What’s in a Name?: The Redhead

The Gluttoness — February 10, 2009

Just as parents set out to find the perfect name for their newborns, chefs and restaurant owners alike are always searching for the perfect title for their restaurants. Some people go for the obvious, like a relative’s name or a favorite ingredient, but often times there is more to a moniker than meets the eye.

You’ve gotta respect a restaurant whose menu begins with Bacon Peanut Brittle. But in the case of The Redhead, there are many more reasons to love this casual joint and its impressive cuisine—we’re particularly fans of the Meatlover Flatbread, Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Shrimp & Grits. The menu is rooted in American dishes, with an emphasis on Southern classics, but you wouldn’t know any of that just by reading the name. And that’s the point.

The three owners (Meg, Gregg & Rob) didn’t want to choose a name that would automatically define the restaurant and people’s perception of it. To make their point, I was given an example. “If we named our restaurant, Crop,” Rob said, “then people would assume that we were serving greenmarket, seasonal food.” So in search of the perfect name to fit their concept of a neighborhood bar with great food, Rob and crew researched the old bars and restaurants that once inhabited the same East Village neighborhood.

In 1922, during the Prohibition Era, a new speakeasy called “The Red Head” opened in the East Village. It was instantly popular among the underground drinking crowd, and as a result it kept getting raided. In order to stay one step ahead of the police, the establishment was forced to continually relocate. Unfortunately, in 1929, just as The Red Head had gotten comfortable in its new midtown digs, it once again had to move in order to make way for the construction of Rockefeller Center. The restaurant, renamed “Jack and Charlie’s 21,” moved to its final locale on 52nd Street, where it still exists today as the restaurant we all know as the 21 Club.

Ever since learning the story of The Red Head, the name just stuck with the owners (which they combined into two words for reinvention’s sake), particularly because labeling a business “The Redhead” doesn’t invoke any pre-conceived notions of what it could be—a bar, restaurant, nightclub or fine dining outpost. The name fits its purpose, to be cutting edge in the East Village, and in many ways it reflects the Prohibition Era from which it originates, since the mysterious name allows the restaurant to maintain a sense of ambiguity. Because there is nothing cutting edge about naming your place “Bacon Peanut Brittle,” even though it would make for a pretty amazing name.