remembering cafeterias & other cool restaurants of the recent past

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I like going out to eat, always have. When I was kid dining out meant carside burgers at Parkmoor's Drive-In or the occasional roast beef dinner w/my grandparents at the Golden Lamb or Shuller's Wigwam. When I moved to New York my dad who travelled a lot for business, tipped me off about the cafeterias where you could get a wholesome meat & potatoes & vegetables for not too much $$. Places like the Belmont cafeteria where Robt Deniro hangs w/the other cabbies in Taxi Driver. That was gone by the time I got here but I became something of a regular at Durbow's in the garment district, there was incredible art-deco design inside and the food OMG jewish soul food like stuffed cabbage and kasha varnishkes and chicken soup.

http://buzznet-92.vo.llnwd.net/assets/users10/dubrows/default/dubrows_5--large-msg-114652617429-2.jpg

― m coleman, Monday, 19 March 2007 22:38 (eighteen years ago)

Ohmigod I was just talking about ZIMS on the Zodiac thread! ZIMS!

― Alex in SF, Monday, 19 March 2007 22:44 (eighteen years ago)

Ohmigod and I was just searching for Zim's and it reminded me of DOGGIE DINER!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/112265103_194a6404a7.jpg

― Alex in SF, Monday, 19 March 2007 22:45 (eighteen years ago)

actually I was hip to rice&beans before I hit Manhattan thanks to a cuban colleague of my dads but puerto rican/cuban and now dominican restaurants and lunch counters were a once a week staple. 8th avenue between 14th and 23rd was the rice & beans restaurant row. Sam Chinita's, an old dining car on 18th is now gone but the best still remains La Taza De Oro. Roast chicken w/garlic sauce, yellow rice & red beans, cafe con leche.

http://images.yelp.com/bphoto/OsEdX7KcSKlTBJZhi0wrIA/l

― m coleman, Monday, 19 March 2007 22:53 (eighteen years ago)

The best lost restaurant from my childhood was this Russian restaurant on Clement and 6th ave called, I believe, the International Russian Bakery. Borscht, chav, piroshki, blinzes. So yummy in my memory. It closed when I was 7 or 8, I think, and I've never quite found a replacement.

― Alex in SF, Monday, 19 March 2007 22:55 (eighteen years ago)

when we drove east to visit my grandparents it was HOJO's all the way. fried clams, ice cream, hot dogs w/baked beans and brown bread.

http://www.roadsidefans.com/greenfield1.jpg

― m coleman, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:02 (eighteen years ago)

when we went down south to visit my aunt & uncle, it was Stuckey's or bust. Never tried the pecan log tho.

http://www.stuckeys.com/images/photo14.jpg

― m coleman, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:08 (eighteen years ago)

try sunset park if you want old-time food w/ good feeling for cheap. seriously: two eggs, sausage, toast, hashed browns and coffee for $2.70.

of course, that means going to sunset park. but really, all the places around there are so cheap and wonderful. and FEEL like the real thing, because they sort of are.

― the table is the table, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:11 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.well.com/~soukup/ebay/z-zims.jpg

― Alex in SF, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

i hated Stuckey's as a child WITH A FIERCE PASSION.

― BATTAGS, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

Howard Johnson>>>>>>>>Stuckey's

― m coleman, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:25 (eighteen years ago)

hahaha I literally busted a gut at this Ann Arbor classic. Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger still standing.
http://www.leeandkristin.net/AnnArbor/DTPhotos/Blimpy1.jpg

― m coleman, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

I love the Dominican diner on Vanderbilt. About $3.00 for the same breakfast described above. $4.50 cuban sandwich big enough for two meals. There's a 24/7 mexican bakery on 21st street and 5th ave in brooklyn that makes AMAZING chicken tacos. (their other tacos are fine also, but the chicken is spicy and savory and so so tender.)

― ian, Monday, 19 March 2007 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

here's sam chinita's cuban/chinese diner, originally called mi chinita. signature dish: fried chickpeas & chorizo w/yellow rice and sweet plantains, yum. also good pot roast and ropa vieja. we miss you sam.

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/diners/samChinitaExtM.jpg

― m coleman, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

this place was a 50s style niteclub called Teddy's that survived into the 80s, catering to the proto-Sopranos crowd. then it became a yuppied-up restaurant called El Internacional, later an upscale Mexican called El Teddy's riffing on the old sign. Fun fact: I met my future wife at a party here in, well, a long time ago ;-)

[image}http://www.curbed.com/archives/2004_06_elteddy.jpg[/image]

― m coleman, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:06 (eighteen years ago)

arhhhhgs

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2004_06_elteddy.jpg

― m coleman, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:07 (eighteen years ago)

best greasy drunk 2am pizza slice in NYC = Stromboli's. I lived upstairs for 4 1/2 years. When I moved in 1989 I was convinced the building would soon collapse or be abandoned by landlords and squatted. I was wrong, when I drove past in a cab 2 weeks ago there it was, with a remodeled Stromboli's underneath.

http://thedailytransom.observer.com/stromboli.jpg

― m coleman, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago)

alice's, on avenue a & 2nd, was a great polish diner with amazing brown and orange decor. food was passable, but it was about the atmosphere. it's now samba-le.

― lauren, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 14:56 (eighteen years ago)

The site of (El) Teddy's is now home to a chi-chi home & garden store called Tribbles. No quadro-triticale in sight, though.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 19:58 (eighteen years ago)

Not Grandy's. :{

― Abbott, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 20:02 (eighteen years ago)

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