December 9, 2025 • 10 mins
In honor of Frank Sinatra’s birthday week, they reminisce about Sinatra’s deep love for Patsy’s, share stories about his favorite meal, and reflect on the statue dedicated to him in the restaurant. The conversation explores Sinatra’s lasting impact on entertainment and how his legacy serves as a source of inspiration for both Mark and Sal.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
He's more marks.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
So Mark Simone show on seven ten wo.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Or well, you know, Patsy is the landmark restaurant fifty
sixth Street between Broadway and Eighth It was Frank Sinatra's
favorite restaurant. And there's a lot to talk about with
Frank Sinatra. It's that time of year, not Christmas. It's
Sinatra's birthday this week and with us right now, the
owner of Patsy sal Skygnamillo Sal How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, Good morning, Mark, Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, buddy.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You too. Frank Sinatra's favorite restaurant. Where do we even start?
Tell us Frank Sinatra's favorite meal? What like? If you
went to Patsy's and said to you make me Sinatra's
favorite meal, what would you make?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
He liked it the auditok reaganot appetizers and then he'd
have some kind of short pasti the pen of Rigatonio
Sperali with the tomato basil sauce which is onions, no garlic.
If I made a galic sauce for him, sometimes you
have the clams the garlic sauce. It would be the
whole garlic. We brace it in the olive oil and
take it out. You see, you had the flavor and
(01:05):
then the edge of tomatoes and clams and white wine
and all the spices, and he loved it. From the
main course, the veal and chicken milonnaise, it's his scillapini beat,
very fawns, flours, sea egg and seasoned bread from fried pills,
Chris a lit will rouble, a tomato salad and most
importantly red wine vinegar nobalsmic Fan.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, that's a very good meal. But if you go
to Patti look at the menu, there's probably twenty five
better things to order there.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
What that's just well, my favorite I like, I like
pasta with cheese, So my favorite is rigatoni so andino
with the tomato basil. Regard to Milton Mola, Palmachan, all
the Palmegan's and Gueeny with the clam sauce. Popular h
anything with fish, locks, the fry, the owl, I think
it's spectacular, makes a great dish, and you know, just
(01:50):
a lot of great Southern Italian classics. The heart of
the menu the same. Only three chefs all these years
was my grandfather, squal Patsy Scott, the Millow, my dad
and my else. It's over eighty one years now and
this Friday would have been Frank one hundred and tenth
birthday and we always celebrate his birthday at a restaurant
with a beautiful muncheon. From our twelfth to three, it's
(02:12):
going to be halted by Adriana Trigiani. She's a very
famous author. She's written I think twenty seven books. Our
latest book was A View from Lake Cuomo, which we
actually had the book signing and our restaurant. It was
just sold out, so much sold out. We added a
second event and so popular, great stuff. We're going to
have some video tributes also. We are not in person,
(02:33):
but video tributes. We have Michael Biblay and Robert Dobby,
Steve Longame son David Beautiful because they loved the play too,
and Gene Kelly's wife Patricia Kelly beautiful stuff. And the latest,
the real surprise guest we just added is Frank Sinatra's granddaughter, A. J.
Lambert is going to be there and it's just so exciting.
(02:55):
She's such a such a sweet woman. That's Nancy's daughter
and we're gonna be so happy. We've got Steve Maglio
who performs at the Carnegie Club. The Sinatra tributes all
the time.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, that's this. Friday is Sinatra's birthday, the.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Twelfth, so you can Friday is the birthday.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Can people go to this Sinatra luncheon?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, we have about five seats left. They can call
the restaurant two one two two four seven three four
nine one two one two two four seven three four
nine one includes all this great entertainment and of course, uh,
Frank's favorite meal as between on some things we've talked about,
and it's going to be a great time. We always, uh,
we always love remembering him.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Hony people, how much is it to go to this
Frank Sinatra Luncheon?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's a one ninety five plus taxi.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Tip one ye, yes, well that includes music and the
food and the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Music, everything, the whole nine yards and it's uh, it
always sells act this this year. We just had a
few few seats left. It's always so much fun and
everybody enjoys. It's just a wonderful remembrance of such a
spectacular man. And I know how much you loved him
and how much you know about him. You're definitely an
encyclopedia when it comes to Frank Sinatra. But you just
(04:12):
take a look at the wall of all the photos
we have, and almost everyone could be traced back to
Frank Sinatra, like he brought in Jackie Gleeson, who brought
in the Rosemary Coon, who brought in George Corney, you know.
