17 Iconic Favorite Foods Of Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra is an icon. He left such a massive imprint on the world of music and movies that there's no doubt life would be very different had he never gone into the entertainment business. Sinatra also had a major impact on many restaurants and food companies, essentially catapulting them into the spotlight merely by eating at an establishment or carrying a drink onstage with him.

Sinatra liked a lot of foods, and his list of favorites is extensive. It turns out he ate rather small portions, according to his former valet, but his love for food was definitely large. Dishes from specific restaurants, his mother's cooking, his first wife's cooking, and even some surprising treats you can buy in grocery stores all won a place in his culinary heart. Best of all, you can find many of these recipes — even the ones from restaurants — online in their original, Sinatra-approved form. Here are 17 of Frank Sinatra's iconic favorite foods and drinks.

One of Sinatra's favorite restaurants was Patsy's Italian Restaurant in New York City. In fact, he ate there so often that he actually had his own entrance and dining room away from all the other customers and fans. Sinatra loved a lot of dishes at Patsy's, and his meals would begin with an order of stuffed artichokes. These were hollowed-out artichokes with a mix of bread crumbs, herbs, olives, and grated Parmesan baked in the center.

However, Sinatra needed a slight adjustment in the ingredients in order to eat this dish: less garlic. A lot less garlic. Practically removed, if possible. He actually liked the flavor of garlic but had trouble eating it because it didn't sit well with his stomach. In many cases, that meant cooking with garlic just enough to infuse its flavor into the dish before discarding the actual garlic before serving. In the case of stuffed artichokes, the recipe that normally called for a number of cloves was modified so that there was only one clove used for four separate stuffed artichokes.

Another of Sinatra's favorite places to get a meal was the Golden Steer in Las Vegas, Nevada, especially after giving a performance on the famed Strip. The main course he'd order after such a busy night was the New York strip steak with pizzaiola sauce (a.k.a. the Steak Pizzaiola), which is a tomato-based sauce flavored with spices, parsley, wine, and butter and thickened with a flour-and-water roux.

Sinatra had a regular table at the Golden Steer, Table 22, and the restaurant has honored Sinatra's long-time patronage in the past with a special December meal known as Frank's menu. This was a three-course meal consisting of dishes that Sinatra liked to eat, along with a few extras like a Zippo lighter and a ticket to The Mob Museum. On December 12, Sinatra's birthday, those paying for Frank's menu would also get a performance and a roll of dimes. However, the December 12 menu cost 10 times as much as the menu during the rest of the month.

Let's head back to Patsy's Italian Restaurant for another of Sinatra's favorites: veal Milanese. This is a straightforward dish of breaded veal where the veal has been pounded very thin and the seasoned bread-crumb coating has been pan-fried into a crispy shell. Sinatra liked his to be extra crispy and almost paper-thin.

Sinatra was such a fan of Patsy's that he recommended it to many, which led to those people to recommend it to others, and so on. Despite his need for privacy while eating, Sinatra also liked to play the occasional joke on the customers, such as cutting in and introducing himself on an admiring patron's phone call from the restaurant's pay phone. Salvatore Scognamillo, the grandson of the restaurant's founder, told The New York Times in 2009 that Sinatra's constant recommendations are what allowed Patsy's to build up its customer base and reputation. 

Sinatra's favorites weren't limited to restaurant dishes. In fact, one of his absolute favorite recipes was his mother's marinara sauce, a wondrous mix of tomato and spices that quickly becomes the favorite of many who try it. Even Sinatra's old valet George Jacobs, years after being fired, would still make the sauce. Jacobs claimed that Sinatra's parents had taught him everything he had to know about cooking for Sinatra.

When Sinatra was a guest on "Dinah's Place," hosted by Dinah Shore, this marinara sauce was what he decided to cook on the show. That led to him releasing the sauce commercially, although he had also allowed the recipe to be printed in a magazine in 1973. In 2023, producer Ciro De Gennaro SpA brought back Sinatra's marinara as part of its Opera Sauce line of products. If you look up the recipe, you may see a few different versions, but they follow the same general recipe.

For a guy whose stomach rebelled when faced with a garlic clove, the inclusion of fusilli with garlic and anchovies to a list of favorite foods sounds like a joke. But as long as the cooks at Patsy's eased up on the garlic, Sinatra could have the fusilli with no problem. In fact, even though this recipe calls for six garlic cloves, all you have to do when making it is sauté the garlic in oil and then remove all the cloves. You end up with garlic flavor but no cloves that could cause digestive upset –at least in Sintara's stomach — later on in the day.

Sinatra wasn't alone in his battle with garlic, though. The ubiquitous allium can irritate the digestive system, and some people are outright intolerant of garlic even if they don't have an official allergy. If you have other digestive issues, such as irritable bowel syndrome, garlic can aggravate the condition because it contains compounds called fructans that are known to be extra-irritating.

