Redd's Roster of Restaurants of the Old Weird New York

Cause it's not just record stores that have gone

Florent

The Kiev

Lucky Strike

La Jumelle

Cafe Colonial

(There seems to be a new place with this name but it is not Brazilian)

Lucky Strike

Rio Mar

Yaffa Cafe

Still there:
Veselka

The Bagel, 170 W 4th (Jones Street)

Caffe Carciofo, 248 Court Street (Boerum Hill)

Brasserie Les Halles, 411 Park Ave S. (Gramercy/Flatiron)

Still a downtown location open though

This one is very long gone, probably only lasted a few years, but James Redd spent a lot of time there back in the day so

Bernard Organic French Cuisine, 145 Avenue C (seems to me he floated another name for a while "Du Marche")
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/09/arts/diner-s-journal.html

I miss Florent most of all. To serve drunk people awesome boudin noir at 3 in the morning was a great service to humanity.

Kiev was the first place I ever ate at in NYC. Allen Ginsberg was eating at the table next to me.

Others that come to mind right now:

Café Bruxelles

Cookies and Couscous (tiny place on Thompson St.)

Flea Market Café

Chez Brigitte

Mexicana Mama

Max & Moritz (Brooklyn)

Bamiyan

Miss Florent a lot too. Loved the location, walking all the way down Gansevoort Street, loved the genuinely French aura of nonchalant glamour combined with good food and reliable service.

Another one I miss a lot, Roetelle A.G., 126 East 7th Street (East Village, obv) mostly Swiss, but with German, Italian and French thrown in as well- didn't they have little country shapes on the map to indicate which cuisine it came from. Loved the spätzle and the sauerbraten. Looks like she a few years ago she opened a place called Heartbreak on Second Avenue that didn't fare too well.

Mekong, 18 King Street (Soho), Reliably delicious and fun Vietnamese place. Just closed this April.

http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/04/mekong-soho-nyc-closing.html

Ah, yes, original location was 44 Prince Street (Little Italy, Nolita). Doubt I ever went to the King Street location. Eric Asimov review here:
http://events.nytimes.com/mem/nycreview.html?res=9B0CE2DD153FF931A3575BC0A960958260

Grano Trattoria, 21 Greenwich Ave (West Village). Specialized in game, but fine for other stuff as well. Closed last April (2015).

Empire Diner, 210 W 22nd Street (Chelsea). Classic Art Deco decor, one could imagine it was built simultaneously with the Empire State Building. Seems to have closed for the last time last year- OR DID IT? Wikipedia page has mixed tenses and webpage is still running: http://empire-diner.com/

http://ny.eater.com/2015/12/14/10070660/nyc-empire-diner-closed

The Bagel, 170 W 4th (Jones Street)

― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, July 3, 2016 11:03 PM (Yesterday)

La Bonbonniere, 28 8th Avenue between Jane & 12th (West Village)
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/10/la-bonbonniere.html

The Moondance Diner, 80 6th Avenue, between Grand and Canal (South Village), which you may have seen in movies and television although not, apparently, in Afterhours, according to Alex in NYC

Apparently the whole structure was moved to Wyoming in 2007 and the diner was reopened in 2008 only to fail again.

I made it to the last Sat night at the Empire, last October.

Ate at the Bagel a few times.

The Hat (El Sombrero) on the LES

Still there, used to be reasonably reliable, haven't set foot in for years:

French Roast, 78 West 11 (West Village)

Bizarre novelty place we used to go to a few decades ago
The Royal Canadian Pancake House (Multiple locations, original one was in Tribeca, near Wetlands, can't find addres). The RCHP (not to be confused with the RHCP) served outrageously oversized pancakes and omelettes that nobody could finish. Went belly up in 1998

Ah, yes The Hat (El Sombrero). Good call!

Did it reopen? Around the corner?

Went to Moondance all the time during high school / college years. They used to put cinnamon in their coffee. Also The dude who wrote Rent used to work there.

Favorite all time place was Jones Diner on Lafayette and great jones. Old Greek standalone place, booths on one side, counter on the other, sign for "HOT CHILLY $2.95" written on a paper plate above the grill, owner taking your order and yelling "gimme a cheese deluxe!" Now of course it's a parking lot or condos or whatever. Fuck Manhattan

Another one I miss a lot, Roetelle A.G., 126 East 7th Street (East Village, obv) mostly Swiss, but with German, Italian and French thrown in as well- didn't they have little country shapes on the map to indicate which cuisine it came from. Loved the spätzle and the sauerbraten. Looks like she a few years ago she opened a place called Heartbreak on Second Avenue that didn't fare too well.

― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs

Definitely ate at Roetelle A.G. more than a couple of times, though I never would've recalled the name

Another place I loved was the German restaurant Silver Swan on E. 20th St.

The Silver Swan closed? Ugh. When? Looks like 2008. I used to go there with some friends who had a tradition of meeting there for the holidays a little before Christmas.

It's extra sad because there's not even another restaurant like the Silver Swan, as far as I know.

NYC dining is really weird, because you might frequent a place at a certain point in time and then forget about it for ten years and then one day you think of it again and your'e surprised to hear it closed years ago. Or alternately, you're stunned to find out a place you used to frequent back in the day is still in business.

Yes, exactly. That is pretty much why I started this thread, since I had forgotten a lot since I hadn't been to many of these places in a decade or two and was trying to fight back a little to preserve the last shreds of remaining memory. Maybe the grass is greener, but whenever I have managed to get over to Paris, I usually find a good many places are still in the same place, still going strong as far as I can tell, perhaps with several familiar faces among the staff.

Old time conveniently located West Village destination:

Jimmy Day's/ Boxer's, 190 W 4th, Corner Barrow, therefore lots of windows.

Seems to have recently been something called Oliver's City Tavern which is also closed.

Place I can't really find any mention of- except in a long unedited list at http://www.marinersguide.com/regions/greatlakes/newyork.ny/restaurants.html

Butler's, 145 Fulton Street (Financial District)

Old school cafeteria steam table place, excellent for lunch. Used to get a roast beef hero w/ gravy and a side of cheese fries, iirc.

I wonder why a lot of these places I miss are French. There was also L'Acajou, kind of a diner but one with great French food, on W. 19th St. where the tapas joint Boqueria is now. I remember the French lady who owned the place, she had a weird kind of tattoo where one of her ears was completely colored green.

Um, it's perhaps a cliche, but think French places really do have a lot of personality and ambience in addition to the culture of cuisine.

Speaking of which, trying to remember the small French cafe on Sullivan or Thompson maybe there were two branches, where you would go to get a classic cafe au lait and croque-monsieur. For all I know it is still there.

if we can expand to bars that served food and little cafes

Cafe La Fortuna on 71st off Columbus
All State Cafe on 72nd near West End Ave
P & G on 73rd and Amsterdam

I miss the Upper West Side of the 70s and 80s i guess

I remember the Silver Swan, had an office party there that was a crazy drunken affair as all office parties should be

Please feel free to expand.

Can't find or remember croque-monsieur place yet.

Did come across this list which has a few of these places including one I never really went to but I have seen is closed recently

Mezzogiorno, 195 Spring Street at Sullivan (Soho)

Kiev was the first place I ever ate at in NYC. Allen Ginsberg was eating at the table next to me

Such as

Still there, used to be reasonably reliable, haven't set foot in for years:

French Roast, 78 West 11 (West Village)

anyone remember "Top of the Sixes" at 666 5th Ave
I went there a couple of times in the early 90s when it was on its last legs, looked really tired and stale but still had that crazy view

i adored the Kiev

Or

'ino, 21 Bedford Street, near Downing (West Village)

TIny panini place, seems to have been -one of the? -first in NYC, conveniently located around the block from the Film Forum.

Celebrity sighting: Marisa Tomei.

Kiev was the first place I ever ate at in NYC. Allen Ginsberg was eating at the table next to me

Good details! I need to add celebrity sightings when I post, if remembered

And of course, that being my first NYC meal, I thought, "this is what always happens in New York, you walk into a random diner and there's a famous person eating next to you." And then nothing like that happened to me again for years.

(But I have dined next to Steve Buscemi in Brooklyn, and Mary Harron - director of American Psycho - at Flea Market Café).

(that was xp)

Yes, of course Top of the Sixes was lots of fun, thanks for reminding, barely remember.

Also have dim memory of some little cafe, perhaps burgers a specialty nestled deep inside of a hotel or office building perhaps in the same vicinity.

Is Cafe Reggio too iconic for this thread? I was there not too long ago.

Speaking of which, trying to remember the small French cafe on Sullivan or Thompson maybe there were two branches, where you would go to get a classic cafe au lait and croque-monsieur. For all I know it is still there

Country Café? I almost mentioned that one, it was on Thompson - that location is gone but there's a branch in the Financial District

or are we specifically talking about places no longer in existence

No not Country Cafe, it had a French name, had a wooden chair or chairs a la Van Gogh's NIght Cafe, I think, coffee served in authentic big white bowls.

Is Cafe Reggio too iconic for this thread? I was there not too long ago.

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, July 4, 2016 4:43 AM (38 seconds ago)

Still there:

Coffee Shop, 29 Union Square West
Celebrity sighting: David Lee Roth, sitting outside, people watching

Noho Star, 330 Lafayette Street
Celebrity sightings: Wallace Shawn (several times, a regular), Sheryl Crow, Maggie Cheung (outside, through the window, perhaps talking to Olivier Assayas, has seen the two of them some period of time before, perhaps a week or a month, at the Film Forum when they introduced Irma Vep)

How's Bayou in Tribeca (Greenwich maybe?) was big in the 80s when Cajun was an actual thing, went there often in the late 80s.
Ludlow Street Cafe was more of a 90s thing for me

Mezzogiorno, 195 Spring Street at Sullivan (Soho)

This place was good, but really overpriced. For me it goes in the category of places I assumed were still open even though I haven't eaten there in ten years.

Never actually ate at Ludlow Street Cafe,the cuisine was South American or rather Central American I believe, but saw plenty of music there, even played there once, well on audition night at least.

I remember liking the food there but I couldn't tell you a thing about it now

Provence, 38 Macdougal Street, near Prince.

Original owner sold around 2006, new owners reopened in 2007, closed a year or two later. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/reviews/13rest.html

Trying to remember name of French bistro sort of catty-corner from it across 6th, drawing a blank.

OK, celeb sightings at places that have been there since before 1990:

Saw Patti Smith eating outside at Da Silvano on 6th Ave., although I think that's nothing special since she ate there frequently

Ate next to Gerard Malanga at Lucien at 1st and 1st, and Taylor Mead at the same place on a different occasion

just remembered Lucky Strike as another place I liked, name didn't register at first but knew from it's location on the map. this is such a weird exercise in haziness but nice all the same

No not Country Cafe, it had a French name, had a wooden chair or chairs a la Van Gogh's NIght Cafe, I think, coffee served in authentic big white bowls

Bistro Les Amis? Still there, I'm surprised to see

This would be a good time to ask if anyone knows the name of a red sauce italian place on Lex maybe around 61st that closed several years ago. Had famous zebra-print wallpaper. My old and recently deceased boss took me there a few times before it closed, and I ate a table over from Sigourney Weaver one of the times.

