bread, and Baked Potato. At 65 years of age I can still remember fondly the smells and tastes. Dark Red wallpaper with a Black design.
Another memory was the 14 th. St. avenue A bus. There was a driver who sang Opera while driving the bus. Quite good as I remember. Also a Hot Dog storefront on Herald Square, can’t come up with the name. NY in the 60’s, Loved it!!

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Glenn Krasner February 16, 2014 - 12:21 am

The hot dog storefront on Herald Square was a Nedick’s. Glenn in the Bronx, NY.

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Beth May 19, 2013 - 1:50 pm

When I was a high school & college student doing research at the NYPL ca. 1978 I would sometimes treat myself to lunch at Tad’s. (There was one right across the street from Grand Central.) Even a steak that was mostly gristle & fat was still steak, and since I had pretty much no income to speak of the price was right! Happy memories. Of course, I haven’t been tempted to go back for more in 30+ years.

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JIM KELLY May 20, 2013 - 8:55 am

I’m still chewing on a TADS steak from the 1970s. How about that for getting your monies worth

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Tal Barzilai May 20, 2013 - 5:51 pm

To some, it was a good place to eat, but to others it wasn’t. Not everything will be your cup of tea. I think those who said it was bad probably got a steak that was either overcooked or undercooked that day. I thought it was a good place when I took my brother there last summer and we both liked it, though he had his with mushrooms while I just had mine with nothing on it. Then again, it’s hard to find a place that makes steaks similar to the ones in restaurants at a fast pace and at a good price. For the record, there are plenty of places I don’t like, but you don’t hear me preventing anyone from going there despite how much I hate it.

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Theoted May 21, 2013 - 2:32 pm

Years ago, I visited Tad’s. I sat down and prepared to dine, but the guy at the next table looked as though he had smoked a joint and dropped mescaline a short time before entering the restaurant and I scooted out the front door before the scene got ugly!

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Bill Priester May 22, 2013 - 7:48 am

Tads!!! When I was a teenager in the mid 1960’s my best friend at the time was telling me that he was going to break away from the usual “cheap date meal” of taking a girl friend for Chinese on Mott Street in Chinatown and, instead, take her to Tad’s uptown after a movie.

I asked him about the experience and he had little to say. I guess it didn’t work out too well! I swear he was the Ralph Kramden of the neighborhood with all sorts of schemes and ideas that never seemed to work out.

Based on his don’t eat, don’t tell moment I never ventured into Tads but the mere mention of this eatery invokes memories of what apparently was a non-event! All sorts of probable events regarding that date still play in my head on occasion (was there a dead rat outside the restaurant, did his date spy the $1.98 neon sign and figure she was worth a better meal and left him flat, did she choke on the steak and die? Only in New York….ya never know!

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nancy August 20, 2014 - 2:50 am

I recently purchaced a platter that was blue with black capital letters on the edge saying TAD’S STEAKS was just trying to find out where and when it originated

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Art Gonzalez October 15, 2014 - 3:08 pm

I grew up in Chicago and my father, who was a delivery driver for a meat packer, would often take us to Tad’s on the weekends back in the late 70s. Funny thing about the restaurant’s location is that although I never found out exactly where in the “loop” it was located I do remember they had a playboy themed pinball machine in the restaurant and when you stepped out onto the street you could see the playboy sign in the distance in the building that housed the magazine’s old headquarters. I suspect the restaurant must have been on the east side of downtown Chicago, possibly on Wabash Ave. under the “L” tracks.

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Fern January 11, 2015 - 11:59 pm

So sorry to see it go. The steaks were delicious and it was always a treat. Their sauce was finger liking good. I’m a New Yorker so I know food, I’ve eaten at the best places, but there is no flavor to replace Tad’s.

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Fern Ros January 12, 2015 - 12:02 am

I loved Tad’s, their sauce will never be replicated. A unique flavor I loved so much. The decor was just part of the experience.

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Rodger Lodger September 16, 2017 - 1:02 pm

I first ate there in 1960, I believe, @ Times Square. The basic steak dinner was $1.19 (about $10 in 2017 dollars). My friend noted it had been raised from $1.09 (84 cents more in 2017 money). I ate there on and off for many years. If you didn’t like it, so what — I probably can’t eat a lot of what you like. Browsing in a bookstore once I came across an explanation of grades of steak in the U.S. Tad’s apparently used what is known as “soup steer”, the bottom of the barrel, tenderized by lots of pounding with mallets, or something. So what, again. Who knows where restaurant food comes from. Perhaps you believe by paying a lot you’re insuring quality and health. Ha!

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J Gyle October 16, 2017 - 6:48 am

I went to Tad’s steak in Times Square in 1994 when i went to new york with my two buddies. I remember 3 things from times square at that time… I saw a guy smoking crack under a marquis, Times square with the cryptic messages on the marquis, and Tad’s Steaks. It was god awful but it was quite the experience. I love your site. Thank you for all you do.

