[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3802-S3803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         BILLY'S RESTAURANT CELE- BRATES ITS 125TH ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, 125 years ago this March 13, the 
incomparable Billy's restaurant in New York City opened its doors for 
the first time. Billy's is known as ``New York's oldest family-owned 
restaurant,'' but it is much more than that. It is an institution in 
New York, a regal old establishment that has catered to coal-yard 
workers, lawyers, politicians, actors and actresses, even a princess on 
occasion.
  Billy's is a special place to my wife Elizabeth and me; we dined 
there often during our courtship, back when Billy's occupied a corner 
near 56th Street and First Avenue. Billy's has moved a few blocks south 
since then, but still has its original mahogany bar, gaslight fixtures, 
and those red-check tablecloths.
  A fine article in the March 9, 1995, edition of ``Our Town'' details 
the history of Billy's restaurant, Mr. President, a history that 
mirrors a great deal of the history of New York. Billy's 125th 
anniversary celebration begins on Monday, and I simply wish to 
congratulate Joan Condron Borkowski, the third generation proprietor of 
this venerable old establishment.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article from the 
March 9, 1995 edition of ``Our Town'' be printed in the Record, and I 
commend it to the attention of the Senate.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     [From Our Town, Mar. 9, 1995]

                             Family Recipe

                        (By Nelson Williams Jr.)