I believe it was a somewhat famous place locally, eulogized by Gay Talese in the NYer.

Oh wait, figured it out once I remembered the Gay Talese connect. It was called Gino.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/31/basta

The zebra-print wallpaper of Gino is now on the walls of a bar called Fifth Estate in Park Slope, Brooklyn

Oh huh. For some reason I thought the Sprinkles that was moving into the space was keeping it. Maybe they didn't keep all of it.

Ludlow Street Cafe had a great thing going on Monday night when a band called Beat Rodeo had a residency. A Minneapolis local legend named Steve Almaas who had been in one of their original punk bands, The Suicide Commandos had later formed Beat Rodeo. He was long gone from this band by time I am talking about although he seemed to show up every once in a blue moon. Anyway the band would play lots of covers and would back up various other musicians they know whilst they played even more covers. They had a nice lineup with two guitars one of which was a Telecaster and a talented guy named Charlie or Charly Roth on keyboards, whose brother guitar player Adam Roth would come by sometimes and also sit in. Adam was diagnosed with bile duct cancer last October and passed in December. Early in his career he replaced Warren Zanes in the Del Fuegos and went on to back up lots of different people such as Garland Jeffries, Jim Carroll and his buddy Denis Leary (don't hold that against him) although I don't know if they ever made any music with their other buddy Matt Dillon. He had a longstanding gig at Manitoba's (99 Avenue B) in which he would play covers interspersed with genuinely hilarious 9/10 audience-bating 1/10 self-deprecating long-form between song banter., and would pass a jar around with slips of paper for audience members to write titles of songs upon. When the jar came back to him he would pull a piece of paper out of the jar, and attempt to play the song whose title was written thereupon. If you managed to beat him he would give you a prize, often a thrift store paperback iirc, whilst singing the words "come and get your prize" to the tune and riff of Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love."

Ah, Old Weird New York, Ah humanity!

The zebra-print wallpaper of Gino is now on the walls of a bar called Fifth Estate in Park Slope, Brooklyn

― Josefa, Monday, July 4, 2016 5:16 AM (7 minutes ago)

just remembered Lucky Strike as another place I liked,
Was really surprised that it is still there. One of the last times I went t here, if not the last time, was when I invited ilxor Casuistry to meet me there around 2005-2006 maybe, when he was home for a visit.

Bistro Les Amis? Still there, I'm surprised to see

I Tre Merli, 463 West Broadway, closed Memorial Day 2013. But I hardly ever went there, if I ever did at all, not sure why, maybe a wee bit too much Eurotrash, if I may, went to Amici Miei, 475 West Broadway, much more often, not sure when that closed.

Fifth Estate:

http://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/yn3J2usUyrnt8YJAh5uziA/o.jpg

Ah, thanks!

Haven't darkened the door of a McAnn's in years. Seems like they used to be everywhere, are there any left? Looks like there is one near the Port Authority on 8th. Is the menu still the same , I wonder. The Jackpot, The Swiss Alps?

Another digression before I lay me down to sleep:

RIP places we used to go to buy suits:
Gorsart
Moe Ginsburg
Sym's

Okay, one more: is the place on Jones -or was it Cornelia- between Bleecker and W 4th where the thing to get was a lobster roll still there?

So Caffe Reggio may still be okay, but looks like Caffe Vivaldi, 32 Jones Street, may be having rent issues. Reminds me that a few months ago I was on the subway on my way home and met a youngish French guitar player who looked just like a fresh-faced Jean-Paul Belmondo- complete with fedora!- who told me he had been performing at one of these places, presumably the latter.

those chain irish dives of yore like blarney stone were really some kind of window into a vanishing blue collar world by the time I ever stepped into one. good for a beer and corned beef/brisket sandwich if you worked at a place that didn't frown on daytime drinking
i just googled one i remembered from the financial district - the killarney rose -still there but looks a lot less divey than i remember

http://gothamist.com/2015/08/28/rip_blarney_stone_pub.php

Yup.

Ye Olde Tripple Inn, 263 W 54th Street. Classic red and white checked table cloth after work joint, w/ comedy performances!

http://felberfrolics.blogspot.com/2005/12/ye-olde-tripple-inn-is-closing-forever.html?m=1

With second-hand, not-mine celebrity sighting of Pete Shelley! https://smytii.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/gone-ny-ye-olde-tripple-inn/

The Saloon, Broadway and 64th, across the street from Lincoln Center. Big windows, lots of places to sit, a nice default place to go with good service, reasonable prices, decent food.
Celebrity sighting: Richard Belzer walking by, with his twin!

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/nydn-features/saloon-draws-tears-beers-article-1.477525

Sam Chinita, 176 Eighth Avenue
La Chinita Linda, 166 Eighth Avenue

Two Cuban-Chinese classics, in streamlined metallic settings that screamed "diner!"

Sun Lok Kee, Chinatown staple. Died in a fire in 2002, reborn on Main Street, Flushing as New Lok Kee only to perish for good six years later.
Popular dish: Singapore noodles

http://events.nytimes.com/mem/nycreview.html?res=9903E4DE113BF93AA35753C1A9649C8B63

love the comments in this article about UWS restaurant/bar Teacher's/Teacher's Too

http://www.westsiderag.com/2015/06/04/throwback-thursday-an-old-restaurant-sign-peeks-out-from-behind-mcdonalds-facade

Wow

Was trying to remember the name of the ramshackle, two-story Spanish place in the Meatpacking District at 9th Ave & Gansevoort and just realized it was Rio Mar, mentioned upthread. That was always good for a pre-dancing meal, whereas Florent was for the post-dancing meal, back when you would actually want to go out in the Meatpacking District.

rio mar was good went there once with friend of a friend who was a big regular and got the royal treatment

loved grange hall that replaced the blue mill and now it has come to this wtf https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20151008/west-village/artist-reluctantly-removes-his-murals-from-closed-commerce-st-restaurant

Right, exactly that's Rio Mar, good description of the timing of the two restaurants that bookended that stretch of Gansevoort. In my mind's eye, the Bubby's in Dumbo (closed 2012, celeb sighting Chuck Schumer on Mother's Day) occupied a similar position on its block as Florent did. Went to umpteen birthday celebrations at Rio Mar, some my own, many with and for Mr. Fine Wine, with whom I must have gone to probably half of these places at one time or another.

Finally figured out the French place: Le Gamin, 50 Macdougal, right near Twelve Chairs, 56 Macdougal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/26/arts/to-engage-with-new-york-the-world-of-cafes.html?pagewanted=all

The Film Center Cafe, 635 9th Avenue (Hell's Kitchen). Closed 2011.
http://www.villagevoice.com/restaurants/after-78-years-the-film-center-caf-closes-its-doors-in-hells-kitchen-6517972

But Rudy's Bar & Grill, 627 9th Avenue, is still there. Which perhaps means we should probably should FAP there one day.

Here's one I haven't been able to confirm via Google… it was an Italian joint in the Noho area, somewhere around Houston & Thompson or LaGuardia, and I think it was called Boccaccio. The owner was an ex-Italian paparazzo, a very personable guy, who had the restaurant decorated with tons of photos of old Italian film stars that he may have taken himself. The place must have gone out of business by 2000, couldn't have been much later than that.

Hm. Don't remember it. Maybe I can ask photographer friend, assuming I can get a hold of him with his busy schedule.

Back to Brownstone Brooklyn.

The Bagel Point Cafe, 231 Court Street
Roberto Cappuccino, 221 Court Street

A little younger than the age requirement but sorely missed:
Sur, 232 Smith Street, between Butler and Douglass, Argentine restaurant
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/02/dining/25-and-under-an-argentine-rendezvous-for-the-meat-eating-crowd.html

Don't know how I didn't know that owners of Sur also owned Caffe Novecento, 343 W Broadway -still there!- where I ate lunch reasonably often at one point but most notably went to in the middle of night during the 2002 World Cup in Asia to watch Sweden knock Argentina out in the group stage with a draw of 1-1. The next day or, to be more precise, later that day, after the sun had come up, I went to the common room on the 13th floor of Warren Weaver Hall at NYU where all the Latin Americans I knew were sitting around glumly except the one beaming face from Fortaleza who told me of the joke about an America Express commercial going around Brazil, the punch line of which was "Cost of seeing Batistuta crying: priceless."

Another Irish place over near the Port Authority, McHale's, closed but then seems to have reopened at 251 W 51st.

Old Town Bar still there at 451 East 18th Street.

Cafe Un Deux Trois, as immortalized in James Salter's "American Express," is still there at 123 W 44th Street.

America Restaurant, 9 East 18th Street (Flatiron).

A big box place, felt more like a discotheque than a restaurant, where you watch the waitstaff or maitre or maitresse 'd walking far away up and down some kind of catwalk just to tell somebody their table was ready. Very, very 80s.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/04/style/the-new-restaurants-space-and-grace.html

Added unneeded digit to Old Town address, should be 45 East 18th.

Texarkana, 64 W 10th. Which was also Cajun and Creole cuisine, including catfish, despite the name.

http://ny.eater.com/2011/8/2/6665595/the-american-psycho-guide-to-new-york-restaurants

Still the: The Peter McManus Café, 152 7th Avenue, near 19th (Chelsea)

Upper East Side:
Drake's Drum, 1629 Second Avenue
Mumbles (can't find address of location I remember, a little below 86th)

http://www.murphguide.com/closedbars.htm

Rathbone's is still around, 1702 2nd Avenue.

i ate at Sam Chinita p often for awhile

Yeah - loved Sam Chinita. They had that one waiter who was really tall. We nicknamed him "Abe" (Lincoln).

What was the little French place - cheap - across from St. Vincent's on the South side? Basically a lunch counter that sold coq au vin and roast chicken etc etc. Loved their fish.

I worked around the corner from Rio Mar for some years and loved going there for drinks and the great free tapas. The family who ran it were nice. Spent some snowy nights there, met a longtime girlfriend there. Then they closed without warning. A few months later if I recall the Gansevoort Hotel started coming together and that was the end of that.

Forgot about the free tapas. Seem to recall there was popcorn as part of that, or was it peanuts? Surely they didn't give boquerones away for free.

Mocca Lounge, 78 Reade Street (Tribeca/City Hall)

Kind of chic Israeli-run (I think) place that seemed to have move of a nightclub vibe at night that served excellent salads, especially The Symphony Salad.

Eureka Joe's, 168 Fifth Avenue (Flatiron)
Cozy cafe featuring books and armchairs, readings and performances, later became an internet cafe of sorts. Closed in 2000. James Redd used to meet there with a conversation group for his German class at Deutsches Haus.

