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

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