An iconic city steakhouse is hitting an off note.
Gallaghers, a theater district warhorse with a century of patronage by celebrities, was forced to add an embarrassing addendum to a signed portrait of Perry Como after customers kept confusing the crooner for Jeffrey Epstein.
The framed black and white photo of a smiling Como, just off the main entrance is now ribboned by a blunt message reading, “This not Jeffrey Epstein. This is Perry Como.”
Gallaghers owner Dean Poll said he had no choice but to add the disclaimer last year, after “hundreds” of customers demanded to know why the restaurant was honoring the disgraced financier Epstein.
“It was constant. Not one a day, but all during the day. You can’t talk to the Maître d without seeing that picture,” Poll said ruefully. “So we finally put a sign up.”
Gallaghers opened in1926 with Helen and Edward Gallagher at the helm. It was the first restaurant to serve a New York Strip, according to its website.
Today, its glass freezer prominently featuring prime cuts of beef is a regular stop for gawking tourists.
Poll bought the chophouse in 2013, rescuing it from the edge of bankruptcy.
Epstein, he insisted, never patronized the place.
Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio and actress Elizabeth Taylor were once regulars, Poll said, as was Como.
Como taped “The Perry Como Show” at CBS studios on 54th Street in the 1950s, just a stone’s throw from Gallaghers. The space later became Studio 54.
Zac Bissonnette — a finance professional and author of a book-length history of Beanie Babies — said he was livid by the case of mistaken identity.
“It’s enraging,” said Bissonnette, a Como super fan who shares a cat named “Perry Como” with his partner Ryan.
“Perry Como was one of the great singers of midcentury. He was known as the nicest guy in show business, famously so. To have people forget him and remember Jeffrey Epstein is kind of upsetting.”
