When Guy Raoul, a French chef and his brother Serge, a TV journalist, opened up a bistro in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood 50 years ago, they didn’t just have to worry about making rent; they also faced mafia demands for protection money, their scion said.
It was a different world back then. The streets were often deserted, the buildings vacant. It was dangerous, and people sometimes disappeared, Serge Raoul’s son Karim Raoul told Side Dish this week.
Mob enforcers often dropped by the French eatery, Raoul’s, to demand payments from the duo.
When the restaurateurs refused to pay up, the mobsters bombed the business, he recounted.
Luckily, only the windows were damaged and “people kept eating” their dinner inside, said Karim.
After more attacks, the journo partner, Serge, got a bright idea: staging a fake TV news story to scare off the mobsters, according to Karim.
Amazingly, the trick worked, according to the proprietor, who said the attacks and extortion demands came to a halt.
Raoul’s has been celebrating such memories of a bygone era this week as it marks a half century in Soho. While the streets have transformed into a giant designer shopping mall, the beloved eatery has changed little over the years. That, of course, is part of its charm.
“It’s never become the ‘in,’ hip place. It has always flowed under the radar, never the hottest place in the city,” Karim told Side Dish. “It’s consistent, not trying to be the best restaurant in New York.”
Opening uptown, where pricey French restaurants like La Grenouille and La Côte Basque were a hit, was not an option for the Raoul brothers in the 1975 – real estate was too expensive.
So they created their own niche on Prince Street near Sullivan Street, where it was a lot more fun.
Serge’s connections from French TV made it seem “like a natural fit for them to bring in all these artists they were interviewing to Raoul’s,” Karim said.
Serge’s journalists also helped combat the mob. They created a fake TV shoot outside the restaurant one night, with bright lights shining, Raoul’s broken window in the background. It was hard to deny the mafia’s existence. They didn’t like the spotlight, and got the message. The extortion threats stopped.
Artists like Andy Warhol were Raoul’s first customers, followed by gallerists like Mary Boone, plus models and actors. While Guy previously worked as a French haute cuisine chef uptown, the French fare at Raoul’s was a little more casual.
Top chef Thomas Keller was Raoul’s chef for a time in 1981 and 1982.
Artists continued to flock to the restaurant, including Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons and Richard Avedon. As time went on, Johnny Depp and Kate Moss were regulars, along with Quentin Tarantino, Julia Roberts, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. “Saturday Night Live” hosted its after-parties for everyone from Lorne Michaels to the late John Belushi at Raoul’s.
At this week’s celebration hosted by Chloë Sevigny and Lauren Santo Domingo, guests included Jennifer Lawrence and her gallerist husband, Cooke Maroney.
While the neighborhood has changed a lot, Raoul’s has remained the same for the past 50 years — and for decades before that, when it was an Italian restaurant, Karim said.
It’s just as famous for its tiny spiral staircase and the tarot card reader upstairs as it is for delicious dishes like the steak au poivre, which has never been off the menu. Housed in a more-than-century-old onetime tenement building, Raoul’s was preceded by an Italian restaurant and a Portuguese dance hall. Countless customers have sat under its tin ceilings in old leather booths or by a 1930s-era Sears catalogue bar.
There’s also the exuberant staff, including, over the years, drag queens encouraged to shine as well as bartenders, busboys and servers who were artists in their own right. Maitre d’ Eddie Hudson has been there 47 years.
“I think what makes it different from most other places is that nobody in the history of restaurants has ever decided to not redo it or rip out the walls. It has been this space since the beginning,” Karim said.
The menu has come full circle, he remarked, noting his father and uncle launched the restaurant with French classics like beef bourguignon.
“Then it veered off into new American and a little less French in the 90s, when the menu was a little lighter and healthier,” Karim said.
“Now it has come back around. Rabbit is back on the menu, along with sweetbreads and things like that. It’s come back to the beginning, but a lighter and more interesting version.”
The proprietor credited Raoul’s lasting power to the people who inhabit the space — especially the staff.
“There has always been a certain freedom [at Raoul’s]. People were able to express themselves through their art — selling it — having drag shows at the bar, whatever,” Karim said. “That’s what made it different, and an entertainment place, not just a restaurant.”
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