This NYT article from 1986 (prob paywalled) mentions Betty's Broadway, Florent, and other offbeat downtown eateries:
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/06/garden/tapas-tableaux-dining-is-different.html
― Josefa, Saturday, 15 January 2022 14:39 (two years ago) link
“CALL it unconventional, iconoclastic or in some cases bizarre, the downtown style in restaurants is a refreshing change of pace from the starched conventionality of the midtown expense-account temples.
The booming downtown restaurant scene is notable not only for its scope but also for its distinctive style - in design, food presentation and experimental attitude.
Where else, for example, could one eat Spanish tapas, or finger food, in a pastel-splashed dining room with clashing green tablecloths? On one wall at El Internacional (219 West Broadway, between White and Franklin Streets) is a video monitor that shows cartoons and the kitchen crew at work.
When it comes to food presentation, downtown has flair. This can be seen in ambitious establishments such as the Gotham Bar and Grill (12 East 12th Street), where vividly garnished food is set against black plates, as well as at Betty Brown's Broadway Dining (622 Broadway, between Bleecker and Houston Streets), where retrograde munchies such as peanut butter sandwiches are served on Crayola-bright platters. At Indochine, a Cambodian-Vietnamese restaurant at 430 Lafayette Street (between East Fourth Street and Astor Place), exquisite tableaux are created with Oriental ingredients.
Some inspired dining rooms are found in the cavernous former industrial spaces here. Among them are Amazonas, a Brazilian restaurant at 492 Broome Street (West Broadway); the SoHo Kitchen and Bar at 103 Greene Street (near Spring Street), and Bar Lui at 625 Broadway (near Houston Street).
The 1950's diner theme is sizzling hot at the moment, as can be seen in such places as Exterminator Chili at 305 Church Street (near West Broadway) and Restaurant Florent, a bistro at 69 Gansevoort Street (near Washington Street.) Of course what is exotic today is conventional tomorrow. Before long, midtown lawyers may be sitting on diner stools and eating from banana-yellow plates.”
― calstars, Saturday, 15 January 2022 14:50 (two years ago) link
Yes BETTY BROWN’sI also remember it as huge. Also kind of a blue interior maybe? And big booths as I recall. Kind of a nocturnal Hawaii surfer decor vibe maybe?
― calstars, Saturday, 15 January 2022 14:52 (two years ago) link
Also went to Exterminator Chili a bunch of times
Theme from on Old Weird New York Italian Restaurant
― Ferryboat Bill Jr. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 February 2022 05:58 (two years ago) link
Liking the accidental “on”.
― Ferryboat Bill Jr. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 February 2022 06:05 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iG6s5W5kOY
― Ferryboat Bill Jr. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 February 2022 06:06 (two years ago) link
NiceForgot how easy it was to jump turnstiles
― calstars, Wednesday, 9 February 2022 12:57 (two years ago) link
still commonplacewish my shoulder wasn't so banged up
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 9 February 2022 16:25 (two years ago) link
Easier to do with a crowd of friends
https://img.discogs.com/PC5yOZx9ozu7_5mcAAHFb2XOZc8=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-427787-1421590180-2487.jpeg.jpg
― Josefa, Wednesday, 9 February 2022 21:28 (two years ago) link
Was wondering what that was coming.
― Ferryboat Bill Jr. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 February 2022 22:00 (two years ago) link
I waited a while for someone else to go first. But it had to be done.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 9 February 2022 22:08 (two years ago) link
Because you had to be a …
― Ferryboat Bill Jr. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 10 February 2022 21:53 (two years ago) link
Not old and not weird but still going to mark the passing of Fika a few years ago: https://ny.eater.com/2019/9/24/20882251/fika-closed-nyc
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link
The fika on desbrosses st downtown was super chill. Rips
― calstars, Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:42 (two years ago) link
Yes, that was the one I always went to.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2022 17:06 (two years ago) link
Nice area to walk around in and I loved those big windows on the corner to look out.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2022 17:22 (two years ago) link
RIP Angel’s Share and it’s adjacent restaurant, Village Yokocho:https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/nyregion/tony-yoshida-japan-village-angels-share.html
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 14:58 (two years ago) link
aargh, its.
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:02 (two years ago) link
Sunrise Mart too.
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:11 (two years ago) link
I wonder if people are feeling nostalgia for the time when nyc was dotted with bustling neo-speakeasies. Perhaps what we need now is a neo revival of those. Dress the mixologists up in fashions of the aughts.
― Josefa, Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:12 (two years ago) link
Just saw something about a new one. Think it is the one in the first picture here: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/bars/the-best-speakeasies-in-nyc
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:17 (two years ago) link
We got to-go cocktails now so…
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:26 (two years ago) link
Is Decible bar still around, down the street from there? Has kind of a speakeasy vibe
― calstars, Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:27 (two years ago) link
Seems Sake Bar Decibel is still in business. This article is really good: https://punchdrink.com/articles/quiet-defiance-of-decibel-sake-bar-nyc/
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:37 (two years ago) link
Then I saw another article in there about the original Terroir in the East Village. I only ever have gone to Terroir Tribeca on Harrison Street.
