Fordham Road Greats

March 13th, 2012 § 15 comments

Rosenhain’s. Fanciest restaurant in The Bronx. Flourished in the 30’s-40’s. Charles Lindbergh met there with both the owner (Max Rosenhain) and ransom intermediaries during his son’s kidnapping.

Lido-Riviera. Fordham University football team celebrated there after they beat Missouri in the 1942 Sugar Bowl.

Jackson’s Steak House. The late Gil Scott-Heron — the great poet, jazz musician and inconic influence on the entire genre of music known as hip hop — worked there when he was a Bronx teenager.

Bordewick’s. Food and dancing. Hillman’s. Hearty, German-influenced food.

Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe — A relative latecomer to the game made Fordham Road sparkle for a number of years with great Puerto Rican Carribean-Creole Food.

All gone. All flourished on Fordham Road, the lively Bronx thoroughfare that runs east-west between Major Deegan Expressway and Bronx Park. Lots to see on Fordham Road. The Fordham campus on Rose Hill. The super-busy shopping district. The 11-building Fordham Hill co-op high-rise apartment complex overlooking the Harlem River. It’s known as “The Oasis In The Bronx.”

Yes, there are plenty of great restaurants left in the Bronx and even close by Fordham Road itself, but great food on the Road? All vanished. All gone.

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§ 15 Responses to Fordham Road Greats"

  • Karl says:

    Thanks for the Bronx history.
    I have a great postcard showing Rosenhain’s bar.

  • Susan Schwalb says:

    My grandfather was Max Rosenhain. I would love to see a picture of Rosenhain’s bar. I just bought a matchbook cover online. I was never in the restaurant as it closed before I was born or when I was a very little child. Anyone with other pictures I would love to see them.

  • Jack matero says:

    when did jacksons steakhouse close? I have a swizzle stik from there

    • Gerry says:

      Don’t know when it closed.Loved it when it was open.

      • Eve Sorto says:

        Jackson is the place that had the wine bottles hanging (or embedded) over the walls, yes? I was a mere 6 or 7 years old the last time that I was there. Does anyone have photo, memorabilia of some type? Thanks

  • Laura Schoolcraft says:

    My father was a waiter there. I was very young . This would be in the 40’s and 50’s. I have a menu that my niece discovered among my brothers things. Daddy use to take me in to meet the staff and they would give me Spumoni.
    Fordham Road was at is best is those days.

    • susan knauer says:

      it had to be the 50’s i was very small. my father was the bartender there. there was a piano player and i would dace on top.

  • Peter Schleifer says:

    My grandfather’s cousin Max worked at Rosenhain’s, according to his WWII draft card, probably as a waiter.

  • Karen Gordon Waldauer says:

    I have very warm memories of regular week-end dinners at Rosenhain’s with my parents when I was a young girl– probably 6 or 7 years old to start, and ending when the restaurant closed. I’m 83 now, and still recall the warm dark wood paneling, the lovely food, and gracious atmosphere.

  • John R Backman says:

    What was the restaurant in the Fordham, Tremont area in the 60’s which had white tile floors, terrific waiters, and ? Polpettes. ?

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