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

Know that place. Have some friends that love it. When I walked by French Roast for the first time in ages a year ago was surprised it was still open.

But came to post about Great Jones Café.

Hadn't been to Great Jones in >15 yrs, but still, that's an end of an era.

Gene's is good Italian (had Caesar, filet of sole francese, spaghetti on side) but I would go back just for the bar, which looks amazing with people sort of on top of each other like it's a little party. I like bars like that that are seemingly set up for cross-talk.

Come to think of it Gene's kind of reminds me of Dan Tana's in West Hollywood

Totally agree and have myself participated in such conversations whilst waiting for my party to arrive

hmmm, ridiculous

http://evgrieve.com/2017/07/after-34-years-off-bowery-great-jones.html

Great Jones Café not closing after all, reopening today at 5pm

wha? wow

This interview with the owner explains everything:

http://gothamist.com/2017/08/02/great_jones_cafe.php

The Riviera Cafe

REALLY?

Spike of Smalls, which, as you know, is across the street, posted a link on Facebook.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2017/08/02/greed-destroying-greenwich-village-as-famed-eatery-the-riviera-set-to-close-after-48-years

I watched that insane Texas-Toronto inning in the 2015 playoffs there

Haven't gone in there in decades, but was always glad to pass by and see it was still a going concern.

Shit i worked there for a bit more than a year! End of an era.

End of half a century

as prev reported

https://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/08/last-supper-at-riviera.html

Noho Star :(
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-noho-star-temple-bar.html

All that talk of Aggie's reminded me of Augie's, where I somehow got served, age 19, two martinis straight up with an olive, and watched an amazing jazz trio play about two feet from me. It remains one of the most magical nights of music ever.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/28/nyregion/neighborhood-report-upper-west-side-free-music-cheap-beer-couldn-t-keep-jazz.html

v pleased that apparently its spirit lives on in the same location:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_(jazz_club)

the "weird new york" cut-off should probably be the smoking ban

tho some folks would argue that by the time they might be giants had moved to williamsburg in the early 90s it was all over

Vaya con dios, El Quijote is closing down - to be redone or replaced by... something? All staff received notice.

This just seems like a stupid idea.

oh no :(

shortly after moving to nyc i ate a massive lobster dinner there with friends. in my memory it was just plate after plate of stuff. of course we were smoking cigarettes. the waiters all in little hotel vests. we never wanted to leave.

And uniquely, every plate you order at El Quijote is bigger than you expect

i was at the bar there one time and needing to call someone (no mobile phones in these days) and rather than send me into the cold to look for a payphone they pulled a big chunky phone from under the bar and let me use it

Their cash registers are probably from the '40s and the waiters are still in those vests

RIP Cornelia Street Cafe, closing on Jan 2. Not a great restaurant, but certainly an important artistic venue.

That's too bad. I used to see tango singing and other offbeat performances there and it seemed like the artists were happy to play there even though it was small. Can't remember how the food was, but the upstairs bar was lively.

I went on an internet search for paella in Brooklyn the other week and we chose an Argentine place that was not good, and it made me remember when a friend and former ilxor took me out for paella in 1998 or 99, when I first came here, and it was in the EV and it was GOOD and came with a lobster on top. Of course I have no idea where the restaurant was and it probably doesn't exist anymore.

It could've been La Paella on 9th St. which closed circa 2014 after 20 years in operation. You can still get lobster over paella at old spots in the West Village such as Spain and Sevilla, not sure who makes it best though.

I used to get my paella fix at La Nacional on 14th St., which OMG I am just noticing has reopened with a completely updated look (thought it was gone forever).

Francisco's Centro Vasco, another paella palace, closed last year.

I recently got a hold of a copy of a mid-nineties Access NYC, as I had been thinking about since I started this thread, and I have to say we did a pretty good job, covered a lot of ground.

Also, belated RIP to Café Loup.

Just found this:
https://ny.eater.com/2019/5/13/18617934/great-jones-cafe-gabriel-stulman-happy-cooking-hospitality-confirm

Also, maybe should have mentioned Greenwich Avenue Two Boots closing late last year.

aw. that crunchy corn flour on the crust!

Le Veau d'Or was recently closed down and sold by Catherine Treboux, after nearly 35 years in her family. The buyers are the two chef-owners of Frenchette, who plan to reopen an updated version of it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/dining/frenchette-le-veau-dor.html

Btw what ever happened with the old El Quijote space, is it a new restaurant yet?

Dunno.

One from the old guidebook that hasn’t been mentioned yet, as far as I can see:
Marion’s Continental Restaurant and Lounge, 354 Bowery (between E4th and Great Jones)

(The) Coffee Shop, 29 Union Square West, closed last October.

Marion's was cool, though I spent way more time at their sister restaurant-bar, M & R, on Elizabeth St. in Nolita. That closed in 2003.

Marion, the person, they say, was involved with JFK at some point in time.

Was it really closed that long ago? /Time flies, I’m old etc.

Yeah I think it closed just days after the smoking ban took effect

Seems like original Elizabeth location closed around then, but at some point it was revived on Bowery for a while next to Marion’s

That's right. That second version was kind of... dull I guess, so I never frequented it

The original location was frequented by Little Italy characters and old Soho-type art people and you-never-knew-who mixed in with random tourists. Big gay clientele too. Second location seemed like more of a generic place for the NYU crowd.

Coffee Shop was one of the first bars I ever went to in New York. i was totally overwhelmed. it was so loud, and so busy, and so apparently cool, and everyone was ordering different types of caipirinhas, which i had never heard of before. I eventually came to look down on it somewhat, as a kind of entry-level aspect of New York nightlife, but i don't know if that's just because of my experience or what.

I wouldn’t think of it just like that. To me it was more like some kind of rough equivalent of a place in Paris where everybody could go but famous or hip people didn’t shun, like La Coupole, maybe.

ohhh I didn't realize Cafe Loup permanently closed after they had the tax issue.

I think they had agreed to a plan to pay the back taxes and put a “White Knight” customer in charge for a bit but that didn’t work out so well.

https://ny.eater.com/platform/amp/2019/3/8/18256016/cafe-loup-closure-west-village-tax-department
http://www.grubstreet.com/amp/2019/03/nyc-literary-haunt-caf-loup-closes-again.html

Don't know how I didn't know that owners of Sur also owned Caffe Novecento, 343 W Broadway -still there!

Its neighbor, Diva, at 341 W. Broadway, is also closed, although can't remember ever actually going in that place, just looking in the window and hearing about it.

i have many happy memories, and a few shameful ones, of dancing upstairs at novocento. great atmosphere, great house music.

Pastis is back open. I was excited and then I realized I got it confused with Florent.

Should be noted here that Lucien Bahaj of the East Village French bistro Lucien passed away recently. Apparently his son Zac will keep the restaurant going. Lucien has been in business since 1998 and still has an "old, weird" clientele.