And Jerry Stilla was very close friends with Nancy Sinatra,
and of course they brought their son, Ben Stola. He
wrote the phot Nancy and the Sinatra wrote the forward
to my first cookbook, and Ben Stilla wrote the forward
(04:34):
to my second cookbook. And we sell, you know, during
the holidays, we sell a lot of that as a gift.
If you don't know what to get anyone, we have
apasta sauces, mariinada, frodiallo, tomato basil and vodka sauce. You
can get the cookbooks, and we have a little gift
box at some pasta and coffee. If you don't know
what to get anyone, you go to our website which
is Patchies without the apostrophe p A T s y
(04:57):
s dot com. And you said it's all only location
where between Ast and Broadway by Connegie Hall and no great.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
When you go to Patsy's, do not rush right into
the restaurant when you walk through the door, stop and
look at the pictures on the wall. These are all
the customers through the years, all famous, famous faces. Look
at all the pictures and look carefully the end of
the bar. There's a beautiful statue of Frank Sinatra there.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So that one we got. It was commissioned by Tina Sinatra.
I think there's only a nine hundred limited edition. We
have that for many, many years. And then on the
upstairs we have a smaller statue of Frank Dean and
Sammy the rat Pack. A great, great remembrance. Is great fun.
We're is so lucky because even like last week, my
(05:44):
wife is a big country music fan. And Kenny Chesney
came in and he said the first time he came
here was seeming like thirty years ago because he heard
it was Frank Sinatra's favorite place. So you can't ask
for a better pr guy than that.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
All right, now, let me ask you an important question.
Let's Sinatra would always pick up the check. Let's there
was a whole bunch of people to check was a
thousand dollars? What would Sinatra tip on that?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh? He was easily thirty thirty five percent without And
that's not including the hundreds he threw out everybody when
one hundred dollars was a lot of money. Yes, he was.
He was so generous. I mean, he just was in
every way, I mean, with his philanthropy, with his help,
and the most important point, and I know you know
this Mark was he wanted to be anonymous. He just
(06:28):
wanted to do it because he wanted to do it,
not to get his name in the paper. Yeah, and
that's just such a wonderful quality. The man was so
ahead of his time, even with civil rights. Thought you,
I don't have to tell you all those stories.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Now when he was in the restaurants, Big Tipper ended
out hundreds and that was like thousands back then. Also,
how many times would he pick up the check for
other tables?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh, so many times. There's so many times. The most
famous one I think I probably told you New York
Yankees were in they won the World Series. He they
introduced to each other and at the end of the
night Sinatra left and Billie Martin was manager back then.
He says, all right, now that Frank left, we can leave.
He says, give me the check. He says, too late,
Frank paid for you for.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
The whole team, the entire Yankees.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
There was one time, Mark, I don't know if I
told you this story. One time when he said to
my father, he says, me and Barbara and another couple
were coming in. It's okay for the other man to
pay the check. And Ty came to pay the check.
He gave him his gold American Express card. It was denied.
It wind up that that was the president of American
(07:28):
Express and his goal call is denied. He thought Sinatra
was playing a practical joke on him.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And he was I don't know how he pulled that off,
but that was Jim Robinson, right, the chairman of America Express.
Somehow Sinatra got his card to be denied.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, they were friends. They lived close together on pom Springs. Yeah,
it was so. I was the one time because he
said I don't want I don't want to owe anyone anything.