Kaffeehaus, 131 Eighth Avenue, near 16th Street (Chelsea), across the street from Verso Books.
Authentic Viennese cafe, complete with newspapers on spindles. Seemed authentic that is, until the owner got bored and turned it into The Candy Bar, or The Bistro at Candy Bar, now closed.

Mocca Lounge, 78 Reade Street (Tribeca/City Hall)

Not to be confused with the Hungarian Restaurant Mocca, at 1588 2nd Avenue (Yorkville), closed in 2004.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/nyregion/thecity/the-rise-and-decline-of-a-hapsburg-empire.html

Carmella's Village Garden, 49 Charles Street (West Village)
Traditional rustic red sauce plus type of Italian restaurant. Although the location seems slightly off to me, can't help feeling I might be thinking of a slightly different place.

This article mentions some of the coffee houses on this thread: Le Gamin, Eureka Joe's, Kaffeehaus, Caffes Reggio and Dante( have we mentioned this yet?) along with, um, Starbuck's, when the honeymoon was still on ( I discussed this latter once with nabisco, I swear, whilst at a show by Nick A and Coco in Williamsburg, forgot what the band was called, did it have the word "chemistry" in the name)
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/corby/ckcofnyc.htm

Caffe Dante, 79-81 Macdougal Street
closed and was replaced last year by a restaurant named Dante.
http://ny.eater.com/2015/6/18/8806903/take-a-look-around-dante-now-open-in-the-the-old-caffe-dante-space#4772558

Columbia Hot Bagel -- best bagel in Morningside Heights by a mile, now condos

Band name was The Fake Fictions. Don't know where I got "chemistry" from.

getting all misty-eyed and hungry reading this, great thread James.

What was the little French place - cheap - across from St. Vincent's on the South side? Basically a lunch counter that sold coq au vin and roast chicken etc etc. Loved their fish.

Chez Brigitte!

here's my nostalgic tribute to Sam Chinita aka Mi Chinita https://wordpress.com/post/markwrite57.wordpress.com/80

a few blocks south on 8th Avenue the great La Taza de Oro is no more :(

Finally remembering Chez Brigitte.

That Wordpress link is asking for a password, Mark. Is this what you were trying to link to?
https://markwrite57.wordpress.com/tag/1981/page/2/

Sam Chinita and Mi Chinita Linda were not the same place, even if there were a few doors down from each other.

Although maybe Sam Chinita also called itself just Mi Chinita, sorry.

Petite Abeille, 134 W. Broadway (Tribeca) Belgian cuisine
Closed last year, but either planned to reopen or had other locations?
http://tribecacitizen.com/2015/02/18/petite-abeille-is-closing/

Oh, does seem to be the same guy. Looks like it became a bar
http://tribecacitizen.com/2015/08/25/a-new-bar-on-w-broadway/

shit sorry bout that. I'm clueless. look for the posts NYC cheap eats pt.1 & 2

Mi Chinita Linda was a different place but iirc Sam Chinita was originally called Mi Chinita

add to our list literally hundreds of greek diner/coffee shops

Wish I had a Zagat Guide from say, 1993. And one of those guides, the white ones with other the stuff- shopping, sites, dining,etc_ mixed together geographically based on the map. Can see in the mind's eye, but not the title, not the Insight Guide, not the DK guide but... They only did major cities. London, Paris, NYC...

Steak Frites, 9 East 16th Street (Union Square) and 225 Varick Street (Not quite Soho)
Moved from the former to the latter then back again. The latter address is a story unto itself, had many, many incarnations over the past few decades.

Ah yeah...Chez Brigitte. :)

And Rio Mar served peanuts along with the free tortilla Española and marinated octopus ( and grilled sausage too?)

This thread takes me back. Misty-eyed for sure. Beloved restaurants are something else when it comes to memories for me - moreso than clubs or shops, for example. Maybe it's the fact that all senses are engaged when you're in an eating place ( or drinking place) you love?

original incarnation of Steak frites was an early 90s fave, along with Prix Fixe a few blocks west of Union Square and Dix et Sept on the corner of you guessed it

Forgot about Prix Fixe, yes. Never quite figured out why it was called Dix et Sept- D'oh!

Riviera Cafe still right across from that, in that triangle, also touching the non-Euclidean intersection of W4th and W10th.

Which also touched the place called Joe's then Formerly Joe's then perhaps some other stuff -did it ever have ducks painted on it?- and at some point Joe's Again. Can't remember ever going in, but walked by hundreds of times:
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/22/nyregion/neighborhood-report-greenwich-village-once-again-a-joe-can-go-to-joe-s-again.html

Restaurants bring back all sorts of memories, because you were (usually) there with other people, for hours, talking about all kinds of interesting stuff, gossiping, blah blah blah, in addition to the good food and drink. (James Salter really good at writing about this. ) If you miss a restaurant, you are also missing your youth and your friends, whereas if you miss a record store, while you can still hear Maggot Brain in your head, or stream it, even if you can't find your copy of the Westbound or don't have a turntable anymore.

Oh yeah, do miss vinyl. But let's move along, nothing to see here.

But you are right about all senses being engaged.

Wish I had a Zagat Guide from say, 1993. And one of those guides, the white ones with other the stuff- shopping, sites, dining,etc_ mixed together geographically based on the map. Can see in the mind's eye, but not the title, not the Insight Guide, not the DK guide but... They only did major cities. London, Paris, NYC...

Also http://techland.time.com/2013/03/25/print-travel-books-are-dead-and-theres-no-good-replacement/

Williamsburg edition:

Oznot's Dish
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/oznots-dish/

This was the first real restaurant I think I ever went to in New York. I went with two 50-year-old hipsters in 1996 who lived in a converted auto parts store on the corner of Bedford and Grand. They told me it was run by "artists". The low, flickering lighting and the strangely curved, mosaic tiled bar were incalculably exotic to me. Here it was, New York was opening like a flower. I have no memory of the food but I do remember seeing more wine bottles than I think I'd ever seen in one place before.

Bean
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/bean/

I would go here probably two or three times a week, sit by myself, smoke and read and order a burrito. It was tiny, with tiny little cheap tables and chairs that didn't quite sit flush with the floor. It was my little refuge.

Planet Thailand
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/planet-thailand/

No, NOT the one on N. 7th. The real O.G., the one that had like 4 tables. It was in the south streets, not far from Domsey's and the Right Bank. Maybe S. 9th? The vibe was strictly sheetrock and fluorescent lights and fast diner-style service. BYOB. One night I got absolutely plowed at this place with some friends and we all decided that the men should go home and change into women's clothes and head to the Right Bank, where I knew the bartender, Del. He had just "invented" a one-stringed violin that he played with a pick and a guitar slide. He called it the "Slide-ell". One of my friends, stubble and lipstick, climbed over the chainlink fence across the street onto the roof of the 18-wheelers parked over there. Like an idiot. A police car drove by but didn't see him.

really enjoying this thread, as a foreigner.

you were (usually) there with other people, for hours, talking about all kinds of interesting stuff, gossiping, blah blah blah

Never got the hang of this. "Just one, please."

Not totally surprised. I may have sensed that when I used to think you were Jack Angstrom long ago. Although come to think of it perhaps he never ate in restaurants at all.

I'll miss Harry's Burritos on Columbus.

My friend came back with nothing on the paparazzi restaurant. Sorry, Josefa. But...
I did find out that googling Texarkana NYC Jagger will get you to some incredible rock paparazzi (or is he?) photos that I have never seen by a guy I have never heard of before. His website seems to be abandoned so look while you can! This guy, David McGough:
http://blues.gr/m/blogpost?id=1982923%3ABlogPost%3A203124

Redd, that guy's a psycho! And you have his name wrong, he's not an Updike character.

(Jack A)

Exact search I used: "texarkana restaurant" nyc jagger

You can only see Google cache, can't click through.

Ah, but you can just click on the image to enlarge and then "search by image" to confirm for example, that it is indeed Dave Edmunds in the photo, or simply look at the Related Images.

Redd, that guy's a psycho! And you have his name wrong, he's not an Updike character.

Some good punk photos from that guy too- Thunders, Damned, Dead Boys- but you have to click around or regoogle.

Oznot's was my favorite local restaurant in Williamsburg, the food was usually pretty good and not expensive

El Charro on Charles St. just closed a couple of months ago after serving Spanish food since 1959 (prompting me to wonder when and why I stopped going there, because it was delicious)

Eh, what's that you say" "Spanish food? El Charro"? I though you said:
El Faro, 823 Greenwich Street, (very close to Rio Mar)
Opened in 1927, closed in 2012
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/el-faro/
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121004/meatpacking-district/el-faro-restaurant-stay-closed-indefinitely-owner-says

It's driving me nuts not being able to confirm the existence of that Italian paparazzo place. The name Boccaccio turns up zilch - maybe that wasn't exactly it. I think it may have been where Silver Spurs is now on LaGuardia Place

I feel you. Those kinds of things get to me as well. When was the last time you were there? Maybe you can look at the songlines website, that guy usually has a lot of history for each particular address.

Loved Steak Frites. I remember warm frisee with bacon rocquefort dressing.

This one is NOT GONE. Totally part of 'old weird New York' in my mind. Somehow still open on 47th street. It's inevitable that one day it will close so please go before it does. My recommendation: red beans, yellow rice, pork chop, and octopus salad. You will not need to eat for about 2 days afterwards.

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/margon/

I was sad to read that Pakistan Tea House had closed, but it looks like it's re-opened? I haven't been in NYC for like 2 years so I dunno. Anybody been? It was always so good and so cheap and so solid for that crucial 2am hot meal if you were in the area and needed that. And pretty much exclusively frequented by cabbies at that time of night.

http://tribecacitizen.com/2016/01/04/an-explanation-from-baluchis/

So the location at 225 Varick Street, which was Steak Frites for a while, then became Lucy Browne's for a few years, a faux New Orleans place (named after a Threepenny Opera character, but misspelled?)

http://ny.eater.com/2013/7/3/6411067/can-a-restaurant-location-be-cursed

Before that the location housed Brothers Barbecue-
- after they had moved from smaller, funkier, infinitely more charming spot on Houston-

where you could enter through either the front door at
228 West Houston Street
or the back door on Downing Street.

We used to go see Allysa Torey and her True Blue Bourbon Boys every Thursday in the spring of 1990 - this was when she was trying to be a country singer, before she tried to be a swing singer, before she opened the Magnolia Bakery, of which I know nothing- and then go home to watch our VHSed versions of Season One of Twin Peaks. Those who had already seen it were honor bound to maintain silence in the present of the tapers. Her bass player and boyfriend at the time at one time employed as a sort of factotum and remains quite fond of ilxor ian orion's friend Kevin, he of Rocks In Your Head and What's Your Rupture recordings.

