Zucca’s Italian Garden: call Bryant 5511

Zucca’s appears to have been a popular Rockefeller Center–area restaurant in the 1930 and 1940s, at least popular enough to have its own postcard and very earnest slogan: “the quality of our food is always higher than the price.” 

The Bryant 5511 (or 10122) on the back of the postcard phone number predates the two-letter, 5 digit exchanges that existed until the 1960s, when letters were phased out of phone numbers.

Zucca’s was owned by Louis Zucca, whose daughter Rita Louisa Zucca renounced her U.S. citizenship during World War II and became known as an “Axis Sally.” She was convicted of broadcasting Nazi radio propaganda to American troops stationed in Europe.

Tried by an Italian military tribunal, she was sentenced to four years in prison, according to a 1945 New York Times article.

Tags: Axis Sally, Bryant phone exchange, old phone exchanges, Rita Louisa Zucca, Rockefeller Center restaurants, Zucco's, Zucco's Italian Garden