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

Good news! I hope they find somewhere permanent.

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

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.

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)

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.

Good work!

https://i.imgur.com/33933VR.jpg

😟😟😟

Frank’s closed right at the beginning of the pandemic, for unrelated reasons. Great bar, don’t know what else compares to it in that neighborhood.

bar-wise there were a few.. The Alibi.. things of that nature. downstairs it could get a little “heavy” with rough dudes

but nothing ever topped the vibe of the dance parties they threw upstairs
every weekend. they called it Bang The Party after the famous house song. 5 bucks on the door, a conga player in the corner, great slippery wooden dancefloor, E-Man (i think his name was Eric?). a friend of mine from Scotland came to visit me one time for New Year’s Eve, i introduced him to E-Man, they hit it off, and E-Man promised him he could play for New Year’s Eve. which he did. played Kenny Dope records among other things, raised the roof. just one of many, many good memories of that place. i think they tried recreating it in Manhattan for a couple of months but it didn’t really take. later i heard that some of the regulars were Paradise Garage refugees? no idea if this was true.

I think Bang the Party actually started in Manhattan at a club called Baktun and for a while would alternate between the two locations. I went to Frank’s for it a bunch of times and saw it grow. In the beginning the party was upstairs and the 5dollars was just upstairs and nothing was going on downstairs so that was like a chill out room. Eventually a dj started playing down there, an older black man who used a red telephone as his headphones and played more like club classics and soul I think. I don’t remember. Eventually there was a hip hop dj downstairs, house music still upstairs and both levels would get packed so they moved the cover to the front door instead of just upstairs. There was a great backyard for chilling out though.

I lived not so far away on Court st between Kane and Baltic. And would be able to walk home. Def some good memories of Franks. I think even after Bang the Party stopped they still had club DJ’s up there.

Moe’s was a long-standing bar a few blocks away.

There was a Cambodian restaurant in the space that’s now bbq I think. Not many Cambodian places in the city. I remember their menu had a list of things you could order that didn’t take long in case you were in a rush to go to BAM

an older black man who used a red telephone as his headphones and played more like club classics and soul I think

I remember this! When Frankie Crocker died this guy dedicated the entire night to him, playing his songs and songs he made famous

that cambodian place was great. The last time I was in Ft Greene it had become an upscale brunch place. Sad!

Missed this one, Burger Heaven.
https://ny.eater.com/2020/2/25/21152684/burger-heaven-closing

The last one that existed has become a Smash Burger. It was located across the street from the deli that inspired this thread The Flashy Crawl on Biryani Carts, Convenience Stores, etc.

I used to go to one, on Madison I think, I liked it.

Rathbones

We missed the passing of it last year. But the spot has reopened as something else and maybe someone else has bought the name to reopen elsewhere.

No, same guy and space. They changed the name but maybe kept some menu stuff. Not that I had been in the place in thirty years.

Not too old or weird, served food but not a restaurant, but still prepandemic and I had been there within the last several years, B Flat in Tribeca.

The latest episode of The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is titled "Side Streets: Good Diners, Great Pizza and Mars 2112." The whole thing is worth a listen, but particularly at the 15 minute mark when they pose the question, if you could bring back one closed restaurant from NYC history which would it be. One of the hosts speaks about Le Veau D'Or and past celebrity sightings therein.

They also mention this place:

America Restaurant, 9 East 18th Street (Flatiron).

A big box place, felt more like a discotheque than a restaurant, where you watch the waitstaff or maitre or maitresse 'd walking far away up and down some kind of catwalk just to tell somebody their table was ready. Very, very 80s.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/04/style/the-new-restaurants-space-and-grace.html

― Tarzan v. BMI (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, July 4, 2016 4:44 AM (six years ago)

Not too weird, only a little over a decade old, but still. Sort of a perfect little place for what it was and where it was. Survived the pandemic only to not be renewed this month by Lincoln Center. https://ilovetheupperwestside.com/indie-food-wine-closes-lincoln-center-restaurant/

i liked that place but i imagine they'll cycle something else in within a few weeks.

One or two things of passing interest on here: https://ny.eater.com/2023/5/5/23709744/nyc-restaurant-closings-may-2023

It's funny they even mention Blank Street Coffee closing bc there's still three or four of them in the general Park Slope area where we had none just a couple of years ago. Although I did just buy a plant from the newly closed location and none of the others sell plants.

Far sadder to me, which they don't mention, is the closing of Broccolino, an Italian place run by real Italians across Flatbush Ave. from Barclays Center. Nice people, and I liked their little quirk of serving you the bill inserted in a little "Diabolik" comic book ("fumetto").

missing La Caridad 78, long
-running Chinese/Cuban spot on the uws. shut during covid, tho i hadn't been there in way longer

Did we ever mention The Peacock Caffé on this thread?

Caffè. Not to mention all the other Caffès wonder how many are left. Maybe I can search with the proper diacritic.

Some photos: http://www.greenwichvillage-italian-newyork.com/2020/08/peacock-caffe-greenwich-village-ny.html?m=1

Can’t say I’ve heard of it

It was kind of an old school supercheap cafe that people could hang out and write in all day if they wanted to iirc.

LIke that Hungarian bakery near Columbia.

Another village place that comes to mind is Alice’s tea cup. Not sure of the name but it was down on the lower west somewhere

Tea & Sympathy? That seems to still be there. But there might have another teacup place, the Pink Teacup or something.

Pink tea cup sounds right

Pink Teacup closed in 2009. https://ny.eater.com/2009/12/8/6751059/soul-food-spot-the-pink-tea-cup-to-close-after-55-years

Ohh
I went there 2 or 3 times as a kid, probably after music lessons at Greenwich house

what was the name of that tiny Thai spot in the EV with the far out mod decor, anyone remember?

i live just down the street from that Hungarian bakery near Columbia, never go there anymore for some reason.

I can understand that.

probably because it's full of Columbia students who hang out and read all day.

alt.coffee was my spot for buying a can of Irn Bru and hanging out and chain smoking the rest of the day.

Salad days

yeah def

Columbia profs too iirc

a few profs and neighborhood people, but overwhelmingly students. i
like the place but tend to avoid crowded places with loud teenagers.

this neighborhood feels more like a college campus every year, most of our old restaurants have been replaced with fast casual joints at this point.

I like the place but tend to avoid crowded places with loud octogenarians.

alt.coffee was the best, and I didn't even live there.

I'm still friends with some of the people i met individually at alt.coffee and they are the most 'out-there' people i've known in my life.

some of them have kids now 👽👦👧

The owner of alt.coffee also ran Cake Shop and just bought the old Pyramid Clib and is turning it into a new club.