Down the street later appeared

Toukie's at 220 West Houston

owned by Toukie Smith model, an actress and a significant other of the actor Robert De Niro.

New screenname inspired by this thread.

Have run out of restaurants to add to the roster for now. Thanks for the good work everybody in making this an enjoyable thread.

El Faro was a regular haunt of mine too, not "authentic" Spanish but tasty & filling drunk food. El Charro was good too, used to get the Mexican dishes there. Sevilla on West 4th still dispensing the greasy paella last time I stumbled by.

There's a sub-genre of old-time cheap eateries recast as pricey foodie spots. Fedora was an out-of-time slightly worn 1950s Italian-American restaurant on West 4th, run by a charming elderly couple, serving a set menu to a clientele of mostly middle-aged and older gay men. My wife (then girlfriend) and I used to go there for eggplant parm & cheap Valpolicella back in the day. Now it's a trendy boîte or was a couple years ago. No interest in going back.

Really? When did it get repurposed? About five years ago I was with a group that happened to wander in there by accident- no lie- and it was exactly as you describe.

Sevilla on West 4th still dispensing the greasy paella last time I stumbled by.

I think this is the place whose name I was trying to remember because I was sure it was closed by now! Lots of good times there.

xpost

here's the menu, not that I'm opposed to this kind of food, mind http://www.fedoranyc.com/#/menu/coming-soon/

i may have been harsh, looking at yelp sounds like they're going for a speakeasy vibe which is what it always was.

The drinks menu is a classic hipster smattering of offerings that range through most of the liquor a clear to brown. The bartenders clearly know their stuff, as i overheard one giving a pretty solid run down of how to make your own bitters. Their wines by glass are a respectable showing with a good mix between sweet, light, and heavier dry wines.

The food menu is just a hair more exotic than an American gastropub's usual offerings. They have a good selection between meat and seafood. Their appetizers however lean more towards seafood. My pet peeve is that the menu descriptions aren't complete. I ordered the fried chicken (which was expertly fried) but did show up with a giant fried chicken foot in it that was entirely unexpected. It was also swimming in broth. I also ordered the roasted radishes which sounded divine but ended up having an overwhelming odor of fish about them (I think from the flakes on top which weren't mentioned in the description). I'm not a picky eater but I do expect to be able to read a menu and reasonably assume that it lists everything that is a main flavor component or meat offering in that dish. That was a little disappointing to me.

Ah, I see, changed hands in 2010, reopened in 2011.

fried chicken in broth

https://kinkyfriedmansgreenwichvillage.wordpress.com/
http://thevillager.com/villager_352/tryingtokeep.html

was thinking fondly (?) of planet thai on 7th a few days ago and my wasted youth. Miss Florent terribly and knew this thred would be a downer when you led w/ it. The fact that there's nothing in that space still is a crime.

Robin Des Bois on Smith St; Survived by Bar Tabac, which was/is probably better anyway...

http://www.yelp.com/biz/robin-des-bois-brooklyn

Oh, didn't know Robin Des Bois closed. That was a fun place to go. I didn't like the food at Tabac the couple of times I went. I don't remember the food at Robin that well but I want to say it was at least a little better.

I feel like the ethos that created that place slightly predated the current foodie movement where every ingredient is so carefully massaged, and it was more about the atmosphere.

BTW a seriously old (over a century iirc), and slightly weird place not too far from there is Ferdinando's.

what was the coffee shop near Coliseum Books? standard at best, but convenient and seemingly tourist-free.

BTW a seriously old (over a century iirc), and slightly weird place not too far from there is Ferdinando's

In the same category, there's Sam's (Italian) on Court Street, 86 years in business. Once had the same pizza-maker (Mario Migliaccio) for 60 years in a row.

Spent the night of the '03 Blackout seated at Florent (outside) with my boss and pals from work - I worked directly across the street and we were regular customers. Florent and crew made sure everyone had plenty to eat and drink ( and ICE!) since it was all mostly gonna go bad. Ended up almost going home with the daughter of a former Latin American President who was had joined out little table. She was studying in NYC at the time and living next door to my work. My conscience wouldn't let me go there ( her father had been a notorious one). Man, NYC used to be great for this type of thing.

~110 years, in fact xp. Very good, actually, and has a few unusual items like Pannelle's (sort of a Sicilian falafel served with ricotta and tomato sauce) and calf spleen. They also have Manhattan Special on tap, only place I've ever seen that.

Major digression there but my point was that Florent the man and restaurant hold a very special place in a lot of hearts. His crew was awesome as well. I really miss them.

xp oh yeah I've been to Sam's a few times too, I thought the pizza was very good.

(sorry for weird capitalization, spelling and apostrophization of panelle, v tired)

I love that Spain on W. 13th is still kickin'.

Spain opened in the late '60s but somehow seems much older. Maybe it was some other restaurant before

El Quijote at the Chelsea Hotel opened in 1930, but I don't think it was a full-on Spanish-themed restaurant till the late '50s or so. That's one of the time-warpiest places in town that is still good.

Veau d'Or on E. 60th St. is another like that; opened 1937 and serves French food exactly as you would get it 50 years ago - creamed spinach as a side, always

i still consider myself somewhat of an NYC n00b -- despite having spend 13 years here, now.
one ye olde williamsburg institution was Matamoros deli on Bedford avenue with a small lunch counter and seating area in the back. Had my first ever cabeza tacos there, and the chorizo was outta sight. it's long gone now. i also miss Spikehill on bedford, though that was not as significant a place for me when i first moved here. their burger was one of my fave in the city, reasonably priced, and came with perfectly crispy fries and always-fresh tomato & a thick slab of red onion.

the day paul's on second avenue closes will be a very sad day for me.

Ian i think those were after my time!

I will add to the Florent love! It was always where I went for dinner before a big night out at DA CLUB. Flo himself was everything everyone has already said he was. And yes there was something serendipitous about the place, you'd end up running into people. And for a long time it was literally open 24 hours wasn't it?

i did like the mashed potatoes at Mama's Food Shop near Ave B.

Where have the quality mashed potatoes gone?

RIP :(
http://www.yelp.com/biz/matamoros-puebla-grocery-brooklyn

Oh my fuck, no.

https://www.facebook.com/lospollitos2/

Pollitos Dos. CLOSED. The place just down from Key Food on 5th Ave. When I lived on 4th Ave this place was so crucial. You could get a half rotisserie chicken for like $4. It was so good. The service was great. They had tablecloths, it felt legit, the food was terrific and it was all so cheap.

Apparently Taza de Oro is closed now (a year ago). I hadn't checked until just now, but it seemed as likely as not. Great Puerto Rican lunch counter.

Speaking of Chelsea, a place I have never set foot in and is probably bad but seems to be kind of an institution is The Half King.

xx-post I remember what was there before Pollitos Dos. It was a Dominican place called El Diamante. Waitress there had a great singing voice & would sing along to the jukebox or just a cappella. That area used to be full of Domincian joints.

Oh, pft, nevermind

The Half King is a bar and restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, directly below the High Line on 23rd Street. It was started in 2000 by journalists Sebastian Junger and Scott Anderson, and filmmaker Nanette Burstein, as a neighborhood place that could also serve as a meeting spot for people in the publishing and film industries.

damnit. Fooled.

Josefa yes. There was a great Dominican place up caddycorner to Flatbush, near Royal Video. Can't remember what it was called now but they had amazing mofongo.

There was a great Dominican place up caddycorner to Flatbush, near Royal Video

El Rey de los Castillos de Jagua, in the space that's a Duane Reade now.

Sister restaurant El Gran Castillo de Jagua is still in business across Flatbush. And there was another Dominican place called La Terrazza about a block away on 6th Ave. (where Purbird is now)

…or probably "Terraza" with one z, Spanish-style

lol the half king is terrible. terrible crowd, bad food, overpriced, kind of ugly xxpost

I'm really enjoying this thread btw, just wish I could have enjoyed some of these places

Hopefully I will have time later this evening. In the meantime, keep up the good work, everybody!

Terraza - that's the one I was thinking of. And they actually did have a little terrace you could sit on.

I wonder what Fanelli's on the corner of Prince is like these days. The same as always I guess?

I was in Fanelli's about a year ago and yeah still the same

Fanelli's is great. A good standby whenever I'm in the area. I guess I can play at this.

I used to get soup from a little shack tacked onto the side of it. Inside it always struck me as a little pricey for what it was but the downtown art buzz of the place is what I came for I guess.

La Taza De Oro's food got bland bland bland in the last few years. No hint of garlic or cilantro. But it was always packed. Used to run in for a cafe con leche if I was in the 'hood on my way to a long night.

Loved the tile walled place called Focacceria that used to be on 1st ave in the East Village. Served great cheap pasta and Sicilian rice balls.

ILX Hot Tub Time Machine 1998

This thread brings me back to my days of living in the East Village. Yaffa Cafe is a good one. Life Cafe is another one that was sort of iconic (not so much for the food). Also, the various Mary Ann's locations (somewhat dubious looking Mexican food - I can't remember if I ever actually ate there). Apparently Sidewalk Cafe is still there.

Famous Cozy Soup 'n Burger on Broadway near Astor Place is also amazingly still there. This thread makes me strangely want to go eat there.

I don't know how old Regional Thai Taste in Chelsea was but it was my go-to place going back to a time when Thai was a pretty unusual dining option. Gone now.

To clarify: "Old" and "Weird" are subjective here. I myself have not adhered to the 1990 rule. Given how fast things change 2005 may even be a good cutoff. The general idea of "Old" is something like Josefa was describing above- you used to go to the place quite frequently, say a decade ago, stopped at some point, the calendar pages flip book went by until at some point it crosses your mind to check whether it was still there or not and you end up surprised at the result, be it positive or negative. The general idea of "Weird" is that somehow you feel it was some facet of your identity at the time- even if it was a generic 80s fern bar.

Unless "old and weird" means somebody was actually in there plucking an earth-bow or frailing a banjo whilst droning Appalachian/Elizabethan tragic songs of life through a retro sound system.

How about Dojo. I looked and that's still there. I spent a summer in the city going to Dojo a decent amount because it was the only sit-down restaurant that wasn't a luncheonette type place but was affordable on a student budget.

Is it really still there? And when you went there did you go somewhere else for a drink afterward? If so, where? Holiday, the Blue and Gold, the Tile Bar? Downtown Beirut? No, this last must have been long gone.

Still pondering why we possess such strong fond memories of restaurants. Feel like that in addition to the cuisine, in addition to the social aspect, there is simply the physical experience of light and space and sound. The way the light comes in through large windows, or is slightly warped by the heat shimmer of a candle flame, the way it is reflected or refracted by the bottles behind the bar or the mirrors on the wall or the silverware on the table or the way it is either absorbed by the dark wood or not absorbed at all by the white Formica. The size and shape of the room, the way it takes the chatter of the crowd and turns it into a pleasing white noise in which to, um, bathe, and upon the background of which to comfortably converse.

