and came up with a couple of references in some Time magazine articles from the 30's and 40's referring to "Bleecks (also spelled Bleakes) Artists and Writers Restaurant" on 40th Street. If you Google "artists and writers restaurant" you come up with more references too.

Here's part of an article about the New York Tribune:

"...Above all else, Tribune alumni spoke of the Artists and Writers Restaurant, known by the name of its proprietor, John Bleeck (pronounced Blake). Just out The Tribune's back door at 213 West 40th Street, Bleeck's was where you could find more reporters and editors than in the city room. It is now a jewelry and trimming store.

Frank Waters, who will turn 94 on Monday, remembers Bleeck's as a speakeasy, having joined The Tribune as a copy boy in 1928, during Prohibition. "I would take a message from some editor to a reporter at the bar," he said. "And I'd knock, and I was recognized and they'd let me in and buy me a drink. Very nice."

From Bleeck's, the reporter Sanche de Gramont was summoned on March 4, 1960, to write about the death on stage of the baritone Leonard Warren at the Metropolitan Opera House. He won a Pulitzer.

To Bleeck's, Charles Workman, known as Charlie the Bug, sent for Breslin on March 10, 1964, leaving word that he wanted to meet at the "Port of Authority" Bus Terminal. In a column just off the press, Breslin had noted Workman's release that morning from prison, where he was met by his son, after serving 23 years for killing Dutch Schultz. Workman's objection: "What are you mentioning the family for?"...."