Music icon and heartthrob Frank Sinatra was nothing if not a traditionalist, not letting the fame and fortune of his career affect his profound love of Italian foods and culinary childhood customs. Sure, he had access to some of the best quality foods in the world, including fancy restaurants that he loved across the United States, but Sinatra didn’t need to travel far to find his favorite things. Before he dove into fusilli with garlic and anchovies or veal Milanese, not to be confused with wiener schnitzel, he was known to start with a salad.
Ol’ Blue Eyes preferred the simpler things in life, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t spot a mean arugula salad when he tasted one. As for his favorite? That came from New York City’s Patsy’s Italian Restaurant, where the arugula salad comes sprinkled with sprigs of basil and dressed with a combination of olive oil and red wine vinegar. Sinatra became a frequent flyer at the restaurant in the 1940s and continued decades of dedicated patronage until he was physically unable to venture to the cozy restaurant in his later years.
Arugula salad at Patsy’s was Frank Sinatra’s starter of choice
Despite over 80 years and inevitable changes to the Patsy’s menu, you can still order many of Frank Sinatra’s favorite dishes, including the arugula salad. His preferred choice of toppings may differ from our citrusy arugula salad recipe, but that’s just how the crooner liked it: simple. Today, Patsy’s Italian Restaurant has become something of a shrine to Sinatra, with bronze busts and photos of the singer adorning the walls. On December 12 of every year, the restaurant even celebrates Sinatra’s birthday by serving a number of his favorite meals.
During his many years visiting the restaurant, Sinatra struck up a relationship with the Scognamillo family, the owners of Patsy’s, and is even credited on the restaurant’s website as being the one to make Patsy’s famous. When “The Chairman of the Board” (one of Sinatra’s many nicknames) passed away in May of 1998, friends and family showed up at Patsy’s to commemorate his life and enjoy his favorite foods. To this day, Sinatra’s family still dines at Patsy’s when they’re in the city, further testament to just how good that arugula salad and veal Milanese must be.