There is also an organizational aspect, that you can plan your leisure time around your dinner, something to look forward to after work, or before or after the movie and show. A place to tell about the funny thing you saw on the subway on the way to the Film Forum.

Dojo is a perfect example of a place I assumed had closed 15 years ago. In the same category as Life Cafe and Angelika Kitchen, spots I liked when I had more vegetarian tendencies than now

To push it even further maybe there is some implicit view of the restaurant itself as some kind of benevolent recording angel panopticon, that if only it was still there and you knew the right incantation you could access the backup tapes and relive or at least listen in on those magic times.

Angelica Kitchen rather

But enough of my dime store poetics, I should probably post the names of a few more gone and almost forgotten or surprisingly still there places I remember.

Dojo is almost the perfect example, so old I'm not even sure I've been there myself, but when you say it, yeah, it creates a powerful memory.

You do wonder with a lot of these places whether they were actually good or if it was just the circumstances or point in time. For example, Veselka's food seems really bland and useless whenever I happen to eat there now, whereas at one time it seemed amazingly perfect

This is a good point to raise. I don't know the full answer but I think above average bland plus some kind of ambience is a big step up from just bland across the board. Maybe an example might be a red sauce place that ponies up for the premium sausage rather than cuts corners there, although maybe that has already lifted it out of bland land. Or the difference between Music for Airports and Muzak.

Must...go to sleep ... before I kill thread.

Dojo!! my god. That place was like service industry boot camp for many friends of mine

do you guys remember Decibel? tiny, Japanese, dark, LES.

Yes, of course. Went there many times, the small menu had what, edamame and some sort of flaky pancake thingy. I was thinking of mentioning that place, along with Candy B1 (was it in the same spot?) -a karaoke bar, but with a live Japanese backup band instead of recordings- and Angel's Share, which last still seems to be there, although perhaps whatever was below it- Sunrise Mart? - had gone. Just don't bring too large a party! (i.e., no fapping)

Two different NYT articles, from the same day!
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/31/arts/sing-along-clubs-with-a-difference.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/31/arts/the-east-village-becomes-japan-west.html?pagewanted=all

The first is more zoomed in on karaoke and Candy B1 though. Which was at 240 E 9th, (between 2nd and 3rd) which is indeed where Decibel ( or "deshibearu" as we liked to say) was and still is apparently.

I steered clear of Dojo, perhaps even held my nose a little high, because it was for people who were still college kids, but I'm glad to know someone who actually was a college kid was there and can report on the doings within. Although come to think of it, I did go to a place around the corner, Jack the Ribber, which later became Continental Divide and then just Continental.

Of course, there are blog posts by Alex in NYC (two!) and The Hound as well

http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2014/02/the-dinosaur-on-third-avenue.html

http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2015/04/back-to-old-st-marks-the-revenge-of-the-third-avenue-dinosaur.html

http://thehoundblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/readin-rockin-literate-books-for.html?m=1

I believe I may have seen one ilxor with a screenname that is NSFW to Google play there with his band once.

Sunrise Mart, still there too.

What has brexited the area though is The Telephone Bar, 149 E 2nd.

I always ate at the Chinese place on E4 St (?) and 2nd Ave before or after Anthology Film Archives. Gone at least a dozen years.

Did you ever cross paths with Michael Musto at the Anthology?

Because I have a clear picture of seeing him waiting there once, although I have no recollection of what film was showing or whether he just happened to be standing on that block.

Think I remember what was showing when I saw Susan Sontag there though, or at least which director(s).

Ah yes i guess Decibel was E Village wasn't it?

How about a shout out for Sweet n Tart on Mott Street.

And while we're down there, Good World! It's not quite 'old' but it was a bit weird New York. I met Momus there once.

http://nymag.com/listings/bar/good_world_bar_and_grill/

What's that whole area like these days? East Broadway, down under the bridge? When I lived in New York it was solidly impenetrable Chinatown, just no way through. Tenement after tenement, off limits entirely to the likes of me.

Wouldn't know, never go past Confucius Plaza myself.

it's... changed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKEQm10-n84

Has it all totally been converted into luxury flats or something? :( It was honestly like a place out of time. Old men crouching on their stoops, pouring soapy water out of bowls into the street, washing strung up behind them.

I think it's all gourmet yogurt wifi cafe cross fitness training now.

At least last time I checked, perhaps there are some new bleeding edge developments I am not hip to.

Did I mention craft beer and artisanal won tons?

yes, it is a mix. plus a new rep cinema near Canal and the East Broadway station.

Decibel still there. Dojo on the NYU campus as well? I really liked Sweet N tart.

Saw Allen Ginsberg getting takeout at the Mee Noodle restaurant on 13th and 2nd (?) once. But he was always walking around that area in the early 90s. Ran into him a couple of times at St. Mark's Books and talked about Paterson, NJ with him for a few minutes each time (both from there). Nice man and hero of course. Always with his camera.

A few really good stories about him in August Kleinzahler's memoir.

There was a little Vietnamese takeout on 1st Ave between 2nd and 3rd i think. Looked like your average Chinese takeout but their food was excellent.

xpost need to check that out!

Ginsberg's apartment was on 12th between 1st and A. Richard Hell lived upstairs from him (& maybe still lives there)

Arthur Russell lived there as well ( and got free electricity by sending an extension cord into Ginsberg's apartment!).

It looks like the Dojo on W. 4th is still open, but the one on St. Marks is long gone. I have fond memories of ordering the stir-fried vegetables over rice with tofu AND melted cheese on top.

I mostly can't remember the food except that it wasn't especially good. I do have this memory of a waiter saying to me "would you like carrot ginger?" Like I was just supposed to know what that was (dressing, it turns out). It seems as though "carrot ginger" was some sort of signature item.

The BBQ/Dallas BBQ at 21 W 8th (8th and University) was not good enough for you?

http://www.grubstreet.com/2009/03/bbq_not_dallas_bbq_will_reopen.html

Also http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/22/style/night-life-the-latest-clubs.html

Looks like Madame Rosa's, which was what I was googling, later housed a Tibetan Buddhist organization: http://tricycle.org/magazine/nothing-hide/

One more nightlife roundup from a year later: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/27/arts/glitz-funk-and-victoriana-enliven-new-york-s-discos.html?pagewanted=all

And I know I still owe you some more restaurants.

But right now repurposed this thread with similar purpose for bookstores: TOMORROW, Sat. Jan 6, is the last day of COLISEUM BOOKS in NYC

Friend of mine just reminded me of a piece of the Brownstone Brooklyn puzzle that has been ticking at the back of my mind:

Patois, 255 Smith Street, between Douglass and DeGraw Streets. Lasted from 1997-2009. Paved the way for all the other restaurants on Smith Street.

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/1/32_1_mm_patois.html

Keep trying to figure out what was the place across the street from the Cobble Hill Cinema at 254 Court Street, which is now Kitchen At Cobble Hill, previously was Karloff with same owners I think, but what was it back in, say, 2000?

Good article about the man behind Patois:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/dining/brooklyn-restaurant-pioneer-alan-harding-reshapes-his-career.html

Ah, the prior place at 254 Court Street I was thinking of was called Kalio.

Ah, struck some paydirt with this link:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/brooklyn-for-beginners

Montague Street coffee shop for a few minutes back there, up above street level:
Ozzie's 136 Montague St

Just needed the address:
La Bouillabaisse, 145 Atlantic Ave

Had forgotten, but used to enjoy going to
Meson Flamenco, 135 Atlantic Ave

Trying to remember, thought this place had an outdoor garden
Camille's Clover Hill, 272 Court Street
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/boroughs/borough-bites-affordable-dining-article-1.794959

Never really liked this place too much
Harvest 218 Court St

Old school Italian, still there:
Marco Polo, 345 Court Street
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/marco-polo-ristorante/

Article about the P & G cafe, mentioned upthread- with before and after photos! Wonder if it ever really reopened?

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/west-side-loses-a-neon-landmark/

Can't remember much about Max & Moritz, mentioned by Josefa upthread, but I must have been there a few times, I even found there phone number in an old address book the other day. Did it have a (beer)garden in the back?

Tribeca:
Bazzini, 339 Greenwich
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20091021/soho-tribeca-nolita/tribeca-staple-bazzini-set-close-after-123-years-the-neighborhood
http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_339/wholesalechange.html

Pão, 322 Spring Street (Spring and Greenwich)
http://tribecacitizen.com/2015/01/05/pao-has-closed/
(This link includes mention of several other restaurant closings, including that of 508 Microbrewery, right down the block from Pão, which had previously been Giorgione 508, a joint venture with Giorgione DeLuca and Jorge, the owner of Pão)

Gone more than a decade:
El Teddy's, 219 West Broadway
http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_35/crownjewelofa.html
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/04/16/just-a-bar
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/20/garden/at-el-teddy-s-60-years-of-design-history-in-bits-and-pieces.html

Here's a review of the short-lived Giorgione 508
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/dining/reviews/hoho-wevar-wherever-its-there.html

West Village:
Aggie's, 146 West Houston Street, at MacDougal
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/15/nyregion/neighborhood-report-west-village-doyenne-macdougal-st-lays-down-her-omelet-pan.html

At one point after her restaurant closed, Aggie was working for a while at
(Back to Tribeca)
Walker's, 16 North Moore Street

Which is still there although I don't know if they have jazz on Sunday's anymore since Peter Leitch had to retire from playing due to medical issues.

More from Iberia on the same block as Pão in Tri- sorry Hudson Square (just learned this neighborhood name)
Pintxos, 510 Greenwich
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/pintxos/

More from Tribeca proper:
City Hall, 131 Duane Street
http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/12/city-hall-restaurant-closing.html
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/city-hall-restaurant/

Still open, the food is just okay, I think, but you can't beat the funky authentic decor:
Square Diner, 33 Leonard Street
http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2013/11/square-diner-tribeca-sandwich-happy-hour.html
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/square-diner/

Okay, I am linking to this fascinating ribute to Don Hill (the print version, just cancel printing and read because regular version has problems)

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/remembering-don-hill/print/

which ties in here because his club was across the street from Pão, where he used to hang out. In fact the owner of Pão is interviewed and tells a very good story, and the restaurant is mentioned by the brother of a Soprano's cast member. I saw his brother in Pão once whilst we were all watching the 2004 Euro. In fact I think a bunch of other cast members used to hang out there, including the big guy himself, James Gandolfini, along with Johnny V (Artie Bucco). A bunch of celebrities or other people you may know are also interviewed along with a fascinating guy you may not have heard of, Steely Dan sound man and road manager Nitebob Czaykowski, who is actually pictured in the piece but not identified, and who also has many other credits with many other musicians -read about him and Iggy in Open Up and Bleed- who all seem to like him a lot, perhaps as much as he likes cats.

