After 56 years of tableside Caesar salads and flambéed steaks, it’s last call at this Bucks County restaurant

Michael Galasso walked up to his cart in the dining room, the makings of Caesar salad before him, each ingredient positioned just so by his granddaughter Krista, and got to work.

He mashed garlic, anchovies, and pepper into a wooden bowl, tossed in salt, cracked a whole coddled egg with a fork, added mustard, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, and a splash of hot sauce, and let a stream of olive oil flow from a cruet held high. Next, he brandished a lemon wrapped in a red cloth napkin and squeezed the juice into the bowl. He whipped it all together, then dropped in Romaine leaves, croutons, and a blizzard of Parmesan cheese, and commenced tossing. He served the salad on chilled glass plates. Two smiling customers got a three-minute show for $20.

Saturday night was Galasso’s last tableside performance after a 56-year run at Michael’s Restaurant in Falls Township, near Morrisville.

Michael’s, which Galasso and his brothers founded in 1968 as Villa Sorrento, was known not only for the Caesar salads, but also for the flambéed steaks and flaming desserts, created on a cart outfitted with a two-burner propane stove.

In the earlier days, before PennDot rerouted busy Route 1 away from its front door, it was a nightspot where you could enjoy dinner and a show with name entertainers such as Count Basie and Frank Sinatra Jr. Galasso’s son, also named Michael, now the chef, said he led Ray Charles to the stage one night when he was about 10.

In recent years, Michael’s was a quaint, white-tablecloth dinner house with an Italian menu, a neighborhood bar with $7.50 glasses of wine and sports on the TVs, and a banquet hall that could handle 300 people.

Galasso, who turns 85 in November, said he would retire, finally. Asked why didn’t he do it sooner, he shrugged: “I like to work.” He plans to hit the golf course. “I used to be really good,” he said. “Then I had a heart attack last year and had two stents put in.”

Why close? “It’s just time,” said the younger Michael Galasso, 57, who was not sure of his own next step. “It’s a large piece of property and we don’t need all this anymore. The real estate value is just something we couldn’t pass up.”

Michael’s finale had been in the works for nearly a year, after the township approved plans for the restaurant to be razed and a self-storage warehouse building to be built on the three acres. For months, the Galassos had advertised the impending closing with a banner reading “last call at Michael’s” over the entrance.

While a crowd of mainly friends and relatives gathered in the bar, a smattering of regulars celebrated their last meals, posing for photos and hugging the Galassos.

Joe and Ginny Szymanski of Bucks County chatted with Galasso as he cooked their steak dinner in the dining room, the flames soaring to lick the ceiling as he poured in brandy.

Joe Szymanski said they had been going to the restaurant “since 1970-something. Where else can you go and have your meal cooked right in front of you? We were trying to think of a place, besides a hibachi restaurant.”