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

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.

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??"

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/nyregion/08coffee.html

https://www.amny.com/news/internet-cafe-rewires-itself-for-the-new-kiddie-boom/

the kiddie incarnation was called Hopscotch

Think I may need to get this book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/julia-wertz/tenements-towers-trash/9780316501217/?lens=black-dog-leventhal

*bump*

Serge Raoul, the founder of Raoul's in Soho, passed away this month at 86.

(the restaurant is still in business)

This is a good blog to keep an eye on... https://evgrieve.com

Aggie’s on Houston and Sullivan. Don’t remember the fare but went there often in the 90s

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.

weird and pointless correction but I think Aggie's was Houston and Macdougal

nabisco is, um, correct

Who else remembers that after the restaurant closed Aggie was a bartender at Walker’s.

And a pointless reminder that the restaurant on the corner of Houston and Sullivan back in those days was Il Bocconcino, discussed upthread.

I also posted upthread about the tapas bar Bar Carrera, which used to be on Macdougal and Houston until it became a Bar Veloce.

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

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

Were Aggie's and Nellie's and Bar Carrera and Bar Veloce all the same space?

Seems to be a pizzeria now, Song’E Napule

Unless the pizzeria and Bar Veloce share the same address

They do —- adjacent spaces. (Actually Song e Napule now has two storefronts on that same block)

not weird mostly, but appropriate for here:

https://www.grubstreet.com/article/best-nyc-restaurants-social-history-new-york.html

Perfectly apropos, thanks!

Still feel very lucky i can say i ate at florent

Ha yeah

Had no idea Lavagna was still in business. "Named after the Italian word for lasagna," according to that piece. I hope that's a joke.

A long time East Villager told me that the only restaurants in that neighborhood worth a damn are Lucien, Emilio's Ballato (technically in Nolita), and Miss Lily's. I don't know Jamaican, so I can't vouch for the latter, but Lucien and Ballato are the ones I gravitate to when I'm in the area and get my full endorsement.

Sorry, that Lavagna quote was from a different piece, not the Grub Street one linked above

Miss lily’s bangs but it is totally a scene. Ur better off going to crown heights or PLG if u actually want to eat

I had a weird food flashback recently to a Chinese spot on La Guardia Place that I loved for their noodle soups. Think it was called No. 1 Son (yikes)?

Re: Aggie's -- yeah I loved it as well. Mentioned it earlier in the thread.

Lucien the

(sorry - hit Return too soon)

Lucien the only E Village place I care to visit whenever back in NYC and if there's a hankering. O

I worked across from Florent for a few years and that was our lunch spot, then pre club spot in the early 00's. Spent the night of the blackout sitting out front with Florent plying everyone with free drinks and food ("It's going to spoil!"). Will never happen again.

Geez I should reread my previous posts in this thread. Posted just about the same thing re: Florent - only with added unnecessary information - eight years ago. Old much?

Ha, I remembered your previous post. But it's okay, who reads old posts these days anyway?

Eight years a decent enough interval between reposts.

Repost realization is a badge of honor

Ha, yes exactly that!