More about Nite Bob:
https://newtopiamagazine.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/mongrel-patriot-review-nitebob/

OMG just laughed out loud at story about watching This Is Spinal Tap with Steven Tyler. Probably should be reposted on more appropriate thread.

Aggie's! Never went but walked past it all the time.

Can't remember much about Max & Moritz, mentioned by Josefa upthread, but I must have been there a few times, I even found there phone number in an old address book the other day. Did it have a (beer)garden in the back?

Yep. Once it got really popular the owners opened up Cafe Steinhof a couple of blocks down the street as a lower-priced, more casual alternative restaurant. Steinhof is still in business today. The Max & Moritz space became Anthony's, a brick oven pizza place, and later on Amira's, a Mediterranean joint that's now gone also

Old school Italian, still there:
Marco Polo, 345 Court Street
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/marco-polo-ristorante/

Once I was walking by this place and that stretch of Court Street was a movie set that was outfitted with 1960s-era cars up and down the block (including taxis). They were shooting a scene for the film Men in Black 3. It was a scene supposed to take place in 1969, which was probably why they chose that location - because it looks much the same as it did in 1969. Never saw the film, so don't know if that scene made the final cut.

Pão, 322 Spring Street (Spring and Greenwich)
http://tribecacitizen.com/2015/01/05/pao-has-closed/
(This link includes mention of several other restaurant closings, including that of 508 Microbrewery, right down the block from Pão, which had previously been Giorgione 508, a joint venture with Giorgione DeLuca and Jorge, the owner of Pão)

More movie trivia: in the Scorsese film After Hours, Teri Garr's character, referred to as "Miss Beehive 1965," lives in an apartment around the corner from Pão, at 307 Spring (across the street from Don Hill's).

Thanks!

That location, 322 Spring, is now Sacco & Vanzetti Bistro, into which I have not ventured.

Did you use this webpage to learn that?
http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/a/afterhours.html#.V4w0Ab_EynM

Which also mentions another gone place I can't quite remember:
River Diner, 11th Avenue and 37th Street

Which is mentioned in this diner roundup I don't think has been linked to yet:
http://forgotten-ny.com/2001/12/nothing-could-be-finer-a-look-at-nyc-diners/

More about Bazzini:
http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_311/beforeitwas.html

Did you use this webpage to learn that?
http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/a/afterhours.html#.V4w0Ab_EynM

No, it's on nysonglines.com and I saw it on some other site too

Ah, I see.

Meant to post this link to a picture of La Jumelle.

Didn't realize until looking up stuff for this thread that Mezzaluna and Mezzogiorno were connected.

El Teddy's, called El Internacional (sic) at the time, was where I met my wife :)

didn't like Aggie's kinda remembering Aggie herself being a pill

there was a great pseudo-healthy place in Tribeca called Nosmo King (no smoking lol when you still could) for a few awhile during the early 90s. also ate at the famed artists diner Food in Soho a few times before it closed. really tasty and dirt cheap college-town hippie grits

Went by the South Street Seaport area two weeks ago and observed that
The Bridge Cafe, 279 Water Street
is still not reopened and still dealing with Sandy damage

Jeremy's Ale House, 228 Front Street (pre-2004 location 254 Front Street) is open

The Paris Hotel/Café, 119 South Street, at Peck Slip
has reopened after dealing with Sandy damage.

Seaport links:
http://ny.curbed.com/2013/9/5/10201344/chronicling-the-south-street-seaports-post-sandy-decline
http://forgotten-ny.com/2012/09/forgottentour-58-recap-south-street-seaport/

Flutie's, 89 South Street @ Pier 17 (where there was also a Caroline's At The Seaport comedy club)
closed in 1991.

Roebling's Bar and Grill, 11 Fulton Street, in Fulton Market Building
closed in 1995.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/30/nyregion/neighborhood-report-lower-manhattan-fulton-market-building-less-more-super.html

Gianni's, 15 Fulton Street
Long gone, barely an internet ghost. Mostly shows up in the listing sections of old New York magazine's in Google Books. Or old New York Times Restaurant week roundups such as this one. How many can you remember?
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/23/garden/lunches-for-19.92-were-so-popular-they-re-now-19.93.html

Some more pictures of the P & G Cafe
http://evgrieve.com/2008/09/appreciation-p-g-cafe.html

And another American Psycho roundup that we need to dig into.
http://www.scoutingny.com/patrick-batemans-new-york-what-happened-to-the-world-of-american-psycho/

First Avenue
Maxwell's Plum, 1181 First Avenue, at 64th
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/11/nyregion/maxwell-s-plum-a-60-s-symbol-closes.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/13/nyregion/last-mob-at-maxwell-s-plum-bids-on-glass-and-menagerie.html

Pancho Villa's, 1125 First Avenue, at 62nd
(look in New York Magazine, Google Books if you want to read about)

Don't really remember going into these places, but certainly walked by all the time. I have a very vague memory of somebody telling me the owner of Pancho Villa's was named Roman Chapa and he used to study Taekwondo side by side with Gregory Hines (there are some copies of Black Belt magazine on Google Books in which you can read about some of HInes' competitive matches)

Another Upper East Side place I never set foot in but it had a really great name:
The Ravelled Sleave, 1383 Third Avenue, near 79th Street

A goldmine of Brooklyn info found in searching the Google Book of 2004's
Brooklyn!, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to New York's Most Happening Borough
By Ellen Freudenheim, Anna Wiener

Such as:
Banania Cafe, 241 Smith, at Douglass
Cafe LULUc, 214 Smith, between Baltic and Butler, (still there)
Osaka, 272 Court, between Kane and DeGraw (still there)
Halcyon, 227 Smith, between Butler and Douglass

i remember driving by Maxwell plum's several times when I was a kid and being fascinated, this would have been mid to late 70s

maxwell's plum
it looked so adult and exotic

How could I mention Maxwell's Plum without mentioning another, similar place I don't think I ever entered,
The Quilted Giraffe

http://www.grubstreet.com/2011/10/quilted_giraffe.html
http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/dining/a980/quilted-giraffe-profile/
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/30/garden/the-quilted-giraffe-joins-the-dinosaurs.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/06/dining/the-quilted-giraffe-cooks-again.html

Address was 550 Madison, which for decades was known as the Sony Building, when it was owned by Sony. An ilxor or two used to go there sometimes to participate in an annual music trivia contest. The building not the restaurant.

Theater district:
Cafe Edison, 228 West 47th
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/nyregion/cafe-edison-a-longtime-broadway-hangout-is-closing.html

http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/11/cafe-edison.html
http://observer.com/2014/11/after-34-years-of-broadway-history-cafe-edison-is-closing/
http://ny.eater.com/2015/1/5/7493575/weeks-after-closing-times-square-classic-cafe-edison-has-already-been

It's sleepytime. Will leave you with article about Florent's life after Florent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/nyregion/florent-morellet-revels-in-a-new-scene-in-brooklyn.html?_r=0

Okay, just one last thing:
Map of Hudson Square retail, including several places we've mentioned:
http://330hudsonnyc.com/pdf/330Hudson_RetailMap.pdf

This has a very similar map:
http://www.cbre.us/o/newyorkcity/AssetLibrary/330%20Hudson%20Retail%20PDF_v12.pdf

That NYT Florent article is amazing. I wonder how he's holding up now.

Think they should make a combination Celebrity Chef/Big Brother-style reality show featuring Florent, Aggie, the guy from Patois and the daughter of the guy behind Maxwell's Plum.

I just remembered another small connective fiber here: Aggie was working at Giorgione 508 and when it closed she appeared a little while later at Walker's. Cannot use intranetz to verify but I am reasonably sure my memory is correct on this.

I skimmed through a Greenwich Village guidebook last night to look at the lists of restaurants and shops. I'm trying to remember if there was anything listed that is still around!

I have a guidebook from 1959 called New York Places & Pleasures, which believe it or not describes some still-surviving restaurants

Somewhere I have a guidebook to Soho from the 70s that has very detailed maps of all the galleries. I always wanted to walk around with it to see what luxury stores they've all turned into.

(Where I worked is a Hugo Boss.)

I've done some walking around like that trying to pinpoint old 1960s nightspots. It can be depressing because often the original building no longer exists

For those who want to dine old-school, here are some eateries mentioned in New York Places & Pleasures (1959; 1960 printing) that are still in business today at the same location:

Angelo's of Mulberry Street 146 Mulberry St. (near Grand)

Barbetta 321 W. 46th St.

Broadway Joe Steakhouse 315 W. 46th St.

Fujj (Sushi) 238 W. 56th St.

Gallagher's 228 W. 52nd St.

Grotta Azzurra 387 Broome St./177 Mulberry St. (was closed 1997-2003)

Isle of Capri 1028 3rd Ave. (@61st St.)

Keen's (English) Chophouse 72 W. 36th St.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor 13 Doyers St.

Old Homestead Steakhouse 56 9th Ave. (14th/15th Sts.)

Russian Tea Room 150 W. 57th St.

Serendipity 225 E. 60th St.

Sevilla 62 Charles St.

Le Veau d'Or 129 E. 60th St.

Until last weekend that list would've included the Four Seasons Brasserie at 99 E. 52nd St.

Flo says a few questionable things in that NY Times article but this is OTM and, er quite pertinent to this thread:

“I’m so sick of everyone in Manhattan complaining about the way things used to be.”

Who's complaining?

Trying to remember the name of the very old school restaurant that was in the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gage_and_Tollner

I liked Aggie's pesto omelette. It was the first place I tasted pesto!

Pao had a great cod and potatoes casserole. And gorgeous waitresses. Didn't know it was gone but doesn't surprise me, either.

Has Chumley's been mentioned yet?

What about Lansky Lounge, at Delancey and Norfolk? Good food, good DJs, a nice homage to Jewish gangsters. Long gone though.

My dad took me to Chumley's when i was 14. I was in awe that he knew which door it was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gage_and_Tollner🔗🔗

Lupe's on 6th and Spring seems like the kind of place that should have closed ten years ago, but it was still there last time I checked (about two years ago)

Sorry, 6th and Broome

6th and Watts!

Lol. I walked by there a month ago, on my way to Alidoro, which not only is still going but has another location now in midtown and was also surprised to see it was still there. Took my a while to figure out that the line of tourists waiting hours in the hot sun across the street were going to some trendy craft beer joint.

Not quite in the spirit of this thread but placed here for reference The Most Important Restaurants in Forty Years

Article about How Brooklyn Became Foodie Heaven. Cites Cucina as the pioneer, mentions Al Di La and Noodle Pudding.

Of course parallel to the blossoming of Fifth Ave. in Park Slope there was the Smith St. restaurant explosion (late '90s), which we've alluded to upthread - Patois being the pioneer. Here's a pessimistic take on Smith St. today:

http://www.bkmag.com/2016/03/22/the-rise-and-fall-of-smith-street/

Thanks for that article, Josefa. Did a little Redd's Roster research tonight, not sure when I will be able to post the results.