       It's seven o'clock on a Monday night and Billy's is 
     bustling. The bartenders are mixing martinis for businessmen 
     flanked by briefcases at the bar, and waiters in red jackets 
     and bow ties maneuver through tables toting plates of thick 
     steaks and chops. There's no music, just the convivial rumble 
     of conversation coming from patrons in the dining rooms 
     dotted with red checked tablecloths.
       It could be 1895 or 1995--it just so happens it's the 
     latter. Yet if restaurant founder Michael ``Mickey'' Condron 
     walked through the swinging double doors up front this 
     evening, he'd immediately recognize the place.
       Believe it or not, Billy's hasn't changed much in more than 
     a century. The gaslight saloon has moved twice--once, in 
     1880, from its initial location at First Avenue near 56th 
     Street to the southeast corner of the same block; and 29 
     years ago, when its Sutton Place building came down. Now at 
     948 First Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd streets, Billy's is 
     less than five blocks from its first location and still 
     boasts its original, hand carved mahogany bar, gaslight 
     fixtures, six-handled ale pump, and walk-in cooler.
       This week, New York's oldest family owned restaurant turns 
     125 years old. Stop by from March 12-18, or anytime for that 
     matter, and third-generation owner Joan Condron Borkowski 
     will give you a hug and lead you past old photos of New York 
     dating to 1860 on the way to a table. While seating you, 
     she'll likely tell a tale or two about Billy's the East Side 
     watering hole her great-grandfather founded in 1870.
       Mickey and Bridget Condron were just over from Cork, 
     Ireland, then and catered to the thirsts of coal-yard workers 
     and drivers from the local breweries. They wouldn't serve 
     women or mix drinks, but all the food you could put away was 
     free as long as you kept emptying your glass. As was the 
     custom at such Old World pubs, the floor was covered in 
     sawdust to soak up the spilled suds, and buggies rolled right 
     to the front door of the Upper East Side saloon.
       ``Fifty-sixth Street was the end of civilization'' in those 
     days, says Borkowski, 50, who recalls ``dancing on the bar'' 
     when she was three years old.
       In the beginning, before the turn of the century, the 
     saloon had no name, but everyone called it ``Mickey's,'' 
     after the round-faced man behind the bar. After they'd been 
     open a decade,
      Mickey got it in his head that a restaurant should be on a 
     corner and talked the grocer at the end of the block into 
     swapping shops. He brought his son, William, aboard in 
     1902.
       With William came his wife, Clara, a squat mountain of a 
     woman who stood just four-foot two yet strained the scales at 
     450 pounds. Routinely stationed at a tale in the center of 
     the main dining room she was referred to simply as ``Mrs. 
     Billy.''
       During the First World War, the story goes, a general was 
     waiting at the bar for a seat when Mrs. Billy sidled up to 
     him and barked, ``Hey, sergeant, your table's ready!'' 
     Perhaps because of her considerable girth--or because the 
     military man knew he was outranked--the general didn't say a 
     word while being relocated, ``She didn't know what all the 
     stripes meant,'' chuckles Borkowski.
       William Jr. and his wife, Mildred, had joined the business 
     by this time and when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, State 
     liquor laws required that each drinking establishment be 
     registered under a formal name.
       Thus Billy's was born--and began to thrive, building upon 
     its neighborhood, working-man core to include among its 
     clientele some of New York's most notable businessmen, 
     politicians, writers and celebrities. Even today, regulars 
     include Henry Kissinger, Bill Blass and William F. Buckley 
     Jr. Regardless of clout, Billy Jr. served everyone 
     conversation and drinks from behind the bar while ``playing 
     the piano''--a euphemism he used for running the register.
       After discouraging his college educated daughter from 
     working at the restaurant--saying it was ``no place for a 
     woman''--he hired her as a waitress. ``He didn't like 
     juggling the tables and say I could do it,'' Borkowski says.
       She learned grace under fire the day in the late '60s when 
     a First Avenue ticker-tape parade for astronaut John Glenn 
     resulted in an overflowing house--she was the sole waitress 
     on duty. Glenn himself didn't dine in Billy's that day, but 
     Borkowski remembers when Grace Kelly did after returning to 
     the States for her father's funeral. ``Everybody felt you 
     should bow to her,'' recalls Borkowski, who took over full 
     time for her late father in 1988.
       When Princess Grace asked for a hamburger with grilled 
     onions, her brother's jaw dropped in amazement. The former 
     film star shrugged off his objection, insisting that ``the 
     Prince won't let me have one at Monaco, so I'll have it 
     here!''
       During regular visits to Billy's, Marilyn Monroe had a 
     special table in the back. Once, when her mink stole fell to 
     the floor, busboys and waiters jockeyed to replace it around 
     her shoulders. ``Don't worry about it,'' Borkowski recalls 
     the actress giggling, ``I've got seven more like this one at 
     home.''
       Billy's itself made a cameo appearance in the blockbuster 
     Robert Redford-Barbra Streisand movie. ``The Way We Were,'' 
     providing the setting for a lengthy scene that appeared in 
     Alan Laurents' novel of the same name. ``Most of it ended up 
     on the editing-room floor,'' says Borkowski sadly, ``All you 
     see is a red checked tablecloth.
       In a ``Philadelphia Inquirer'' article, actress Helen Hayes 
     once called Billy's her favorite restaurant in the world, 
     according to the owner. Still, it's the everyday folks who 
     have made Billy's an East Side Institution.
       ``It's a time capsule,'' says regular Leo Yockin, who dines 
     out six nights a week--at least one of those evenings at 
     Billy's. ``The only thing I've seen change in the last 10 
     years is that [the maitre d'] doesn't wear a red jacket 
     anymore.''
       If the attire's slightly altered, the faces are the same. 
     ``The staff hasn't changed since I've been coming here,'' 
     says one customer, ``and I first ate here 20 years ago.''
       Hostess Hermy O'Sullivan has been greeting and seating 
     people at Billy's for 39 years. Waiters Joe Donadie and Gus 
     Smolich have been scribbling orders for 32 and 27 years, 
     respectively. ``The customers have kept me here,'' says 
     Donadie,
      ``It's almost like a private club.''
       The head broiler man, Ramon ``R.C.'' Diaz, started as a 
     dishwasher two decades ago before graduating to the kitchen's 
     top spot. Night bartender Sal D'Ambrosio has been pouring 
     drinks for 15 years.
       ``They're still calling me the new guy,'' says waiter Ivan 
     Sladen, ``and I've been here eight years.''
       The king of all Billy's career employees, though, has been 
     Alex Dombrowski, who the current Mrs. Billy says was ``like a 
     brother to my father.'' After the war, during which 
     Dombrowski was shot in the head and leg, Billy Jr. made good 
     on a promise of providing his buddy with a job. Before his 
     death in the 1980s, Dombrowski put in 44 years at the eatery, 
     working his way up from hoisting the basement dumbwaiter to 
     serving as manager.
       ``If I hire anybody as a waiter or waitress, they're not 
     just technicians,'' says Borkowski, who lives with her 
     mother, Mildred, and orders meals for them nightly from 
     Billy's. ``I look for heart along with technique. They have 
     to really care about whether diners are having a good time.''
       That, by all accounts, is the key to Billy's longevity. 
     ``There are cheaper places in towns,'' explains longtime 
     customer Alvin 
     [[Page S3803]] Levine, ``but no one pays attention to quality 
     and service like Billy's.''
       Borkowski, who say she learned about taking care of 
     customers from her parents, reveals the family's secret 
     recipe for success: ``Good quality food, good atmosphere, 
     good service, and a reasonable price--if you don't have those 
     four ingredients,'' says Borkowski, ``you won't succeed. You 
     could serve the best meal in town, but if you throw it at the 
     customer, they won't be back.''
       Customers--and their children and grandchildren--have been 
     coming to Billy's for steaks and seafood for more years than 
     any other family-owned restaurant in the city (Barbetta was 
     founded in 1906, and Grotta Azzurra Inn came two years 
     later.) Bridging generations, Billy's has endured four wars, 
     two stockmarket crashes, Prohibition (during which they 
     continued to sell beer), 26 presidents and 15,625 days, as 
     one customer recently calculated between courses.
       ``It's not an easy life--you have to want it,'' says 
     Borkowski. ``You're married to it. But the customers keep you 
     going. We share in their celebrations and their sorrows.''
       From Sunday to next Saturday, Billy's invited old and new 
     customers alike to share in its 125th anniversary 
     celebration. Borkowski and her 24-year old daughter, Susan, 
     who recently received a communications degree yet often puts 
     in an appearance as the restaurant's fourth-generation heir, 
     encourage diners to dress in late 19th Century costumes and 
     eat to the sounds of Victorian music.
       ``We can't do what we originally did--give away all the 
     food you could eat with drinks,'' says Borkowski. ``But with 
     any entree, you get a free cocktail.''
       Also, at the bar, your first beverage will be regular price 
     and the second will go for its long ago rate--five cents for 
     beer and 95 cents for liquor.
       Maybe they'll even throw sawdust on the floor.
       

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