On Demand
Lost City
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Steve Zeitlin executive director of City Lore and co-author of Hidden New York: A Guide to Places That Matter, and Brooks of Sheffield, the pseudonym of the author of the Lost City blog, offer a postmortem of the local establishments lost in 2008.
Question of the Day: What New York City establishment that closed in 2008 will you miss the most? Comment below.
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I hope when we show recognition for the departed we remember that the polar bear became extinct in the wild this year. I have yet to see it anywhere recognized. things we have lost happy new year to all and to all a safe night
Don't forget Restaurant Florent, the diner that established Meatpacking!
Will sorely miss the Minetta Tavern, in the West Village, that was a mainstay for many years. Not for the food, but for the ambiance and gravitas of the place. The place is allegedly being re-opened but, after it's "ruinovated" (!) it won't be the same.
The Monkey Bar in midtown is also undergoing a (second!) ruinovation -- lost!
Also Five Roses Pizza on 1st Avenue just below 11th Street - a real homey, neighborhood place; it was like enjoying great NY pizza in a nice auntie's kitchen.
I have to say that I will NOT miss the OTB location in my neighborhood. I live in a diverse neighborhood with various shops and services, but this was the one place that added nothing the area except for a ring of cigarette smoke that extended about 50 ft.
We're losing the freaks too! Shopsins, the very quirky hangout with the infinite menu and everything available with fluffernutter - on Carmine Street in the West Village is now some upscale something or other.
My Korean deli on Braodway between 87th and 88th Sts. The entire storefront of this large building was emptied out--a restaurant, Hot and Crusty which moved up the block and raised its prices, and the deli. Then all the stores remained empty while we wondered what was going to replace it--a bank? Duane Reade?
Turns out, according to the Times last Saturday, that a developer plans to put up a large condo--great!! And the homogeneity of the Upper West Side continues...
There was a Thai place on 44th Street called Yum. It served food on paper plates and plastic trays, and you ate in cramped quarters, sometimes seeing a cockroach run by, but the food! It was so good. Always so, so good. And a great place to get food in the middle of the minefield of bad food in Times Square. I was very sad to see it close its doors this year.
The closing of Chez Laurence on Madison Avenue in Murray Hill this year broke my heart! They had fabulous pastries.
I have another one, Shopsins. Kenny tried to move to Carmine Street, but it didn't work. Too clean.
How much of this is Bloomberg's fault, he hasn't been a friend to small business. He's all about big bucks. So NYC is now becoming the place you can go to get all the crap that you can get anywhere else in the country, you just pay a lot more for it. Witness Starbucks... it's like a buck cheaper in LA for a mocha.
Nostalgia is death. Why not do a report on all the new innovative establishments that have opened this year?
I've only lived here for 5 years. Can you name some places I should go to that are in danger of closing?
Judd: Shopsin's still exists! They are in the Essex Street Market. Tiny, but still wonderful!
Mama Buddha on Hudson Street. It was a great chinese restaurant to hang out in and a staple delivery place for nights at home.
Oh, wait... Shopsin's just moved to the East Village - nevermind!
I have been in NYC for 15 years and EVERY year stuff leaves that had been there for ages...thats what NY does
Park Slope lost the 2nd Street Cafe which had an amazing brunch and desserts. There were tons of pictures drawn by the customers hanging on the wall. It was replaced by a children's pharmacy. :(
David's Bagels 14th Street and A.
Five Roses Pizza Ave A 12th Street.
i think someone may have just said this, but I was dismayed to have the chain Burritoville disappear overnight! It was Mexcellent (to quote its own posters).
I still can't get over the best dance clubs of the last decade, casualties of Giuliani, like Filter 14 and Centro-Fly. Apart from sparse exceptions, the only places to dance now are glossy mega-clubs and hipster joints.
Happy New Year! I will greatly miss the Legacy Recording Studio on 38th street. It was an amazing place to record, possibly the last large orchestral recording studio in Manhattan. The building was sold to build a condo - I wish the developers luck.. Also, the Bear Bar, on 77th & Broadway, closed a month or two ago, and the whole building is slated for demolition. It was the last dive bar on the Upper West Side, at least until 103rd Street...
My laundromat on 13th street. Not very historic, but it's now the third laundromat thats closed in the last 4 years and I'm running out of places to wash my clothes while being continually surrounded by another hip restaurant. Resturants and clubs make the culture of this city, but they run on the backs of laundromats, delis and other necessities that are removed silently from our streets in favor the next fad.