Referred to some information on this thread this evening. Very handy, thanks everybody for your hard work. I think I had a few more crumbs to add but nothing major.

http://whalebonemag.com/meet-married-couple-photographing-disappearing-face-new-york/

Lanza's is apparently closed for good. Had a 114-year run.

And on the more fancy-pants tip, Da Silvano is out of business too after 41 years.

Missed this thread. When I lived in Cobble Hill Patois was the only "new" restaurant on Smith Street. Court St had Harvest which was the brunch spot. They turned it into Lobo for some reason which I remember being bad, which had a satellite on 5th ave that may still be there?

Lansky Lounge took over the space that was Ratners, they had the big restaurant and the "speakeasy" with the entrance on Norfolk across from Tonic. I only went to Ratners once but that was great old Jewish NY.

Lobo on 5th Ave. is history. Never quite saw the appeal of it.

Lansky Lounge was fun, I wonder where they went wrong because the concept seemed good

Lobo was always trash; Patois was good, Robin Des Bois was dry, Tabac is the true heir

Is Sal's Pizza still on Court St? I lived a few doors down and would go there w/ a bunch of friends for special occasions. The waiters were surly and I couldn't believe the place wasn't better known as a classic pizza joint. Further down the street there was Lombardo's which I only went to once not long before it closed and it was fantastic. The gentrifiers didn't discover it in time because it closed and became a Dunkin Donuts I think.

Sal's or Sam's?

I don't remember, maybe it's Sam's? That sounds right. On Court near kane or baltic a block or two north of Cobble Hill Cinemas?

That's Sam's, which is still in biz

...and awesome

I used to get chicken parm heroes to go and you'd go into the back to pick up the order and they had this big Smith and Wesson poster.

There is also a Sal's, which is on Court and Degraw.

If I can go deep for a second, when I was a kid my mom would bring the family to a place called Betty Brown's Broadway Diner that is definitely in the top 10 memories of my childhood visiting the city. I remember it being HUGE and they served coffee in soup bowl sized coffee cups and I'd get sliders and french fries. I loved that place.

I'm going to get an egg cream from gem spa next time i'm in the area

I'm at Ferdinano's as we speak

cup & Saucer closing

fwiw French Roast closing

https://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/07/french-roast-downtown.html

that's wild, i walk by there every single morning and it's always busy

Just ate at Gene's, just on the other side of 11th Street from French Roast, for the first time. It's been in business since 1919! And it was good.

Know that place. Have some friends that love it. When I walked by French Roast for the first time in ages a year ago was surprised it was still open.

But came to post about Great Jones Café.

Hadn't been to Great Jones in >15 yrs, but still, that's an end of an era.

Gene's is good Italian (had Caesar, filet of sole francese, spaghetti on side) but I would go back just for the bar, which looks amazing with people sort of on top of each other like it's a little party. I like bars like that that are seemingly set up for cross-talk.

Come to think of it Gene's kind of reminds me of Dan Tana's in West Hollywood

Totally agree and have myself participated in such conversations whilst waiting for my party to arrive

hmmm, ridiculous

http://evgrieve.com/2017/07/after-34-years-off-bowery-great-jones.html

Great Jones Café not closing after all, reopening today at 5pm

wha? wow

This interview with the owner explains everything:

http://gothamist.com/2017/08/02/great_jones_cafe.php

The Riviera Cafe

REALLY?

Spike of Smalls, which, as you know, is across the street, posted a link on Facebook.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2017/08/02/greed-destroying-greenwich-village-as-famed-eatery-the-riviera-set-to-close-after-48-years

I watched that insane Texas-Toronto inning in the 2015 playoffs there

Haven't gone in there in decades, but was always glad to pass by and see it was still a going concern.

Shit i worked there for a bit more than a year! End of an era.

End of half a century

as prev reported

https://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/08/last-supper-at-riviera.html

Noho Star :(
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-noho-star-temple-bar.html

All that talk of Aggie's reminded me of Augie's, where I somehow got served, age 19, two martinis straight up with an olive, and watched an amazing jazz trio play about two feet from me. It remains one of the most magical nights of music ever.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/28/nyregion/neighborhood-report-upper-west-side-free-music-cheap-beer-couldn-t-keep-jazz.html

v pleased that apparently its spirit lives on in the same location:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_(jazz_club)

the "weird new york" cut-off should probably be the smoking ban

tho some folks would argue that by the time they might be giants had moved to williamsburg in the early 90s it was all over

Vaya con dios, El Quijote is closing down - to be redone or replaced by... something? All staff received notice.

This just seems like a stupid idea.

oh no :(

shortly after moving to nyc i ate a massive lobster dinner there with friends. in my memory it was just plate after plate of stuff. of course we were smoking cigarettes. the waiters all in little hotel vests. we never wanted to leave.

And uniquely, every plate you order at El Quijote is bigger than you expect

i was at the bar there one time and needing to call someone (no mobile phones in these days) and rather than send me into the cold to look for a payphone they pulled a big chunky phone from under the bar and let me use it

Their cash registers are probably from the '40s and the waiters are still in those vests

RIP Cornelia Street Cafe, closing on Jan 2. Not a great restaurant, but certainly an important artistic venue.

That's too bad. I used to see tango singing and other offbeat performances there and it seemed like the artists were happy to play there even though it was small. Can't remember how the food was, but the upstairs bar was lively.

I went on an internet search for paella in Brooklyn the other week and we chose an Argentine place that was not good, and it made me remember when a friend and former ilxor took me out for paella in 1998 or 99, when I first came here, and it was in the EV and it was GOOD and came with a lobster on top. Of course I have no idea where the restaurant was and it probably doesn't exist anymore.

It could've been La Paella on 9th St. which closed circa 2014 after 20 years in operation. You can still get lobster over paella at old spots in the West Village such as Spain and Sevilla, not sure who makes it best though.

I used to get my paella fix at La Nacional on 14th St., which OMG I am just noticing has reopened with a completely updated look (thought it was gone forever).

Francisco's Centro Vasco, another paella palace, closed last year.

I recently got a hold of a copy of a mid-nineties Access NYC, as I had been thinking about since I started this thread, and I have to say we did a pretty good job, covered a lot of ground.

Also, belated RIP to Café Loup.

Just found this:
https://ny.eater.com/2019/5/13/18617934/great-jones-cafe-gabriel-stulman-happy-cooking-hospitality-confirm

Also, maybe should have mentioned Greenwich Avenue Two Boots closing late last year.

aw. that crunchy corn flour on the crust!

Le Veau d'Or was recently closed down and sold by Catherine Treboux, after nearly 35 years in her family. The buyers are the two chef-owners of Frenchette, who plan to reopen an updated version of it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/dining/frenchette-le-veau-dor.html

Btw what ever happened with the old El Quijote space, is it a new restaurant yet?

Dunno.

One from the old guidebook that hasn’t been mentioned yet, as far as I can see:
Marion’s Continental Restaurant and Lounge, 354 Bowery (between E4th and Great Jones)

(The) Coffee Shop, 29 Union Square West, closed last October.

Marion's was cool, though I spent way more time at their sister restaurant-bar, M & R, on Elizabeth St. in Nolita. That closed in 2003.

Marion, the person, they say, was involved with JFK at some point in time.

Was it really closed that long ago? /Time flies, I’m old etc.

Yeah I think it closed just days after the smoking ban took effect

Seems like original Elizabeth location closed around then, but at some point it was revived on Bowery for a while next to Marion’s

That's right. That second version was kind of... dull I guess, so I never frequented it

The original location was frequented by Little Italy characters and old Soho-type art people and you-never-knew-who mixed in with random tourists. Big gay clientele too. Second location seemed like more of a generic place for the NYU crowd.

Coffee Shop was one of the first bars I ever went to in New York. i was totally overwhelmed. it was so loud, and so busy, and so apparently cool, and everyone was ordering different types of caipirinhas, which i had never heard of before. I eventually came to look down on it somewhat, as a kind of entry-level aspect of New York nightlife, but i don't know if that's just because of my experience or what.

I wouldn’t think of it just like that. To me it was more like some kind of rough equivalent of a place in Paris where everybody could go but famous or hip people didn’t shun, like La Coupole, maybe.

ohhh I didn't realize Cafe Loup permanently closed after they had the tax issue.

I think they had agreed to a plan to pay the back taxes and put a “White Knight” customer in charge for a bit but that didn’t work out so well.

https://ny.eater.com/platform/amp/2019/3/8/18256016/cafe-loup-closure-west-village-tax-department
http://www.grubstreet.com/amp/2019/03/nyc-literary-haunt-caf-loup-closes-again.html

Don't know how I didn't know that owners of Sur also owned Caffe Novecento, 343 W Broadway -still there!

Its neighbor, Diva, at 341 W. Broadway, is also closed, although can't remember ever actually going in that place, just looking in the window and hearing about it.

i have many happy memories, and a few shameful ones, of dancing upstairs at novocento. great atmosphere, great house music.

Pastis is back open. I was excited and then I realized I got it confused with Florent.

Should be noted here that Lucien Bahaj of the East Village French bistro Lucien passed away recently. Apparently his son Zac will keep the restaurant going. Lucien has been in business since 1998 and still has an "old, weird" clientele.

Think I went there at least once maybe four or five years ago, although sometimes I confuse Lucien with Jules

Teresas :(

https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2020/01/10/brooklyn-heights-mourns-as-teresas-restaurant-closes-its-doors-after-31-years/

Teresa’s

Never went there!

Then you’re banned from Redd’s Roster!

Sorry, j/k

Lol

But you will need to call ahead for a reservation.

Lucky Strike for real this time:
https://ny.eater.com/2020/4/15/21222837/lucky-strike-soho-restaurant-closed-nyc-coronavirus

RIP Gem Spa

RIP

I liked Gem Spa better when they sold tons of magazines, but still, legendary. Looking at recent photos it appears they were selling hats... and luggage (?!)

Judging by the last one I had there, the egg creams died long ago.

Eggs creams never lived up to their billing no matter where or when I had them, to be honest.

I only trust homemade.

Aquagrill

Robert Sietsema's tribute to the East Village's Odessa:

https://ny.eater.com/2020/7/14/21322961/odessa-closure-east-village-robert-sietsema-lookback

I have many fond memories of stuffed cabbages consumed there.

And his tribute to La Caridad 78, along with a historical discussion of the NYC Cuban-Chinese restaurant phenomenon:

https://ny.eater.com/2020/8/3/21349711/la-caridad-78-closing-cuban-chinese-restaurants-upper-west-side

I don’t know if it’s old enough or weird enough, but I used to eat at both locations of the wrap place mentioned here at #3 all the time: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/02/arts/eating-out-making-it-to-go.html

Mentioned here too, with a link to a relevant New York Magazine spot about its opening: https://ny.eater.com/2013/6/10/6422987/this-month-in-new-york-city-dining-1997

I used to get lunch at the #11 place on that Times list when I worked downtown: Tokyo Lunch. The chicken katsu-don was my go-to order.

