A crowd came out to the Schoenfeld Theatre yesterday to pay tribute to the man known as the “Mayor of Broadway,” Vincent Sardi Jr., who died in January at age 91. Sardi’s was the “unofficial nerve center,” as Edward Murrow once called it, of the theater world. Sardi was known to give out-of-work actors a prominent seat in the restaurant to lift their spirit and job prospects. Sardi took over the eatery in 1947 after buying it from his father.

Yesterday, at a theater bearing his name, the chairman of the Shubert Organization, Gerald Schoenfeld, sat onstage at a red-and-white checkered table, beckoning a waiter to take his order. The server turned out to be the Tony-Award-winning choreographer Donald Sadler, wearing black pants and a red Sardi’s jacket.

At the tribute, the pianist Etsko Tazaki played Shubert. She had won a Fulbright award to study at Juilliard but had needed a sponsor. Her family had sent a letter to Sardi addressed “famous restaurant, Broadway, New York.” Sardi treated her as a fifth child.

The afternoon closed with a television clip of Murrow interviewing the Sardi family. The clip described how Broadway parties were often held at the restaurant after opening nights. The mood would be exultant if the play received good reviews and like a wake if not. Sardi recalled the time a man wanted the option of booking a room for a party if reaction to his play were favorable. Disinclined to wait, Sardi headed over to the play that evening, watched for a couple moments, and returned to tell the staff to close down the room. He knew there wasn’t going to be a party that night.