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 15:42 (two years ago) link
Damn so many tipsy meals with friends and loves at Village Yokocho and Angels Share. RIP
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 10 April 2022 18:27 (two years ago) link
I didn't go that often but figured somebody here must have.
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 18:31 (two years ago) link
oh my god i haven't even thought about decibel in a decade. i have to go back
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 10 April 2022 18:44 (two years ago) link
Did you ever go there when it was Candy B1?
― Helly Watch the R’s (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 April 2022 18:45 (two years ago) link
i remember liking decibel.RIP Angel’s Share but really it’s the kind of place too perfect to exist for this long. I’d even be afraid to go back, for fear it wouldn’t live up to my memory of it. a japanese bartender in a waistcoat quietly muddling a cocktail with a long-handled spoon, snow falling outside the window, and the candle on your table lighting up your face from below as the large block of ice in your whiskey settles a little deeper into the glass.
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 04:01 (two years ago) link
Are you James Salter, Tracer Hand?
― Anita Quatloos (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 10:29 (two years ago) link
j/k of course
― Anita Quatloos (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 10:31 (two years ago) link
Somehow I missed ever going to angels share. Sounds like a very cool place!
― calstars, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 11:52 (two years ago) link
It was kind of a place to go for a while there.
― Anita Quatloos (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 12:21 (two years ago) link
"I believe I may have seen one ilxor with a screenname that is NSFW to Google play there with his band once."
James Redd, this post from six years ago appears to refer to me, and I think you are referencing my band's second residency at the Continental, occurring after our four year run at Arlene Grocery. If you know my name IRL and use suckass FB, please make yourself known to me as such!
and no one has mentioned Ole Devil Moon on 12th St!
― veronica moser, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 13:33 (two years ago) link
johnny cakes
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 14:15 (two years ago) link
xpost loved their breakfasts
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 14:43 (two years ago) link
Seems like even though the East Village Sunrise Mart is kaput, there are still three other open locations. Walked by the midtown one the other day on the way to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL).
― Eric B. Mash Up the Resident (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 15:17 (two years ago) link
El Quijote at the Hotel Chelsea has reopened, but with a vastly different, much smaller menu. No lobster!
― Josefa, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 21:22 (two years ago) link
huh
have you been? does it seem like it's the same place apart from that? tbf the menu before was biblical in size
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 22:36 (two years ago) link
Have not been, but evidently the two dining rooms that used to be in the rear - the Cervantes Room and the Dulcinea Room - are no longer part of the restaurant. So it’s been reduced to the front area where the booths are, plus the bar. They’re now giving the menu a bit of Basque flavor, and it seems as if the dishes are smaller.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 22:43 (two years ago) link
Wait I just read a NY Times review that says they do have lobster, but in a different preparation (I didn’t see that on their online menu). The linoleum checkerboard floor is gone but not sure what the new floor is. It’s a favorable review that is rather critical of the old, weird incarnation.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 23:10 (two years ago) link
Haven’t clicked myself yet but https://nypost.com/2022/06/01/iconic-speakeasy-angels-share-reopening-with-a-new-hiding-spot/
― Magical Misery Tour Spiel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 June 2022 11:50 (two years ago) link
Good news! I hope they find somewhere permanent.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 2 June 2022 12:41 (two years ago) link
Not a restaurant, but I was pleased to find that the bathrooms in Tompkins are still as disgusting as when I was a teen, and that people are still naked and smoking crack in them, too. I thought that kind of thing had died, but no! Bless New York City’s indomitable spirit
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 2 June 2022 15:57 (two years ago) link
I ate at the new El Quijote, which was good, but it’s good in the way that many wannabe-authentic Spanish restaurants across the city are good. There are a bunch of places like this but there was only one classic El Quijote. I do approve of some of the renovations they’ve done, such as stripping the old drop ceiling back to the original 19th Century ceiling… it looks its age but it’s cool. Supposedly the floor tiles are original as well. There’s a review of the place in the latest New Yorker where I feel the reviewer pulled her punches a little but the telling part was mentioning that their sangria now only comes by the pitcher at the price of $54, which no modern day Patti Smith or Robert Mapplethorpe could possibly afford.
― Josefa, Saturday, 4 June 2022 21:49 (two years ago) link
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.― Josefa, Monday, July 4, 2016 3:57 AM (six years ago)
― Josefa, Monday, July 4, 2016 3:57 AM (six years ago)
Mystery solved!
It was Il Bocconcino, in business from 1980 to 2002 at the corner of Sullivan and Houston. The owner-chef was Gilberto Petrucci, who was indeed one of the young paparazzi in 1950s Rome that inspired Fellini to make La Dolce Vita. That means Petrucci was a paparazzo before the word was even invented! After Il Bocconcino closed Petrucci turned his focus to Harlem, where he opened a new restaurant with the same recipes called Gran Piatto d'Oro, which operated for a number of years but seems to have closed around 2017.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 05:09 (one year ago) link
Good work!
― My Little Red Buchla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 August 2022 17:40 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/33933VR.jpg😟😟😟
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 17 August 2022 22:54 (one year ago) link