I’ve mentioned the particular legacy of Sammy's Roumanian Steak House on the Lower East Side a few times here before, notably here, which I wrote upon the sad news of its closing in 2021. As detailed in that post, I first heard about the restaurant probably a good decade before I ever knowingly set foot in the place, and this was entirely thanks to its singular advertisement during virtually every broadcast of “Midnight Blue,” the fabled Manhattan cable-access porn program spearheaded by infamous “Screw” Magazine editor/publisher Al Goldstein that ran from the late `70s and into the mid-`90s, I believe. According to Wikipedia, it ran for almost 30 years, but can now be enjoyed on a DVD series with seven (!!!) volumes. `Cos y’know …. ya need that.
In any case, sandwiched between ads for escort services with names like “Tryst” and “Bel-Aire,” the dependably jaunty commercial for Sammy’s would routinely air on “Midnight Blue,” jarringly off-setting grainy vignettes of `70s-era porn with footage of hirsute patrons tucking into some frankly unappetizing-looking dishes, scored by what I can only imagine is some age-old Roumanian pop song as performed by the in-house entertainment at Sammy’s. If you were ever up late enough to watch “Midnight Blue” (which usually did not happen by accident), the likelihood of you viewing the commercial for Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse during proceedings was greater than the promise of a new day. I don’t know if it was Al Goldstein’s favorite restaurant (which is entirely plausible) or if they were just committed sponsors of the program, but the two ventures were inexorably linked by the partnership.
For YEARS, I’ve searched the `net for the Sammy’s commercial, but always came up empty.
… until today.
Fittingly slotted within a cavalcade of cable-access idiocy from the same era, I happened up the very commercial for Sammy’s I’ve spent the last few paragraphs discussing, and it instantly came rushing back to me. If memory serves, my grammar-school pal Robo (not his real name), who lived upstairs from me, at the time (he was on 12, I was on 7) and I once actually made up suitably prurient lyrics to the commercial’s background song, … which ought to give you a pretty firm indication of our loyal “Midnight Blue” viewing habits. I have a vivid memory of sleeping over at Robo’s apartment one night and us furtively staying up late into the evening, watching Channel J (the program’s notorious home) with the volume turned way down, so as not to wake Robo’s preternaturally oblivious parents. When the Sammy’s commercial came on, as if on cue, we both got up and started bopping around the room, applying our rude new lyrics (none of which I can remember now) and giggling like the little morons we were for the next hour and a half.
As mentioned in that earlier post, years later, I actually patronized Sammy’s a few times. On one notable occasion, David Lee Roth was dining at a nearby table. On another, specifically my friend Rob C’s bachelor party, our group somehow inspired our waitress (whose name was Meredith, if memory serves) to flip us a very emphatic bird on our way out the door. Ahhh…. good times.
Here in 2022, if you walk down Chrystie Street, you will not find Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse anymore. Covid-19 put a stop to that venture, even after they’d mounted an unthinkable refurbishment. “Midnight Blue” is no longer on Manhattan cable television. Al Goldstein passed away in 2013 from renal failure. My poor friend Robo, meanwhile, tragically passed away in the very late `90s in a car accident on his wedding night.
And now … without further ado, I proudly present to you ….. the Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse commercial.
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