Sinatra loved this dish so much (and yes, it's another Patsy's classic — he truly loved this restaurant) that he often had two servings right before digging into the veal Milanese. This was another dish where the cooks had to sauté the garlic to get the flavor and then remove every piece, and thank goodness they did; Patsy's recipe calls for six cloves of garlic, just like in the fusilli.

Patsy's has made the recipe for littleneck clams Posillipo public a number of times. After you cook the clams and create a clam broth, you sauté halved garlic cloves in olive oil for two minutes. After that, you remove all of the garlic with a slotted spoon, leaving the flavored olive oil behind in the pan. Patsy's still serves this dish, by the way, so if you visit New York and want to eat like Sinatra did, a trip to the restaurant is a must. Just remember to ask them to remove the garlic.

Sinatra's favorites weren't always restaurant or family recipes. Sometimes he really just wanted, of all things, a scrambled egg sandwich. This was literally scrambled eggs sandwiched between two pieces of sliced white bread. The eggs were seasoned with salt and pepper, and the bread was lightly toasted — a simple comfort food that he'd have for breakfast or a snack.

An interesting note about this sandwich is that you're supposed to lightly toast the bread in a pan with Italian olive oil only. It would be easy to dismiss this as Italian-American pride, but there are differences between the Italian and Spanish versions of the oil. The flavor of Italian olive oil is usually milder and more grassy than Spanish olive oil, which is usually considered the more robust of the two. That would definitely change the taste of the sandwich.

When at Patsy's, Sinatra would finish off his meal with a sweet dish. While Sinatra liked a number of desserts, such as tiramisu, he absolutely loved the lemon ricotta torte. The torte contained 3 pounds of whole-milk ricotta cheese and was very much like a cheesecake in appearance and texture, except it had a raised crust all around the sweet center rather than no crust on the sides. The recipe is very sweet, with 1⅔ cups of sugar in a torte that's baked in a 9x2-inch pan. Only a little lemon zest and vanilla extract were needed to flavor it.

One other difference between the torte and a typical cheesecake was how high the batter could rise during baking. Instructions in the recipe say to create an aluminum-foil collar that extends 2 inches above the top of the pan, secured with tape. If you try the recipe, look for tape that can withstand the heat of the oven.

If you thought Sinatra's scrambled-egg sandwich was simple, you'll love the arugula salad he'd order at Patsy's. All it contained was arugula, some shreds of basil, a little olive oil, and red wine vinegar. He'd often have this on top of the veal Milanese, which makes sense, as the crunchy texture of the crust on the veal would no doubt complement the thin arugula leaves and basil shreds.

Sinatra's list of favorite foods doesn't include many vegetables, but this arugula dish — plus a dish of spinach, olive oil, and onion — was a regular when he'd eat. He believed the olive oil would help his voice. However, there's no evidence that olive oil helps singers with their throats or voices; in fact, there's some evidence that olive oil — at least fresh olive oil — can irritate your throat, according to a 2005 study published in Nature. Oddly enough, the scientists who noticed that throat irritation found that it was due to a compound that could reduce inflammation. That still doesn't mean it will help your voice, though.

Entenmann's is a well-known American brand that started as a family bakery and eventually expanded into a nationwide grocery store staple. It stopped being a family operation in the 1970s before eventually being bought by Bimbo Bakeries USA, which now owns it. Entenmann's was the first company to use boxes with plastic windows that let customers see the cakes inside.

It was also the company that made these little crumb cakes that Sinatra loved. He liked them so much that he had them delivered weekly, even after he moved to Palm Springs. Remember, at this point in time, Entenmann's wasn't that big of a company, and Sinatra was acting in movies and giving performances. It wasn't a work schedule that ensured he'd be able to buy a box of the cakes before stores sold out. But the company took mail orders, which meant Sinatra could continue to have his favorite crumb cake no matter what.

One of the surprises on the list of Sinatra's favorite foods is the unassuming Tootsie Roll, that regular resident of Halloween trick-or-treat stashes and office candy bowls everywhere. Sinatra was a long-time fan of the candy, even starring in an advertisement for it in 1942. He liked them so much that he was buried with some Tootsie Rolls, too.

Tootsie Rolls figured heavily in his performances — not on stage, but in the dressing room as part of the rider that spelled out what Sinatra expected to have there. When performers arrive at a venue as part of a tour, their contract usually includes riders discussing what they want to have in terms of food, drink, and other necessities. Sometimes these lists are used as tests to see if the venue actually read the contract; you've likely heard of Van Halen's insistence in their contracts that they have a bowl of M&M's with all the brown ones removed to ensure that the venue staff had gone over the contract carefully.

Sinatra's rider was extensive, but fairly straightforward — he wanted a certain number of sandwiches, cans of Campbell's chicken and rice soup, specific numbers of towels and tissues, and so on. Miniature Tootsie Rolls were always on the list, too.

