A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Instead of ‘British Summer Time’ and ‘Greenwich Mean Time’ we should just call them ‘Oven Clock Correct Time’...” (3/28)
“Has anyone here ever drank a pint of tequila? I know it’s a long shot” (3/28)
“A pint of tequila? That’s a long shot” (3/28)
“The U.S. should add three more states. Because 53 is a prime number. Then they can truly be one nation, indivisible” (3/28)
Entry in progress—BP4 (3/28)
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Entry from July 22, 2004
“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded” (restaurant joke)
"Nobody goes there anymore -- it's too crowded" is supposedly New York Yankee baseball great Yogi Berra's statement about a popular restaurant. Yogi might have said it, but he wasn't the first to do so.

The saying has been cited in print since at least the December 1907 Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer.


Wikiquote: Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter Berra (born 12 May 1925), usually known by his nickname "Yogi" Berra, is an American Baseball player and team manager.
(...)
Unsourced
No one goes there any more; it's too crowded.

Google Books
The Yale Book of Quotations
Edited by Fred R. Shapiro
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
2006
Pg. 507:
John McNulty
U.S. writer, 1893-1956
"They were talking about a certain hangout and Johnny said, 'Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.'"
New Yorker, 10 Feb. 1943. Often erroneously attributed to Yogi Berra. An earlier version, attributed to a "flutterbrained cutie Suzanna Ridgeway," appeared in the Helena Independent, 10 Sept. 1941 ("Now I know why nobody ever comes here; it's too crowded").

19 December 1907, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, "Here and There," pg. 8:
Clear But Confusing
She -- "Oh, don't go there on Saturday; it's so frightfully crowded. Nobody goes there then!"

25 March 1908, Indiana (PA) Weekly Messenger, pg. 6, col. 3:
Clear, but Confusing.
She -- Oh, don't go there on Saturday. It's so frightfully crowded. Nobody goes there then. -- Philadelphia Inquirer.

Google Books
This place on Third Avenue:
The New York stories of John McNulty

By John McNulty; Edited by Faith McNulty
Washington, DC: Counterpoint
2001
Pg. 4:
Johnny, one of the backmen outside, put the whole thing in a nutshell one night when they were talking about a certain hangout and Johnny said, "Nobody goes there any more. It's too crowded."
Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityRestaurants/Bars/Coffeehouses/Food Stores • Thursday, July 22, 2004 • Permalink


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