There were actually four Hector’s cafeterias in Times Square, according to a 1970 New York Times article chronicling the closing of the last one on 44th Street and Broadway.
I don’t know which one is in this 1952 photo—nor is it clear which Hector’s was chronicled in the opening pages of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:
“Dean had arrived the night before, the first time in New York, with his beautiful little sharp chick Marylou; they got off the Greyhound bus at 50th Street and cut around the corner looking for a place to eat and went right to Hector’s, and since then Hector’s Cafeteria has always been a big symbol of New York for Dean.
“They spent money on beautiful big glazed cakes and creampuffs.”
Desserts seemed to be Hector’s specialty. “The dessert counter, 12 feet long and three feet high, was a gourmond’s dream,” the Times article says.
Tags: 1940s Beat hangout, 1950s beat writers, Beat writers, Dean Moriarty, Hector's cafeteria, Jack Kerouac, New York City cafeterias, New York in the 1940s, On the Road, Times Square in the 1940s
Ephemeral New York 
June 17, 2010 at 1:39 am |
Wow, what a wonderful photo! I love the neon signs, the bus, and the ad with the squirrel. Thanks for posting.
August 15, 2010 at 1:22 am |
The one pictured is the one at 44th St. in Times Square. It is in another photo taken by the same photographer who did the V-J Day Kiss, on the same day. The photo is of the crowd celebrating V-J Day. If you Google Images of the V-J Day Kiss, you will find that photo on the first page, I it is a few down, and on the far right. Here is a link to the full-sized photo. Note as you scan the photo side to side that the 44th St. sign is over to the left. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/V-J_Day_Times_Square_NYWTS.jpg
August 15, 2010 at 5:14 am |
Thanks for the link! I never noticed Hector’s in this photo before.
November 12, 2011 at 6:49 pm |
This is my grandparents restaurant. I have two cousins and my daughter resides in New York now.
May 15, 2013 at 2:04 pm |
i’m a nyc restauranteur & trying to revive the cafeteria experience in a new project
any more photos of Hector’s?
thanks- stuart tara
May 15, 2013 at 2:46 pm
Find a place called Ellen in the Village. Ellen Koenigsberg owns it. She is another granddaughter. She might have some information.
February 4, 2013 at 8:26 am |
[…] Kerouac memorialized Hector’s Cafe, near Times Square, in On the Road. Who memorialized Longley’s? The only mention I found was in Jerry […]
July 4, 2013 at 11:18 am |
[…] a dress and tickets were so very cheap then! There was a cafeteria that I enjoyed getting lunch at, Hector’s, where to accompany my meal (maybe roast beef and gravy) I’d order a beautiful whole roasted […]
June 19, 2017 at 2:13 am |
Hector’s is featured (briefly) in the “Times Square” scene in the “Green Acres” opening sequence!
June 19, 2017 at 5:02 pm |
Hey Craig. I never noticed that. Thank you so much for pointing that out. So cool to see that.
March 12, 2018 at 6:38 am |
My family would go to the Hectors on 50th & Broadway – all kinds of food in a clean modern store – everyone would get a ticket at the beginning of the line as Katz’s still has – they would punch it as you selected different items
March 12, 2018 at 11:19 am |
The photo above I believe was the Time’s Square location.
September 10, 2020 at 2:39 am |
Around 1960, my dad, who lived in New Jersey, took me, a teenage boy, to Hector’s Times Square, and bought me what he promised would be the best dessert ever — a slice of a chocolate cake roll with a sweet white cream filling and a real banana piece in the center. By the time I moved to Manhattan in the early 1970s, Hector’s was gone! All my life I have dreamed of once again reliving that experience.