You know, because when he was down and out, nobody
wanted to talk to him. When he came back, he says,
now I don't want nothing from nobody. So God bless him.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, if you want to celebrate Sinatra, this Friday is
the birthday Frank Sinatra. It's December twelfth and they've been
doing this every year for a million years, the Sinatra
Birthday party, and it's at Patsies. They'll be live music,
singing and some well known people there. And so what
now what do people do? If they want to come,
you make a reservation.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Please please give us a call at the restaurant. It's
two and two two four seven three four nine one
two one two two four seven three four nine one
and so the products and everything else. You go to
the website it's Patsies dot com, p A T. S
y s No apostrophe dot com. And it's it's always
such fun, it's it's such a great event. I know
(08:37):
w O has been there many times. Yeah, you've been
there too as well.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Make sure you follow Patsy's on Patsy's Italian Restaurant on Instagram.
Very good pictures, all sorts of stuff there. We only
got a few seconds left. Sinatra always brought a lot
of people to dinner. What's the biggest unto rush you
ever came in with?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh, he was there when he when he did for
the seventy fifth birthday of James. He took over the
whole upstairs and it was probably probably about eighty or
eighty five people came time to sing Happy Birthday to
James Cagney. Dean Martin was singing, Sammy Davis was doing
a soft shoe, and Sinatra was just about to join
(09:15):
him to sing Happy Birthday to James Cagney. My father
said wait, wait, Frank, you can't do this, and Frank
Sinatra got mad. What can I do? My father said,
I can't afford this kind of entertainment here.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
But if you want to see and again, when you
walk into Patsy's, don't rush in, stop us through. You
come through the door and look at the pictures on
the wall. They're amazing of all the celebrities were there,
and he's called Patsy's. Follow him on Instagram Patsy's Italian
Restaurant sal great stuff. Thanks for being with.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Us, always a pleasure. God bless you happy and healthy
to you and your family.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Thanks you, take care. Thanks, Hey, don't forget we got
the Hunger Thign. You know, we raise money every year
for people that are hungry who need help, and Hunger
Thion raises millions to feed people's struggling with hungers. So
they do an auction all kinds of take a look
at the auction. There's all kinds of great packages. One
is even you can come visit the studio here, you
(10:09):
can sit right over there. You can come on the
air if you want, promote something, if you want take
a tour of iHeart all our great stations, a lot
of great different auction packages. Just go to hungerthon dot
org slash iHeart hungerthon dot org slash iHeart
He's more marks.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
So Mark Simone show on seven ten wo.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Or well, you know, Patsy is the landmark restaurant fifty
sixth Street between Broadway and Eighth It was Frank Sinatra's
favorite restaurant. And there's a lot to talk about with
Frank Sinatra. It's that time of year, not Christmas. It's
Sinatra's birthday this week and with us right now, the
owner of Patsy sal Skygnamillo Sal How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, Good morning, Mark, Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, buddy.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You too. Frank Sinatra's favorite restaurant. Where do we even start?
Tell us Frank Sinatra's favorite meal? What like? If you
went to Patsy's and said to you make me Sinatra's
favorite meal, what would you make?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
He liked it the auditok reaganot appetizers and then he'd
have some kind of short pasti the pen of Rigatonio
Sperali with the tomato basil sauce which is onions, no garlic.
If I made a galic sauce for him, sometimes you
have the clams the garlic sauce. It would be the
whole garlic. We brace it in the olive oil and
take it out. You see, you had the flavor and
(01:05):
then the edge of tomatoes and clams and white wine
and all the spices, and he loved it. From the
main course, the veal and chicken milonnaise, it's his scillapini beat,
very fawns, flours, sea egg and seasoned bread from fried pills,
Chris a lit will rouble, a tomato salad and most
importantly red wine vinegar nobalsmic Fan.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, that's a very good meal. But if you go
to Patti look at the menu, there's probably twenty five
better things to order there.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
What that's just well, my favorite I like, I like
pasta with cheese, So my favorite is rigatoni so andino
with the tomato basil. Regard to Milton Mola, Palmachan, all
the Palmegan's and Gueeny with the clam sauce. Popular h
anything with fish, locks, the fry, the owl, I think
it's spectacular, makes a great dish, and you know, just
(01:50):
a lot of great Southern Italian classics. The heart of
the menu the same. Only three chefs all these years
was my grandfather, squal Patsy Scott, the Millow, my dad
and my else. It's over eighty one years now and
this Friday would have been Frank one hundred and tenth
birthday and we always celebrate his birthday at a restaurant
with a beautiful muncheon. From our twelfth to three, it's
(02:12):
going to be halted by Adriana Trigiani. She's a very
famous author. She's written I think twenty seven books. Our
latest book was A View from Lake Cuomo, which we
actually had the book signing and our restaurant. It was
just sold out, so much sold out. We added a
second event and so popular, great stuff. We're going to
have some video tributes also. We are not in person,
(02:33):
but video tributes. We have Michael Biblay and Robert Dobby,
Steve Longame son David Beautiful because they loved the play too,
and Gene Kelly's wife Patricia Kelly beautiful stuff. And the latest,
the real surprise guest we just added is Frank Sinatra's granddaughter, A. J.
