NYC restaurant Sardi's closing for renovations

Sardi’s, one of Broadway’s most iconic restaurants, will undergo renovations and change of ownership this summer.

Max Klimavicius, who has owned the restaurant since 1991, told Newsday he sold Sardi’s to the theater company giant and his landlord, the Shubert Organization.

He will run the restaurant until June 24. The business will then close for renovations but may open by fall 2026, Klimavicius said.

Klimavicius, 71, says he trusts that the Shubert Organization will be consistent with how the restaurant has been running for the past 99 years. The organization has been the restaurant’s landlord since it first opened at 234 W. 44th St.

"Acquisition of the restaurant is important to me because [it] ensures the continuity that is so important to me, of the legacy of Sardi’s and into the future," he said.

According to its website, the Shubert Organization is America’s oldest professional theater company and the largest theater owner on Broadway; it owns and operates 17 Broadway theatres, six off-Broadway venues and the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. It has operated hundreds of theaters throughout the United States throughout its existence.

The Shubert Organization could not immediately be reached for comment.

Famous for its lined caricatures of theater legends and notable patrons, Klimavicius said the artwork and its interior would remain the same.

"It is a restaurant that is known not only nationally, but internationally," he said.

Klimavicius said he was selling the restaurant because he planned to retire and spend more time with his family. He has two adult children who have no interest in taking over the restaurant.

He first came to work at Sardi’s in 1974 when he was 20 years old.

"When I started at Sardi’s I didn’t know what Sardi’s was about," he told Newsday in a phone interview. "Out of necessity, I needed a job and I wanted to go to school during the day and work at nights, and this job afforded me that possibility."

He developed a close relationship with Vincent Sardi Jr. and became partners with him in 1991. When Sardi Jr. died in 2007, Klimavicius bought the remaining shares.

"This whole thing is full of memories. You have to understand that I have spent my own adult life here," Klimavicius said. "Obviously this is a bittersweet situation for me because it’s the end of this chapter of my life. But at the same time, I feel fortunate that the Shubert Organization’s acquisition of the restaurant, as I said previously, will ensure the continuity that I so much want."