Well...Lynnn...you have found the 'very place' and I SAID...CAFE...but in the script it says...Polish Tea House...so this is indeed the place (on 27th Street) that Neil Simon was setting this play on/and about. You also mentioned Jackie Mason going there and that is the person in the play (named Mikey and played by Eddie Merkka).....is suppose to be 'a Jackie Mason-type'...as it says in the script.

My role is Bernie (an older man in his early 70's)..so this matches the older man that you said owned the Polish Tea House.

I thank you for sharing this with me..and I will tell the cast that the show is actually based on this place you know about.

As for what I think Susan would have on a sandwich named after here would be...
TUNA...(wonder why?) Couldn't be because she loved fishing so much..could it?
PLUS...the fact that it a tuna fish sandwich that this young 'hopeful' actress orders...because that's what her mother always used to order here, when she came to seek star-fame, when she was young. Bernie even finds her mother's picture and tells her..."If you would like to sit with your mother..I will bring her picture over for you."

So...there would be TWO reasons that I would start with...TUNA for a Susan sandwich. (ha)...NOW..>I WONDER if SUSAN really liked to eat fish..or just liked the sport of catching them? BERNIE..hopes she likes...TUNA!! (LOL)

(WHAT an odd topic...???)

So glad I could be of help, Errol. But you'll have to forgive me for putting the wrong address down. The Polish Tea House was on 48th Street--not 27th St! Don't know how I got it so wrong? Where was my mind? WHAT mind!

Anyway, I believe that the place that took the cafe over when the owner died, MAY have been affiliated in some way, but I don't think that all those delectable Eastern European dishes still arrive at your table!


What a funny story in the play about this young woman being encouraged by her star-struck mother to order tuna sandwiches--if you wanted to seek fame and fortune! (It may not win you an Oscar, but funnily enough, tuna (and chicken salad) sandwiches have always seemed to be some sort of 'national lunch staple' for young women working in New York!)

My Mom's generation 'feasted' over these 'exotic' lunches....and so did my own generation......and the one just after mine! For the life of me, I'm not quite certain 'why' the big deal!?!

(More about those Carnegie Deli 'exclusive' sandwiches, named for the 'stars', when I write more in another post! Tuna for Susan, eh? I'd thought, for her, more about blood-red, strips of Porterhouse steak with all the trimmings, etc.!") I shall try to find their menu, which I once saved, because they listed some rather interesting concoctions!

That WOULD be an odd topic, Errol...and fun to match the 'famous' with their food fetishes!

Cheers, Lynn