Lambert is going to be there and it's just so exciting.
(02:55):
She's such a such a sweet woman. That's Nancy's daughter
and we're gonna be so happy. We've got Steve Maglio
who performs at the Carnegie Club. The Sinatra tributes all
the time.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, that's this. Friday is Sinatra's birthday, the.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Twelfth, so you can Friday is the birthday.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Can people go to this Sinatra luncheon?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, we have about five seats left. They can call
the restaurant two one two two four seven three four
nine one two one two two four seven three four
nine one includes all this great entertainment and of course, uh,
Frank's favorite meal as between on some things we've talked about,
and it's going to be a great time. We always, uh,
we always love remembering him.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Hony people, how much is it to go to this
Frank Sinatra Luncheon?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's a one ninety five plus taxi.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Tip one ye, yes, well that includes music and the
food and the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Music, everything, the whole nine yards and it's uh, it
always sells act this this year. We just had a
few few seats left. It's always so much fun and
everybody enjoys. It's just a wonderful remembrance of such a
spectacular man. And I know how much you loved him
and how much you know about him. You're definitely an
encyclopedia when it comes to Frank Sinatra. But you just
(04:12):
take a look at the wall of all the photos
we have, and almost everyone could be traced back to
Frank Sinatra, like he brought in Jackie Gleeson, who brought
in the Rosemary Coon, who brought in George Corney, you know.
And Jerry Stilla was very close friends with Nancy Sinatra,
and of course they brought their son, Ben Stola. He
wrote the phot Nancy and the Sinatra wrote the forward
to my first cookbook, and Ben Stilla wrote the forward
(04:34):
to my second cookbook. And we sell, you know, during
the holidays, we sell a lot of that as a gift.
If you don't know what to get anyone, we have
apasta sauces, mariinada, frodiallo, tomato basil and vodka sauce. You
can get the cookbooks, and we have a little gift
box at some pasta and coffee. If you don't know
what to get anyone, you go to our website which
is Patchies without the apostrophe p A T s y
(04:57):
s dot com. And you said it's all only location
where between Ast and Broadway by Connegie Hall and no great.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
When you go to Patsy's, do not rush right into
the restaurant when you walk through the door, stop and
look at the pictures on the wall. These are all
the customers through the years, all famous, famous faces. Look
at all the pictures and look carefully the end of
the bar. There's a beautiful statue of Frank Sinatra there.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So that one we got. It was commissioned by Tina Sinatra.
I think there's only a nine hundred limited edition. We
have that for many, many years. And then on the
upstairs we have a smaller statue of Frank Dean and
Sammy the rat Pack. A great, great remembrance. Is great fun.
We're is so lucky because even like last week, my
(05:44):
wife is a big country music fan. And Kenny Chesney
came in and he said the first time he came
here was seeming like thirty years ago because he heard
it was Frank Sinatra's favorite place. So you can't ask
for a better pr guy than that.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
All right, now, let me ask you an important question.
Let's Sinatra would always pick up the check. Let's there
was a whole bunch of people to check was a
thousand dollars? What would Sinatra tip on that?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh? He was easily thirty thirty five percent without And
that's not including the hundreds he threw out everybody when
one hundred dollars was a lot of money. Yes, he was.
