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.
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 03:24 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 03:36 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 03:46 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:00 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:12 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:21 (seven years ago) link
if we can expand to bars that served food and little cafes
Cafe La Fortuna on 71st off ColumbusAll State Cafe on 72nd near West End AveP & 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
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:24 (seven years ago) link
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)
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:26 (seven years ago) link
Kiev was the first place I ever ate at in NYC. Allen Ginsberg was eating at the table next to me
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:28 (seven years ago) link
Such as
Still there, used to be reasonably reliable, haven't set foot in for years:French Roast, 78 West 11 (West Village)
French Roast, 78 West 11 (West Village)
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:29 (seven years ago) link
anyone remember "Top of the Sixes" at 666 5th AveI 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
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:36 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:36 (seven years ago) link
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).
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:38 (seven years ago) link
(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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:38 (seven years ago) link
Is Cafe Reggio too iconic for this thread? I was there not too long ago.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:43 (seven years ago) link
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
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:44 (seven years ago) link
or are we specifically talking about places no longer in existence
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:44 (seven years ago) link
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)
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, July 4, 2016 4:43 AM (38 seconds ago)
Still there:
Coffee Shop, 29 Union Square WestCelebrity sighting: David Lee Roth, sitting outside, people watching
Noho Star, 330 Lafayette StreetCelebrity 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)
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:47 (seven years ago) link
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
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:48 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:49 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 04:51 (seven years ago) link
I remember liking the food there but I couldn't tell you a thing about it now
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 04:58 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:00 (seven years ago) link
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
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 05:03 (seven years ago) link
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
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 05:06 (seven years ago) link
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
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 05:07 (seven years ago) link
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.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:10 (seven years ago) link
I believe it was a somewhat famous place locally, eulogized by Gay Talese in the NYer.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:11 (seven years ago) link
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
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:12 (seven years ago) link
The zebra-print wallpaper of Gino is now on the walls of a bar called Fifth Estate in Park Slope, Brooklyn
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 05:16 (seven years ago) link
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.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:18 (seven years ago) link
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)
― Josefa, Monday, July 4, 2016 5:16 AM (7 minutes ago)
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:25 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:26 (seven years ago) link
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:29 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:36 (seven years ago) link
Fifth Estate:
http://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/yn3J2usUyrnt8YJAh5uziA/o.jpg
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 05:38 (seven years ago) link
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?
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 05:58 (seven years ago) link
Another digression before I lay me down to sleep:
RIP places we used to go to buy suits:GorsartMoe GinsburgSym's
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 06:05 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 06:22 (seven years ago) link
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
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 06:26 (seven years ago) link
http://gothamist.com/2015/08/28/rip_blarney_stone_pub.php
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 06:32 (seven years ago) link
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
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 06:50 (seven years ago) link
With second-hand, not-mine celebrity sighting of Pete Shelley! https://smytii.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/gone-ny-ye-olde-tripple-inn/
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 06:52 (seven years ago) link
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
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 07:00 (seven years ago) link
Sam Chinita, 176 Eighth AvenueLa Chinita Linda, 166 Eighth Avenue
Two Cuban-Chinese classics, in streamlined metallic settings that screamed "diner!"
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 07:11 (seven years ago) link
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
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 07:17 (seven years ago) link
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
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 07:21 (seven years ago) link
Wow
― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 07:24 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Josefa, Monday, 4 July 2016 07:26 (seven years ago) link
rio mar was good went there once with friend of a friend who was a big regular and got the royal treatment
― velko, Monday, 4 July 2016 07:30 (seven years ago) link
and Library Bar and Bruar Falls and i think also Alphaville. never felt anything close to the same affection for any of those places as alt.coffee. it attracted a more out crowd.
extent of my interactions with the owner in the alt.coffee days:-there was a Bartlebees album in their CD rack i'd been curious to hear, so i asked him to put it on (it was too scratched to play, so he described it to me instead)-"when are you getting more Irn Bru?"
i was a teenager and sensed that the ownership and staff found my friends and i a little annoying (fair, obv). might have left an art portfolio with someone there once, more likely just thought about it and never actually did.
iirc they closed alt and reopened it as a kiddie/daycare cafe in the mid 00's in response to increased stroller traffic on ave a and declining crust punk numbers. i moved to long island for a couple of years right around then, knew nothing about this. remember walking in there one day and going "wtf is this??"
― carthage marine park (Deflatormouse), Monday, 3 July 2023 17:22 (eight months ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/nyregion/08coffee.html
― carthage marine park (Deflatormouse), Monday, 3 July 2023 17:26 (eight months ago) link
https://www.amny.com/news/internet-cafe-rewires-itself-for-the-new-kiddie-boom/
the kiddie incarnation was called Hopscotch
― carthage marine park (Deflatormouse), Monday, 3 July 2023 17:28 (eight months ago) link
Think I may need to get this book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/julia-wertz/tenements-towers-trash/9780316501217/?lens=black-dog-leventhal
― Tommy Gets His Consoles Out (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 7 August 2023 12:53 (seven months ago) link
*bump*
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 12 February 2024 21:05 (one month ago) link
Serge Raoul, the founder of Raoul's in Soho, passed away this month at 86.
(the restaurant is still in business)
― Josefa, Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:48 (one week ago) link
This is a good blog to keep an eye on... https://evgrieve.com
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Monday, 18 March 2024 00:28 (one week ago) link
Aggie’s on Houston and Sullivan. Don’t remember the fare but went there often in the 90s
― calstars, Monday, 18 March 2024 17:11 (one week ago) link
if anyone has Liedy's Shore Inn on SI on their list of old NY bars to visit, sounds like March 30th is their last day. Was there over the weekend (Chris Spedding played) and they've been selling off memorabilia from the walls and liquor supply is being run down.
― bulb after bulb, Monday, 18 March 2024 18:38 (one week ago) link
weird and pointless correction but I think Aggie's was Houston and Macdougal
― ን (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 19:45 (one week ago) link
nabisco is, um, correct
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 20:19 (one week ago) link
Who else remembers that after the restaurant closed Aggie was a bartender at Walker’s.
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 20:20 (one week ago) link
And a pointless reminder that the restaurant on the corner of Houston and Sullivan back in those days was Il Bocconcino, discussed upthread.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 20:22 (one week ago) link
I also posted upthread about the tapas bar Bar Carrera, which used to be on Macdougal and Houston until it became a Bar Veloce.
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 21:04 (one week ago) link
Were Aggie's and Nellie's and Bar Carrera and Bar Veloce all the same space?
...and then there was El Paso Spanish-Mexican on that same block, don't know if it's been discussed here
― Josefa, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 21:18 (one week ago) link
I used to live on Sullivan, and think often of the types of restaurants that just got stomped out of the area in the early 00s and definitely now feel like a kind of departed 90s city -- mostly Gus's (the Greek place) and a place on with locations on Sullivan and somewhere in the east village called ... Mama's, maybe? Non-great comfort food, but in this casual-nice take-out range that used to be everywhere and blinked out rapidly. And then there was Esperanto on Macdougal, which was like the last 90s-style coffeehouse to limp its way a good distance into the 21st century
xpost and yes, El Paso was FANTASTIC just for the sheer archaic vibe
― ን (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 21:22 (one week ago) link
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 21:57 (one week ago) link
Seems to be a pizzeria now, Song’E Napule
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 21:58 (one week ago) link
Unless the pizzeria and Bar Veloce share the same address
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 21:59 (one week ago) link
They do —- adjacent spaces. (Actually Song e Napule now has two storefronts on that same block)
― ን (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 23:09 (one week ago) link