Quo Vadis

“Le Restaurant Par Excellence”

Quo Vadis
1946–1984
Continental (French/Italian)

Ownership:

Romeo Mattiusi and Bernard Norget (January 1982–1983)

Gino Robusti and Bruno Caravaggi (1946–1981; 1983–1984)

Location:

The Leonori, 26 East 63rd Street

Publications:

Tashjian, Rachel. “Bob Colacello Remembers Andy Warhol’s Celebrity Polaroids.” Vanity Fair, August 10, 2015.

Colacello, Bob. “Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunched!” Vanity Fair, January 30, 2012. [Featured in the February 2012 issue.]

Whitaker, Jan. “Good Eaters: James Beard.” Restaurant-ing through History. Blog, March 15, 2009.

Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York. New York: North Point Press, 2009: 287.

Nemy, Enid. “Bruno Caravaggi, 83, Co-Owner of the Fashionable Quo Vadis.” New York Times, June 7, 1999: B10.

Kasindorf, Jeanie. “A Haute Rebirth for Quo Vadis.” New York 19, 18 (May 5, 1986): 16.

Villas, James. “From Down Home to Haute Cuisine: T&C’s Guide to Great New York Eating.” Town & Country 136, 5029 (September 1982): 163.

Sheraton, Mimi. “Quo Vadis Restaurant Changing Hands.” New York Times, November 18, 1981: C16.

Greene, Gael. “Re-evaluating Manhattan’s Top French Restaurants.” New York 8, 9 (March 3, 1975): 39, 48.

Lanham, Hedy. “Greatest Dishes in Town: Sublime Alternatives.” New York 6, 38 (September 17, 1973): 56.

Greene, Gael. “Quo Vadis, Edible Feelgood.” New York 4, 22 (May 31, 1971): 63. [Republished on Greene’s blog, Insatiable Critic.]

Greene, Gael. Bite: A New York Restaurant Strategy for Hedonists, Masochists, Selective Penny Pinchers and the Upwardly Mobile. New York: W. W. Norton, 1971.

Hellegers, Dale M. “Quo Vadis: Meticulously Discreet.” Columbia Daily Spectator, August 3, 1967: 2, 4.

Paddleford, Clementine. “Delicacies on Wagons Precede Table-Cooked Steak at Quo Vadis.” New York Herald Tribune, March 29, 1947: 11.

Notable Guests:

James Beard (Chef)

Truman Capote (Writer)

Nat King Cole (Singer)

Charles Collingwood (Actor)

Giuseppe di Stefano (Opera Singer)

J. Paul Getty (Oil Industrialist)

Paulette Goddard (Actress)

Averell Harriman (Former Governor of New York)

Grace Kelly (Actress)

George Kenney (United States Air Force General)

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Former First Lady of the United States)

John Lindsay (Former Mayor of New York City & United States Representative)

Lee Radziwill (Socialite)

Eddie Rickenbacker (Race Car Driver)

Richard Rodgers (Composer)

Cesare Siepi (Opera Singer)

Frank Sinatra (Singer)

Diana Vreeland (Fashion Editor & Columnist)

Andy Warhol (Artist)

Notes:

The name Quo Vadis, meaning “Where are you going?” in Latin, was taken from the restaurant of the same name in London’s Soho, where owner Bruno Caravaggi worked as a busboy while in his teens. (1) (In turn, Peppino Leoni, founder of London’s Quo Vadis, adopted the name after seeing a billboard in Leicester Square advertising a film based on Henryk Sienkiewicz’s 1886 novel, Quo Vadis).

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Owners Caravaggi and Gino Robusti met while working in Spa, Belgium, and fled just before the start of World War II to work at the Belgian Pavilion of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. (2)

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In 1972, W Magazine presented “Les Six,” “the last bastions of grand luxe dining in New York”: Quo Vadis, Lutèce, La Grenouille, La Caravelle, La Côte Basque, and Lafayette. (3)

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Quo Vadis’s former location was briefly home to restaurants QV and Orsini’s in the ’80s, and is now occupied by cigar bar Club Macanudo.

Related Restaurants:

Le Pavillon (1939 World’s Fair)

La Caravelle; Lutèce (inclusion in W Magazine’s 1972 list of “Les Six”)

Menu:

Lunch Menu (New York Public Library)

(1) Paddleford, 1947.
(2) Nemy, 1999.
(3) Colacello, 2012.

Cover photo: “Lunch at Quo Vadis Restaurant; 26 East 63rd Street – New York, New York (NY) (English, French).” Menu. Barratta Menu Collection. Rare Book Division, New York Public Library (Digital Collections). Accessed November 11, 2020.