Sucelt coffee shop on 14th st near 7th Ave was a tiny storefront with 3 smiling hispanic ladies serving the lucky ones in the know the best empanandas, cafe con leche, big meals for few dollars. Sorely missd, hoing to hear they will turn up elsewhere one day.
the LGBT community definitely lost important landmarks/hangouts. Both the loss of Rubyfruit and of Cafe Florent are significant. With the political losses experienced by the gay and transgender community in 2008, the closing of these two meeting spots is a special blow. Truly a tragedy for a community has such a rich history in this city....often made in small cafes and bars where people could gather.
Love Saves the Day on 2nd Avenue in the East Village has closed- an institution for decades, vintage gear for all- gone!
Nostalgia is not death. Starbucks, Chase National, Citibank branches are death.
My favorite bookstores in Manhattan.
First, 12th Street Books closed and relocated to Brooklyn and it's not quite the same. Something's wrong about new Brooklyn incarnation on Atlantic Ave. It doesn't feel right. Something ineffable was lost. Plus IT'S IN BROOKLYN.
Also, the Strand Annex on Fulton street: The Strand's, prettier, friendly sister store that was always wonderful to browse on Sunday afternoons when it wasn't crowded.
We still miss Jerry's --formerly on Prince Street near Greene in Soho. It was an icon of Soho when artists were still able to live and work there. (it is now a Michael Kors store!)The space was wonderful, the staff friendly and warm; we went there for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Though Jerry has reponed a place in Tribeca the vibe will never bee the same. Like the old Prince Street Bar--it represents a time now lost for New Yorkers. Soho is now a high end mall.
L'Angelo's corner of Houston and Thomas.
Lost in 2008: Regent Fabrics, East 60 St btwn Third & Second Avenues. Walked by to replace buttons. There was a sign in window: Lost Lease.
RE the chinese restaurant that was replaced by Le Pain Quotian (which is also De Dag Brood in Belgium) is a Belgian restaurant/bakery and NOT a French one. One interesting about the place in that is has a 'group' dining table, that is, one so big that many people sit together at the same table and perhaps get to talk and meet each other.
Col Legno on East 9th street in Manhattan.
The food was great, best spinach salad I've ever had. Chris the owner, always reminded me of the Stanley Tucci character in the movie "Big Night"
I have a website where I map the restaurants on the Upper West Side and I can't keep up with the closings!
www.uws-eats.com
A friend of mine with an interest in NY history pointed out that there have always been spots that, at the time, were considered quintessential New York. His example was the original Madison Square Garden, which was an essential NY landmark, until it was torn down for the Empire State Building, which of course is now an essential NY landmark, while the original MSG is forgotten.
The previous poster is correct: nostalgia is death. However, I don't see these old landmarks being replaced by new landmarks. I don't think people will be nostalgic about the passing of Starbucks and Duane Reades and glass condominiums 20, 30, 50 years from now.
Although it didn't actually close, my family will no longer eat at or order from Saigon Grill...what a loss to our weekly dining.
Second Avenue Deli is now Chase Bank!!!
1 thing that really sucks is the that the public space area in Union Sq is shrinking as they let restaurants take over that space...
Kim's Video!!!!!!
The Liquor Store Bar in Tri Be Ca near N.Moore St. turned into a fancy mens' clothes store. I suppose thankfully it kept the bar facade but it is still very upsetting.
How about a shout out for those great small business that are STILL in business?! Moishes Bakery since 1972, Economy Candy since 1930, Russ and Daughters since 1913, etc.
The lovely Maya Schaper Cheese & Antiques on West 70th Street, which is closing today after decades of selling -- as the name implies -- delicious cheese and wonderful silver and china at affordable prices.
This was truly a little corner of gentility in the best sense of the word. Maya tells me that the shop will become a cafe -- an independent, one hopes, and not a chain.
Jesse nostalgia is not death. Nostalgia is eternal life. Greed is death.
Mexican Radio in South Street Seaport...it was right under the Brooklyn on ramp but it was cheap and relaxed and I loved it...now it's some french bistro, under an on ramp.
PS has anyone been to that site NYsonglines, I think it closed, it had every corner in the city listed with its history.
I grew up with the Dilibertos, the owners of the Cedar Tavern. My good frienbd Joe died of cancer on'07, and his brother Mike didn't want to reopen the bar. The Cedar was originally on 6th Street, and moved to University and 11th in the 1955. I've spent many spellbinding hours listening to Joe and Mike's father Sam Dil1berto talk about the great people that drank and didn't pay at the bar. There was also a short story by Capote, i think, about the bar.
