picture of Seinfeld in Tom's Restaurant

Tom's Restaurant was first made famous in Suzanne Vega's 1987 song "Tom's Diner".

The exterior of the restaurant was used in "Seinfeld" as "Monk's Cafe", where the characters frequently hung out. The scenes were shot to exclude "Tom's" from the sign and the interior of Monk's, which was filmed on a sound stage, looks nothing like the real restaurant.

Creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David first discussed the idea for the "show about nothing" in Westway Diner after a night of stand-up. This was later referenced in Season 4 episodes "The Pilot, Part 1" and "The Pilot, Part 2", when George and Jerry discuss a "show about nothing" while sitting in Monk's.

Unfortunately, the real Tom's doesn't have a "big salad", and the bathroom is a single, so if you run out of toilet paper there's no one to "spare a square".