Three fingers of Jack Daniel's whiskey with two ice cubes was one of Sinatra's drinks of choice, and it was usually what he had with that Steak Pizzaiola at the Golden Steer in Vegas. One source lists the drink as having four ice cubes, but either way, the drink is forever associated with him. As with the Tootsie Rolls, a bottle of Jack Daniel's supposedly ended up along with Sinatra when he was buried.

As we mentioned earlier, Sinatra's appearance at a restaurant or consumption of a particular food or drink could make that company rocket from a small, regional establishment to a national or international favorite. It happened with Patsy's, and it also happened with Jack Daniel's whiskey. In 1955, Sinatra brought a glass up on stage and told the audience it was Jack Daniel's, and sales started to grow. The brand even created a special whiskey in Sinatra's honor — Sinatra Select — back in 2013.

When Sinatra wasn't in the mood for Jack Daniel's or some nice Italian red wine, he went for a martini. And not just any martini, but a specific recipe with strict requirements. His was Beefeater gin with a little vermouth, a twist of lemon, and served on so many rocks that the glass was filled with ice. The bartenders at the Savoy in London who'd serve him his drinks have claimed the martini had to be very cold, and the amounts of gin and vermouth had to be exact.

Sinatra was so precise in his order that if it were wrong, the bartenders — and everyone else in the room — would find out quickly. His preference of ice in his martini was unconventional at the time; normally, a martini might be chilled on ice, but then it would be strained to eliminate the ice and have only the alcohol in the glass (along with whatever garnish you preferred). But Sinatra wanted his on the rocks, and no bartender with any brains was going to refuse that.

Another of Sinatra's favorites from the Golden Steer was the clams casino, a dish of clams baked with wine, bread crumbs, peppers, and bacon. Many clams casino recipes contain garlic, but restaurants no doubt removed the garlic for Sinatra. The clams are baked on the half shell, which means the shell it was baked in served as a mini bowl for its ingredients.

While the exact origin of the dish isn't known, it is known that clams casino appeared sometime between 1900 and 1917 at one of two casinos on the East Coast. It's a fitting dish to serve at a restaurant in Las Vegas. It's very savory, but the ingredients are well-proportioned, with enough of each to give the dish plenty of flavor without totally overwhelming any of the individual ingredients. Clams casino was part of the special menu at the Golden Steer in honor of Sinatra's birth month.

When Sinatra ate at the Golden Steer, he didn't finish the meal with a lemon ricotta torte from Patsy's or an Entenmann's crumb cake; he got the bananas Foster, a dish of sauteed, sweetened bananas covered in rum and set alight at the table. The flames are supposed to make the alcohol burn away in addition to providing a bit of a show at the end of a meal.

Bananas Foster was invented in New Orleans after one chef challenged another to create a dessert that used bananas, which at the time were shipped mainly through New Orleans' port into the U.S. The chef who created the dessert named it after a friend. You'll usually find the dessert served with vanilla ice cream. Just be aware that once the flames die down, the treat may not be fully free of alcohol; flambeed dishes can sometimes have as much as 75% of the alcohol left in the dish once the flames are out.

Sinatra had favorite places to dine in New York and Las Vegas, and he had a favorite restaurant in Palm Springs, too. This was Melvyn's, a very old-school establishment that serves one of Sinatra's favorite main courses, known as steak Diane. Like bananas Foster, steak Diane is a flambe dish set aflame at the table for the entertainment of diners. The steak is pan-fried in butter, oil, and seasonings, covered in a sauce, and then fired up.

Melvyn's was also a favorite of Sinatra's mother, Dolly, who ate dinner there every evening. Sinatra held his last wedding reception at the restaurant. Unfortunately, its founder, Mel Haber, passed away in 2016. He had put the restaurant up for sale shortly before then, and it was bought by a restaurant group founded by California's current governor, Gavin Newsom. The group has kept the restaurant open and completed renovations a few years ago.

One last look at Sinatra's dressing-room requirements shows another interesting choice: cherry Lifesavers candy. Sinatra wanted 12 rolls of cherry and 12 rolls of assorted-flavor Lifesavers in the room, and cherry Lifesavers are another favorite food that was supposedly buried with Sinatra.

Given how much food Sinatra ordered — especially those 24 rolls of Lifesavers along with 12 boxes of Luden's cough drops, not to mention honey, coffee, and tea — chances are he wasn't downing every single Lifesaver at each concert. It's not known if any of the foods mentioned in his concert rider were meant more as safety checks, rather than actual foods he wanted to eat. However, the list was so specific that it would have been a great way for Sinatra and his entourage to quickly see if the staff at the venue had paid attention to all of the rider and if the staff could be trusted to set up the stage and lighting properly.