Jefferson Market has closed. There are signs which say it is re-opening, but it doesn't look promising.
and what happened to burritoville?
Sorry, gotta chime in here -- don't blame Bloomberg but Guiliani for kickstarting the conversion of commerce from quirky to corporate.
Bloomberg has definitely continued this but most people who cherished non-corporate NYC had already moved out by the time Bloomberg showed up. Guiliani is the devil here -- even worse he gave them all tax breaks so when 2000 came he had to shutter the libraries.
It all changed in the early and middle 90s.
Too many sushi bars. I mean, how different can they be one from the other!!! Eventually they'll only be able to get not very fresh fish as supplies get bought up. Yuk!!
I will miss Astroland! I will also miss the Polar Bears but, as the world turns more and more things will become extinct.
Let us not forget that, as a recent caller approaching 50 reminded us, the new restaurant now called an "upscale somethingorother" is some young person's new hangout for perhaps the next twenty years. Good luck to them!
I was devastated by the closing of Chez Brigitte, the tiny (tiniest in the New York?) restaurant on Greenwich Avenue west of 7th Avenue South. The most tragic casualty of the gilding of the West Village.
I miss the old Dumpling House on Eldridge St. It's just not the same after it's renovation. It was a classic chinatown $5 dinner for two in a florescent lighted narrow, greasy hallway of a place. Now it's a big place with some local artists photos on the wall and little track lights and woodwork. WHY!!??!?
Bleecker Street and now Hudson Street has become "Sex and the City-Land." Small affordable places are gone, replaced by high-priced shops/restaurants. 4 Marc Jacobs shops! 3 Ralph Lauren. Even a Starbucks. Stores that sell clothes for small dogs? Busloads of over-dressed girls on the weekends eating awful cupcakes.
RUNGSIT - our favorite Thai restaurant on East
26th Street, closed, to our dismay. The food
was delicious and the people who ran the place were wonderful. They had been restaurateurs (sp?) in our neighborhood for more than 30 years, starting out at BOBO on East 23rd.
They moved to East 26th, I think, about 15 years ago.
We got to know the family who owned and ran it, and we loved them. One time we were in there for lunch and I forget why it happened,
but the owners brought us a bottle of wine.
RUNGSIT was replaced by another Thai restaurant which we do not like as much. Also,
the neighborhood right around where they had
been, has seen several new, very stylish
looking Thai places open up, but I have not
tried and will not try any of them.
I would consider the entire landscape of Chelsea as one of the shrinking personalities of NYC. That personality being the grass roots and original LGBT community
The past 8-10 years has seen the closing of several of the gay institutions including: Big Cup, Roger & Daves, Hell (the bar which closed prior to 08 i believe), and even that gorgeous little house on the corner of 18th and 8th was demolished last year to make way for a big ugly building!
What is going on in this city that we are just bulldozing small business and really wringing any sort of cultural and social life out of each and every neighborhood!
Bridge Kitchen Left the city. Julia Childs put if on the map because you could get anything you wanted. It wasn't glossy like the chain stores. Now I'll have to look harder for things I need
Nusraty's store on Bleecker and W. 10 had been there since the 70's was forced to leave this fall because his rent had been raised to $45,000 a month. Brooks Brothers Black Label will open their soon. Nusraty sold middle eastern rugs and art objects and was a neighborhood figure.
In the last 8 years,Bleecker Street between 7th and Hudson has been totally transformed. There are 4 Ralph Lauren stores and 3 Marc Jacob stores within a TWO block area.
The wonderful age-old Jefferson Market in the West Village. Jefferson Market, struggled through the summer and now seems to be officially closed. It's hard (impossible really) to find a market with a full meat & fish counter, yummy fresh prepared food and ,here's the hard part, that also has the regular groceries you need for everyday. They also had great prices. Jefferson had/has(?) wonderful service and is bright and airy inside.
Do you have any information for how to help Jefferson?
The Donnell Library om 53rd St -- with the best collection of art books in the dity.
Cafe Martino on Myrtle Avenue in Clinton Hill. It was only open for a couple of years, but it was a decent spot.
The friendliest bike shop in the city, the Hub Station at Hudson and Morton Street, closed this year. These folks weren't snobs like all the other bike shops in the city. They were helpful, friendly, and it is a shame to see them go. Hopedully they will resurface.
