Crawdaddy was a New Orleans-themed restaurant that opened in 1975 at NYC’s Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street, enjoyed some years of popularity, and closed some time in the late 1980s. A portion of the restaurant’s sidewalk sign can still be seen when not covered up by a mat.
I was taking out my wallet card to get ready for this photo when a group of what I assume to be tourists stopped by, saw the sign, and excitedly took photos of it. Judging by their accents I assume they were Southern, but I wouldn’t know how to pinpoint further. One got very excited telling her companion – “first I saw Craw, then I saw Daddy!” It would be cool if these random tourists were deep into suriving remnants of obscure 1970s NYC restaurants, but I assume that the word Crawdaddy just had some particular meaning for them. First time I’ve ever had to wait for someone else to take a photo to take one of my wallet card shots.