He was so generous. I mean, he just was in
every way, I mean, with his philanthropy, with his help,
and the most important point, and I know you know
this Mark was he wanted to be anonymous. He just
(06:28):
wanted to do it because he wanted to do it,
not to get his name in the paper. Yeah, and
that's just such a wonderful quality. The man was so
ahead of his time, even with civil rights. Thought you,
I don't have to tell you all those stories.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Now when he was in the restaurants, Big Tipper ended
out hundreds and that was like thousands back then. Also,
how many times would he pick up the check for
other tables?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh, so many times. There's so many times. The most
famous one I think I probably told you New York
Yankees were in they won the World Series. He they
introduced to each other and at the end of the
night Sinatra left and Billie Martin was manager back then.
He says, all right, now that Frank left, we can leave.
He says, give me the check. He says, too late,
Frank paid for you for.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
The whole team, the entire Yankees.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
There was one time, Mark, I don't know if I
told you this story. One time when he said to
my father, he says, me and Barbara and another couple
were coming in. It's okay for the other man to
pay the check. And Ty came to pay the check.
He gave him his gold American Express card. It was denied.
It wind up that that was the president of American
(07:28):
Express and his goal call is denied. He thought Sinatra
was playing a practical joke on him.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And he was I don't know how he pulled that off,
but that was Jim Robinson, right, the chairman of America Express.
Somehow Sinatra got his card to be denied.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, they were friends. They lived close together on pom Springs. Yeah,
it was so. I was the one time because he
said I don't want I don't want to owe anyone anything.
You know, because when he was down and out, nobody
wanted to talk to him. When he came back, he says,
now I don't want nothing from nobody. So God bless him.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, if you want to celebrate Sinatra, this Friday is
the birthday Frank Sinatra. It's December twelfth and they've been
doing this every year for a million years, the Sinatra
Birthday party, and it's at Patsies. They'll be live music,
singing and some well known people there. And so what
now what do people do? If they want to come,
you make a reservation.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Please please give us a call at the restaurant. It's
two and two two four seven three four nine one
two one two two four seven three four nine one
and so the products and everything else. You go to
the website it's Patsies dot com, p A T. S
y s No apostrophe dot com. And it's it's always
such fun, it's it's such a great event. I know
(08:37):
w O has been there many times. Yeah, you've been
there too as well.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Make sure you follow Patsy's on Patsy's Italian Restaurant on Instagram.
Very good pictures, all sorts of stuff there. We only
got a few seconds left. Sinatra always brought a lot
of people to dinner. What's the biggest unto rush you
ever came in with?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh, he was there when he when he did for
the seventy fifth birthday of James. He took over the
whole upstairs and it was probably probably about eighty or
eighty five people came time to sing Happy Birthday to
James Cagney. Dean Martin was singing, Sammy Davis was doing
a soft shoe, and Sinatra was just about to join
(09:15):
him to sing Happy Birthday to James Cagney. My father
said wait, wait, Frank, you can't do this, and Frank
Sinatra got mad. What can I do? My father said,
I can't afford this kind of entertainment here.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
But if you want to see and again, when you
walk into Patsy's, don't rush in, stop us through. You
come through the door and look at the pictures on
the wall. They're amazing of all the celebrities were there,
and he's called Patsy's. Follow him on Instagram Patsy's Italian
Restaurant sal great stuff. Thanks for being with.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Us, always a pleasure. God bless you happy and healthy
to you and your family.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Thanks you, take care. Thanks, Hey, don't forget we got
the Hunger Thign. You know, we raise money every year
for people that are hungry who need help, and Hunger
Thion raises millions to feed people's struggling with hungers. So
they do an auction all kinds of take a look
at the auction. There's all kinds of great packages. One
is even you can come visit the studio here, you
(10:09):
can sit right over there. You can come on the
air if you want, promote something, if you want take
a tour of iHeart all our great stations, a lot
of great different auction packages. Just go to hungerthon dot
org slash iHeart hungerthon dot org slash iHeart
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