Barely now why I ended up at this roundup just posting it here now as a memory jog:

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/24/arts/diner-s-journal.html

Barely know, I guess I meant to to type.

But came to type Jazz Standard/Blue Smoke Flatiron.

Cafe Steinhof in Park Slope has closed for good. I remember when it opened, circa 2000, as a more casual spinoff of Max & Moritz a block away. In the end it became a beloved neighborhood joint with a popular goulash night and film screenings and lasted far longer than its parent restaurant (though I still miss Max & Moritz).

In other Park Slope news, Rose Water closed back in November of last year. That was possibly my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. It's where I once eavesdropped on Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, and Salman Rushdie dining at the table next to me. Still coming to grips with that loss. Was not a business issue, the owner simply wanted to move on to a different phase in his life. I know Mr. Fine Wine used to eat there sometimes.

I've been to Manhattan about four times since Covid. I have the suspicion that when I next walk the streets of it all my favorite old restaurants will be gone, like ghosts, and my memories put in the trash bin.

Le Veau d'Or on E. 60th St., which was supposed to reopen under new management pre-pandemic, never did and I assume never will. So that's an 82-year operation gone for good.

Did you ever eat at that place with Mr. Fine Wine, Josefa?

No. But the owner was friends with him. The owner was somehow involved in the soul music scene & was good friends with the late Warren Lee of Subway Soul Club.

Empire State Soul Club, I mean

Of course. I knew what you meant.

Feel like the pandemic is redefining what Old Weird New York means.

Like the closing of the brick and mortar locations of Otto’s Tacos, does that belong on this thread? Nowadays I might say maybe.

Totally. Everything pre-pandemic seems a little old and weird now. It's like when the asteroid hit and killed off the dinosaurs. Something will survive but we don't know what.

But came to type Jazz Standard/Blue Smoke Flatiron.

― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, December 5, 2020 5:16 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Hard to think of this place as in any way old or weird, but still long enough running and significant enough to be an NYC institution, crazy to hear this

Spain on W13th, apparently
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/nyregion/a-bohemian-pedigree-and-free-tapas-in-greenwich-village.html

Oh man Spain really was old and weird. You could get reliably stuffed there, the free appetizers alone almost did the job. Authenticity was questionable - I had to send back some awful gazpacho once.

I guess the old school "Little Spain" of the West Village has dwindled to two places: Sevilla and the refurbished La Nacional on 14th St

xpost RIP. Loved that place. Went for years for tapas and cheap wine pre-clubbing/bar hopping. The paella could be hit or miss but wonderful when it was on.

Bunch of places here: https://www.curbed.com/article/nyc-businesses-closed-2020-pandemic.html

The Paris Hotel/Café, 119 South Street, at Peck Slip
has reopened after dealing with Sandy damage.

Closed back in May, according to this: https://tribecacitizen.com/2020/05/06/after-147-years-at-the-seaport-the-paris-cafe-is-closing-for-good/

omg that list

Lotta closures in my neighborhood I didn't even know about

Can only assume it will be much much worse by the end of winter

It's like we are at home on out-of-signal FTL spaceships and don't know what to expect when we finally slow down and land.

Should have said LOS WFH FTL spacesship. Anyway, your asteroid/dinosaur scenario was already better.

which btw Curbed stole from me, haha

Oh yeah

Truth be told, I was sort of surprised Angry Wade's was still open, although I have walked by it relatively recently.

I'll really miss Bar Robert from that general area (Boerum Hill)

That's too bad. I would go there now and again when I was in the neighborhood, joined forces with some strangers once for Trivia Night.

Angry wade’s seemed to have a decent outdoor setup and no above-the-establishment tennants so it’s a little weird to me they’re gone

Seems like he is concentrating on one of his other restaurants.

https://www.brooklynpaper.com/angry-wades-bar-closes-after-21-years/

Don’t think we mentioned Gotham Bar and Grill.

Or The Cupping Room Cafe.

Ah! I missed that

Which?

Wade’s

I like the little detail that Wade the owner is seemingly angry that the bar was named Angry Wade's, wants to reopen it as AW Tavern.

Yeah

So he has another restaurant and also another bar which I hadn’t realized

Or The Cupping Room Cafe.

Or something with C, Crown Room. Oh forget it, I’ll never remember.

Anyway, doesn’t seem that in the original run of this thread we mentioned the tapas bar at MacDougal and Houston, Bar Carrera, which the owner later switcherooed into a Bar Veloce, maybe wasn’t old enough or weird enough.

Mrs. Redd remembered, The Cub Room. It had a crown in its logo. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/06/garden/off-the-menu.html. 131 Sullivan, at Prince.

Closed in 2009. https://www.grubstreet.com/2009/06/soho_veteran_the_cub_room_is_r.html

It’s now The Dutch.

New York Magazine article about it

Also, never knew the same guy owned The Noho Star, Temple Bar, Elephant and Caslte and One Fifth http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-noho-star-temple-bar.html

Which I came across because there was a second Elephant and Castle location on Prince Street location of The Dutch/The Cub Room, or at least part of that location.

he owned keens too for a time, both keens and e&c have coffee cantata on the dessert menu

I ate at the noho star many times, nice place. That stretch of Lafayette from spring to Astor is one of my favorite streets in the city

that's my stomping ground too. lots of places gone forever now.

I guess I didn’t read that Noho Star link too carefully the first time I posted it.

21 Club?

https://gothamist.com/food/21-club-historic-prohibition-era-speakeasy-closes-for-foreseeable-future

they should put some masks on their jockeys

Lol

Happy Holidays to the Redd’s Roster crew! Hopefully one day when we stagger out of our bunkers there will still be some Old Weird restaurants open to dine in upon occasion.

<3

The one thing that gives me hope is thinking of Prohibition, no legal bars for 12 years, but then after repeal bar culture blossomed again rather quickly. It would be nice to still have some of the restaurateurs and some of the places we've known when dining does its own reset.

The McDonald's among NYC McDonald's has closed.This place was like something out of the Five Points c. 1890

End of a era smh McDonald’s across the st from the cage on w4th st station pic.twitter.com/SBkW9AtKMD

— Lord Nez (@LordNez) January 3, 2021

I saw that mentioned elsewhere. Wow.

never thought a McDonald’s closing would make me depressed

Ugh

I was sad when the one on 34th st closed because before Hudson Yards was built I worked at Coach a block closer to the Hudson and used to eat there when I was really hating myself, and felt like there was some charm that there was still a drive through McDonalds with a parking lot in manhattan.

that 34th Street one truly felt like a spaceship landing on the moon, so so strange over there. definitely grabbed something there once to fuel up for a Megabus trip, and certainly have gotten one or two ice cream sundaes at the West 4th one before/after movies. yeah, oddly i'm sad to see it go, since obviously whatever replaces it will actually be more depressing and certainly out of the price range of the McD's customer base. the only winner here might be the Papaya Dog spot nearby.

I think I had a birthday party at the second floor of the w4 st McD’s in elementary school when they did that sort of thing there. Went there in the past year and it was super grimey

that mcdonalds was hella grimy. the only mcd i gave a half a shit about was the one in times square because they had unlocked, working and surprisingly clean bathrooms with access entrances on both 42 and 41 street.

IFC across the street at w4 was planning to expand out and up prior to the pandemic, still no word (obviously) about when they're reopening.

the extra fancy McD's down on Broadway south of Wall was nice when it opened...not sure of its current state

Can’t quite remember the current state of that one either. It had a sort of detached little stage on the second level! I had a music teacher who played a gig there once.

yeah...I thought it was a stage for a grand piano by the entrance...but I don't recall exactly

Might have been differet configurations over the years.

https://gothamist.com/food/piano-at-wall-street-mcdonalds-may-be-removed-forever
Wow, Ron McLure!
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2011/09/11/mcclure-plays-mcdonalds/

Ugh. Birdland in danger. (Posting here instead of jazz thread, but maybe will post there too)
https://abc7ny.com/9386838/

On the one hand, I think less of the restaurant aspect of it than the Jazz Standard, on the other, it is definitely older and weirder.

yes

Sammy’s Roumanian

https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/restaurants/rip-sammys-roumanian

^^author of that article is a good friend of mine. couldn't make it to the bday blowout she writes about there (i'd already moved out of nyc by that point), and never got to go otherwise, alas

Can’t remember if we have ever done or should do old school supermarket chains, such as Bohack’s or Waldbaum’s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohack#Use_in_media

The Bohack location at 87th St and 2nd Ave was featured in The Odd Couple when Felix went in and did shopping for his and Oscar's date night with the “Coo-coo” Pigeon sisters.

Sopranos season 6 Tony: (digging with shovel) Halfway ta China...there's nuthin' here. Uncle Junior: Forty thousand I had. My share of the Bohack's haul from the seventies.

Some interesting stuff on the Waldbaum’s wiki page.

Grand union ftw

I didn't realize Waldbaum's is completely gone. Thought they were still operating in a diminished capacity, with a couple of far flung locations like PathMark or D'Agostino.

Grand union ftw

Is the grand Union on LaGuardia and Bleecker still there? It’s been a minute

No

Well, the building is still standing and it's still a supermarket, but it's a Morton Williams now

I'm sure NYU has plans to demolish

This thread made me look up Il Vagabondo, which I used to live near and enjoyed as a real old-school Italian place. It was technically an "Italian social club" and had an indoor bocce court. Ran into Andy Rooney leaving there one night, he was apparently a regular. Anyway, of course it is no more.

https://nypost.com/2019/02/20/site-of-famed-restaurant-il-vagabondo-hits-market-for-9m/

Can't be many of those classic red-sauce joints left I guess.

Grand Unions used to have many locations across the Eastern half of the US, right down to Florida

*Grand Union singular

Bizarre novelty place we used to go to a few decades ago
The Royal Canadian Pancake House (Multiple locations, original one was in Tribeca, near Wetlands, can't find addres). The RCHP (not to be confused with the RHCP) served outrageously oversized pancakes and omelettes that nobody could finish. Went belly up in 1998

― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs),

I seriously hope this is the place in Gremlins 2 with the waiters dressed as mounties and Gordon Lightfoot playing in the background and the chocolate mousse molded into the shape of a moose.

No idea. No mention of that in the Wikipedia page I just found. The co-owners do seem to qualify for our Great Names of Real People Thread though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Canadian_Pancake_Houses

CHUd feels

Lol at this article: https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/12/style/the-fifth-deadly-sin.html

Posting a link to this article as well, although I haven’t really studied it yet: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/19/arts/where-best-to-sate-101-food-hankerings.html