Established 1887 Rating Country United States | Food type Steakhouse Street address 178 Broadway | |
 | ||
City Brooklyn and Great Neck | ||
Peter Luger Steak House is a steakhouse located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York City, with a second location in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island.
Peter Luger has been named the best steakhouse in New York City by Zagat Survey for 30 years in a row. The Brooklyn location is known for its long wooden bar, and the "dining rooms have a Teutonic air, with exposed wooden beams, burnished oak wainscoting, brass chandeliers and weathered beer-hall tables".
In 2002, it was named to the James Beard Foundation's list of "America's Classics".
History
The Brooklyn location was established in 1887 as "Carl Luger's Café, Billiards and Bowling Alley" in the then-predominantly German neighborhood that would shortly thereafter be in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge. German-born Peter Luger (1866–1941) was the owner and nephew Carl was the chef; when Peter died the restaurant declined.
In 1950, Peter Luger's son shut the restaurant and put it up for auction. Bernard and Lester Magrill, local auctioneers and frequent patrons, conducted the auction. Sol Forman, who owned a metal giftware factory across the street, bought it for "a whimsically low bid". According to Lester Magrill, the purchase price was $35,000, which included the building as well as the restaurant. According to one history, "the neighborhood was declining, filling up with Hasidic Jews, whose kosher rules forbade the eating of Luger's hindquarters. Forman had been eating at Luger for twenty-five years, and he needed a place to take his clients. He was the only bidder during the auction. The purchase cemented the friendship between the Magrills and Formans and Lester frequented the restaurant almost five days a week for sixty years. Legend has it that Lester visited the Great Neck restaurant one evening and when mistreated by the Maitre'd, he asked to use the house phone. He turned to the offending host and stated, 'It's for you'. On the other end of the phone an irate Sol Forman fired the offending host on the spot and Magrill was immediately seated. A rave from über-critic Craig Claiborne in The New York Times was proof that Forman had kept the Luger faith—and the four-star review generated a new legion of the faithful."
Forman opened a Great Neck, New York location, which was closed in 1984 after a fire severely damaged the restaurant, reopening in a year and a half later in 1986.
Forman died in 2001 at the age of 98.
In July 2009, while having dinner at Peter Luger, New York Governor David Paterson secretly had Richard Ravitch sworn in as Lieutenant Governor to oversee the stalemate-stricken State Senate.