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Steve Del December 23, 2017 - 6:45 pm

18 and fresh out of high school in the early 70’s, my friends and I would take annual bus trips down to the Big Apple from our home in the farmlands of upstate NY to see a few Yankee games. While there we always made the rounds on foot to Times Square, wandering around looking for the next sex shop. Yeah, Summer in the city and Tad’s became our go-to place to “dine”. We loved it, the whole deal of watching the steaks cooking on the firey grill was fun, then taking our trays to sit at a table enjoying the meal. Was it any good? Was it cheap? I guess it was edible because we kept coming back and the place had an air of Manhattan which to us hicks was a big part of the attraction then. “Wow, we’re IN NEW YORK CITY alone!” was our mindset and we didn’t know fine dining from eating Spam anyway so Tad’s impressed us.

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Franco Pitacco April 18, 2018 - 2:16 pm

I had forgotten about Tad’s. Used to eat there in 71/72, when i went to the City from Poughkeepsie for theater.
I had a chance to visit NYC again in 1999, pity i did not remember them.

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Daniel L Schear April 2, 2019 - 11:12 pm

NOTE: THIS IS A SIDEBAR RELATED COMMENT TO THE TAD’S STEAKS TIMES SQUARE NYC BLOG…As a pre-teen 8th grader in Southgate Kentucky ca 1960-62, I always looked forward to Saturday afternoons, taking the 5 mile bus ride north across the Ohio River to downtown Cincinnati where after I and my then best friend Ed would eat at “Tad’s Steaks” on 4th Street followed by a trip on foot to one of the downtown cinemas to catch a first run movie at matinee pricing. The Cincinnati Tad’s was FANTASTIC back then! I recall it started at $1.19 then after about a year ca 1962 went to $1.29 where it stayed for quite awhile. My friend & I enjoyed the char-grilled juicy T-bone Steak with drawn butter ladled on top along with Baked Potato topped with Butter, Sour Cream & Chives, Tossed Mixed-Greens Salad with Roquefort Cheese Dressing, a fountain Coke and slice of Chocolate Cream Pie for dessert. The extra added nicety of the Cincinnati Tad’s was that if we were still hungry for more of anything, the guys behind the counter would please our plates again AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE! (Those days are long gone, lol!) Oh yeah, the best post-Tad’s luncheon movie we saw back then was “Butterfield 8” starring Elizabeth Taylor as a perpetually drunk & pilled-up neurotic Manhattan call girl with an OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD MOUTH to complete the motif! After that movie ended with Liz perishing in a spectacular high speed car crash, my friend and I were confronted by the theater manager who told us the ticket window girl should never have sold us tickets because we were “under age.” Oops! Too Late! LOL!LOL!LOL!

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Anonymous August 20, 2019 - 12:14 am

I saw over a year ago on a stroll that there’s one on West 50th near 7th Avenue and was shocked that any Tad’s were left in the City. I enjoyed passing by this one on West 34th and watching the sky-high flames devour the meats on the grill through that big window. The neon sign was cool too. I went here with my father in the 80s (he still speaks fondly of this place today), and got a meal to go a few years ago before it closed down.

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Fiona March 26, 2020 - 5:45 am

Hi there. I’m Australian and was just recalling my visit to NYC in 1986. Suddenly I thought “Tads Steakhouse”. I was a poor backpacker on my world trip. I was staying at the YMCA on West 34th. Someone said to go to Tads for a decent cheap meal. And that, I did. I am actually a bit of a food snob but as I recall the steak was pretty good. I met a lovely lady who shared my table and she wrote out a list of good cheap eats and things to do in NYC. I think there was also a little bar across the road. I think the YMCA building is also no longer there. Glad to share my NUC memory from afar in Australia!

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Jeffrey H. Wasserman July 3, 2021 - 5:42 am

The 34th location is where many a budget-conscious comic book fan headed for dinner while attending the New York Comic Art Convention at the Statler-Hilton Hotel (now sporting its original Hotel Pennsylvania name) a block away in the early 1970s. In fact, I was at both exactly fifty years ago today for the comics convention. Good times!

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Nas July 21, 2022 - 9:36 am

Can anyone confirm the price in 1967. With my high school part time job, I was just 17, I would take my girl friend to NYC, for a movie and and dinner at Tad’s.. We could also drink, drinking age was 18 we were from NJ so that was a big deal. No one ever IDs. I remember the price being 99cents. Am I right?

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Larry Gertner June 6, 2023 - 8:30 am

From what I can find, the lowest price reported was $1.09. Went I moved to the Union Square area in September 1997, there was a Tad’s on the south side of 14th Street, down from Fourth Avenue. Somehow, $6.99 sticks in my head. Tried it once – it was vile. It’s now a Wells Fargo branch.

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LL December 31, 2023 - 2:46 pm

I thought Tad’s steaks were great! They cooked them on charcoal right in the window.

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