I miss the Strand book store on Fulton, which closed earlier this year. The eternal street work on Fulton street is suffocating all but chain establishments.
Bloomberg believes in a city of the rich, for the rich, by the rich. He, therefore, has contributed to the destruction of the cultural richness of NY.
How many of these mom & pop places have closed simply because mom & pop were tired of running their shops?
Here's a place on the verge of closing for several years that's holding on: Freddie's. Great neighborhood bar in Prospect Heights right around the corner from me. Ratner's Atlantic Yards project has been threatening to demolish Freddie's for years, and they have been a focus in the fight against the AY development. Not sure how much longer they'll hold on, but I'm glad they keep holding on!!
Twin donuts on 218th st. and broadway! They have a new sign up, but ...
The independent video rental store KIMS on Broadway between 114th and 115th closed this year.
Yonah Shimmels, since 1910!!! The gateway for many Jews into the New World. How much longer before the last knish blooms from that hallowed ground?!
Geppetto's Toy Shop on Christopher St. -- a toy shop that we loved -- closed to be replaced by upscale men's shoes. I hope it closed soon.
Also on Christopher St., Matt McGee's magical Christmas store closed and moved around the to a sad, cramped little space around the corner (but I think that was last year). I'm still depressed.
Gertels Bakery on Hester Street is becoming yes....wait for it!!!
a condo
thank god there is Brown Restaurant nearby creating a new tradition that might last as long.
LOVE YOUR SHOW BRIAN, Happy New Year
Kims Video the East villages premire video store is closing its gates and sending its video collection to Italy
Paul Taylor Dance Company was finally kicked out of their SoHo studios (after 20 years they were at 550 Bway for 20 years before that) so that Banana Republic can have a 2nd floor! They are homeless until next year when they will be moving into studios in the LES.
that's what's so sad about NYC it really is a tableau for anyone group to project unto and cover what you loved, you just need to accept it I guess.
Not closed yet but they posted the notice: Love Saves The Day on Second Ave is closing in January! It's one of the last remnants of the Hippie days in the East Village.
KIM'S!!! thats right good call
steve carter: i thought kim's video is just moving? at least that's what the staff says when i ask them ..
El Cid... 15th st. the best tapas. a true traditional classic.
The store that had been Old Japan on Bleecker St. for 15 years is now yet another part of the Marc Jacobs empire.
Go GO G-O! to Katz's and all your other old faves, keep these places going!
For example: Best drugstore in the world is Block Drugs on 2nd Avenue and 6th Street -- I walk in and Carmine, the pharmacists, calls out "Hey, Nance, how are you?" You don't get THAT at Duane Reade!
In Chinatown, GO to Ting's gift shop on the corner of Pell and Doyers. It hasn't changed a jot since I first was taken there by my parents in the early '60s. The people who own it are dear, and it's filled with tiny treasures!
These places closed not because the economy is tough, but because the owners are lousy business people. I bet the vast majority have no clue what a P&L is? And the remaining who do never used one to run their businesses. That's why they're gone. Period.
i will miss the knitting factory. it closes it's doors tonight on leonard street. great location, great shows, 3 floors of music at all times, cheap beer, good sound.
it's moving to williamsburg, but it's just one less venue in manhattan to go see national, local, upcoming, jazz, punk, literally everything. sad to see it go. one more loss for the manhattan live music scene.
it will be missed.
So, not in 2008, but I'm STILL mourning the loss of The Wetlands...Anyone in their late 20's to early 40's who loved live music and who was of even a slight hippie bent anywhere within the tri-state area wpould go there - this was arguably a major launching point of the entire jam band movement.
Post 47: My cousins kids were visiting NYC in the late 90's after the Disnification started and said, "This is just like Cleveland!"
Collective: Unconscious alternative theater closed its door in July 2008. I'm saddened by the demise of alternative arts spaces in NYC due to the lack of affordable space for artists to make and present work. www.weird.org
Brick Oven Gallery in Williamsburg Brooklyn -Sorely missed
Passerby bar on 15th and 9th. This bar had a floor that lit up like in Saturday Night Fever. It will now become a condo complex. The only bar worth going to with music worth listening to. Down with gentrification! NYC is becoming lame.
I really miss Cafe Le Madeleine on West 43rd Street. It had a wonderful indoor patio, very good food and lots of theater folks. Evicted by landlord. Ugh!!! I also miss Chez Laurence on East 44th Street and Madison very much. Both places had a wonderful ambience.
Please Read On Air:
I would like to lament the loss of the "indie" venue. Treasures like Northsix (Brooklyn) and Irving Plaza (Manhattan) had long provided intimate (and sweaty) opportunities to see your favorite bands up close only to be replaced by boutique chic venues like The Music Hall of Williamsburg and The Fillmore.
That isn't to say that we haven't had the pleasure of seeing at least one potentially great venue open as well. The Bell House in Gowanus provides that same chic atmosphere without sacrificing an ounce of audience/artist intimacy.
I would like to surmise that the fall of these cornerstones is due to the fact that these establishments are run by individuals with a strong disconnect to the generation their venues are serving. Once big money enters the pictures, they feel obligated to give in because they don't have anything invested in it.
My neighborhood in south Park Slope near 5th Avenue and Ninth Street lost the Paris Cafe - owned by a marvelous Brazilian woman and her French husband this was pre yuppie cafe open 365 days a year. Great soups, breads pastries and coffee.
still around: Yonah Schmmel's kinishery (over 100 years, houston and first) veselka, 9th and second, di roberti's supposedly will open after a renovation but I don't know exactly what that means, its been around for over 100 years. Giovanni's ,on the grand concourse, an amazing old fashioned italian red sauce place (the best!), nothing nouvelle, and run by estonians. the oyster bar in grand central.
also, this is the more upscale, not mom and pop places, but the old hotel lobbies and bars in NYC are a lot of fun if on a special occasion you have the dough: the algonquin, bemelmans (At the carlyle) the king cole room at the st regis
I will be forever heart broken about cafe mozart and (I can hardly get myself to come to grips with this) la fortuna
...kaddish for NYC
Adrienne
Not only has the forced closures made a big diference in neiborhoods but also businesses forced to relocate have left many neighborhoods gentrified to the point that in some cases they are almost unrecognizable. The Blind Tiger (one of the elite beer pubs) was forced out of it's west 10th st. address. That along with the situation at Chumley's, not to mention other changes the neighborhood, has taken away the uniqueness that made it and those establishments as special as they were. Perhaps in the long run the transplanted businesses will make their new neighborhoods just as special. However, that is yet to be seen and in the mean time the whitewash continues. I feel NY is losing in most cases.
I didn;t even know that Knitting Factory was closing/moving. That sucks. Yet anpother staple of the avant garde, experimental, indie music scene in manhattan gone. No wonder I don;t go out to see shows anymore.
here's an institution of a sort that's gone by the boards: nat hentoff was fired by the village voice yesterday.
peter from manhatten:
Yeah, the retail moves to First Ave. So one can buy stuff.
The rentals will be gone. This is the last day of rentals. There's an article about it in today's Daily News entertainment section.
The Barnes and Nobles location in Chelsea. The landlord increased the rent to such an extent that even B&N couldn't afford it! There were patrons who actually cried when the placed closed. And for what? The building still is empty after three-quarters of the year has passed. Many businesses in the area depended upon the foot traffic that B&N generated for their own continuance. I second the opinion that it isn't nostalgia that is "death", but pure, savage greed.
Me! New York City lost me this year. My rent skyrocketed as the apartment literally crumbled around me. I'm a single artist-type who does lots of freelance gigs to stay afloat, and alas got too tired after treading water for so long. But I didn't leave before I saw my bodega close, the umpteenth opening of an expensive stroller store and even small boutiques turn into realty offices. And, I should say, I'm one of the alleged gentrifiers of Carroll Gardens, who in turn got further gentrified out of the nabe...glad I can still get my Brian fix up here in Western Mass.
For those that think the business owners who have closed their doors are just bad at business you are mistaken. The two dance studios that have closed are American historical venues where amazing art has been invented and wisdom transferred. Paul Taylor was already paying over $130,000.00 in rent. Come on, this is about greedy landlords.
one more thing still alive and ticking (praise god) B&H Dairy (60 years)! second and (around) 8th.
adrienne
One thing I failed to mention in the interview: P & G Cafe, the last great tavern on the Upper West Side, closed tonight, after 60 years. Go pay a call and toast them!
Demitrios Deli and as if by magic a Silo Café opened across the street.
32 E 32nd St, New York, NY, 10018
http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNWN_enUS232US232&q=32%20E%2032nd%20St%2C%20New%20York%2C%20NY%2C%2010018&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl
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