Vanishing New York Backup

Take a peek at the newly renovated, cleaned-up park at Bleecker and 11th --sponsored by an anonymous donor the neighbors believe is Marc Jacobs: There is only one record store left on St. Mark's Place. [ EVG ] Under the Coney Island boardwalk, a remnant of a vanished bar. [ ATZ ] A last look at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge . [ LC ] What happened to the ex-chorus girls and vaudevillians of the Whitby? [ ENY ] Memories of Bleecker Bob's . [ FP ] Romy offers some notes about Vali . [ WIC ] Walking Stuyvesant to Tompkins Square. [ FNY ]

VANISHING (for now) After the announcement that Starbucks will (maybe) take over Bleecker Bob's (then again, not ), here comes more bad news for record-store lovers and vinyl aficionados. Rockit Scientist Records on St. Mark's Place is shuttering at the end of February. It's another case of a landlord hiking rent. Owner John Kioussis told me, "my lease is ending and i don't want to renew at the current rate, i asked for a rent reduction and was turned down. While business wasn't great, it just isn't worth paying $8500 a month ." Kioussis hopes the shop will last through March. After they close, he plans to do mail order for a bit, then "I'll look to reopening sometime in the summer if i find something reasonable." Opened in 1996, Rockit Scientist used to be on Carmine Street. In 2003, when it moved to St. Mark's Place, the Times published a long and loving tribute to the store, describing "why places like Rockit Scientist st

Yesterday, the Times confirmed that Bleecker Bob's is leaving the Village--and that Starbucks is moving in. Now Ken Mac passes along this interesting comment from his news-breaking post : "not sure who this reporter spoke to since he doesn't mention anyone by name, but Bleecker Bob's is currently looking at spaces in the east village . we are definitely NOT planning to close. please email us at bleeckerbobs@yahoo.com with any leads on storefront. thanks and stay tuned." Ken Mac Maybe they can move into the soon-shuttered Holiday Cocktail Lounge .

Awhile ago I looked at the rarity of the word "novelties" on city signage. Now, it's even more scarce. One of the prime examples has vanished. 2010 In the flower district, from this floral supply store, NOVELTIES has been torn from the sign above the plate-glass window. Parts of the facade are plywooded and a scaffold casts it in shadow. It's hard to say for sure, but this floral supply shop may be vanishing, too, with its window full of glitter pine cones, spools of ribbon, and green bricks of floral foam all covered in dust. today More Flower District : Superior Florists Rob Warren Books Another word to read about: Appetizing

Bad day--first, Bleecker Bob's is turning into a Starbucks, then the Holiday Cocktail Lounge is closing, and then... The last H&H Bagels location has been seized and shuttered. [ Eater ] Timboo's of Park Slope is gone. [ OMFS ] From strip club to strip mall , on the sad fate of JJ's Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge. [ BP ] The man who played Juan Epstein in Welcome Back Kotter is dead. [ NJ ] Artists attack Gowanus Whole Foods plan. [ Racked ] The last days of Little Italy (I miss Sal the barber). [ LIFE ] Excerpts from the New York diaries . [ MF ] On Fraunces Tavern. [ NYDN ] Take another look into the old Hollywood theater of Avenue A --before it's demolished. [ EVG ]

In case you're still alive after hearing about Bleecker Bob's becoming a Starbucks , don't put those heart-attack paddles away just yet. Grieve just brought the depressing news that the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge will be shuttering forever --this Saturday night. my flickr Grieve writes that a "tipster notes that the Holiday as we know it will close after Saturday night. 'Locks will be changed immediately.' We understand that another bar will take its place. What happens to the current appearance is unknown. Per the tipster: "Another EV historical institution gone.'" On the Holiday: History of the Holiday Stefan Lutak, 1920-2009 Holiday Survives

VANISHING Sweet suffering Christ, when will it end? Ken Mac over at Greenwich Village Daily Photo just reported the staggering news that Bleecker Bob's record store is becoming a Starbucks . 1983, NYU, via Flaming Pablum He writes on his blog, "I walked into Bob's the other morning and asked him straight up, 'Is a Starbucks moving in here?' He replied 'Maybe,' not 'absolutely not!' The manager of Cafe Reggio confirms the Starbucks takeover of Bob's space , adding 'Starbucks will take 30% of our business. All the NYU kids want their mocha frappuccino.'" Killing two birds with one stone, Starbucks?

When we first heard that the super-trendy Torrisi would be taking over 90-year-old Rocco's on Thompson St., I contacted the Torrisi team and asked them some questions about their plans and their decision to move into the ousted third-generation business' space when many already empty spaces were available nearby. They didn't respond. But they seem to be answering my questions--and some of your comments--in yesterday's interview with the Observer . Per the Observer: The sniping came via comments appended to various blog posts concerning the newest addition to the Torrisi family: In November, the partners signed a lease for a Thompson Street space that, until now, housed the old-school red-sauce Italian joint Rocco Ristorante. The original owner’s rent was more than doubled by the space’s landlord. Rocco’s owner threatened to take the landlord to court , and the classic neon red ROCCO sign with him. The new restaurant, which won’t open for “a while” (per Mr. Za

I've been reading David Wojnarowicz's diaries, In the Shadow of the American Dream , for its detailed chronicling of New York City in the 1970s. At one point, he heads into "a new New York dive restaurant," the vanished Tiffany diner of Sheridan Square. Tim Faracy, flickr He describes the clientele: "three no-wave women behind us in the next booth with black short razored hair and gold-black circles around their eyes and cheap plastic black-and-white bulby earrings and sleazo clothes, neat lookin' and they left after flashin' us some lingering stares, over to the other side in a booth were two women on quaaludes nodding out over eggs and toast, chewing with eyes closed for minutes at a time , and the rattle of cars on the street, the crowds drifting by, one girl who was stunned tripped and dropped her radio which shattered into various pieces and got up smiling and walked on." Shannon Davis, flickr By the time I got to Tiffany's, the

The East Village in chains : St. Mark's will have a 7-11 and 1st Ave gets its Subway. [ EVG ] [ EVG ] A walk from Madison Square to Union Square . [ FNY ] Pilar Montero 's obituary. [ NYT ] Meet Fanelli's Serbian boxer bartender. [ Eater ] Alex in NY unearths a treasure trove of vintage Village photographs . [ FP ] "In the last decade, the city that always (and somehow never) changes has shuffled itself all around. Notorious urban tundras are now upscale shopping zones . Areas that were once synonymous with exclusivity have given ground to mass-market chains." [ WSJ ] Horse walks hiding in Greenwich Village. [ ENY ] Today: fight against the seizure of books with the OWS Library at the Red Cube. [ PL ]

Our friend at One More Folded Sunset points us to a recent New York Times Living In profile of "the two-block-wide semi-industrial neighborhood of Wallabout," which has, apparently, been "coming into its own." And you know what that means. Embedded in the story is this stomach-churning bit of information about J. J.’s Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge: "its new owner plans to lease to a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Subway." Dunkin Donuts and Subway? It's a double whammy. SWTCurran J.J.'s Navy Yard closed in 2010 after over a century in business. Once catering to the men who built warships for World War I and II, in its final days, it continued to serve as a second home to locals and Navy Yard laborers. So not much changed here between 1907 and 2010 --except maybe for the addition of scantily clad dancing girls. still from New York Dive (go to 2:33) I never took the chance to go inside (still kicking myself), but filmmaker Reed Korach did for his movie New Yo

If you haven't yet been to the William Barnacle Tavern at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's, go now. But not too many of you at once. The place is, as promised when it opened in 2009 , "A quiet cafe where people can hear each other talk, and you can hear yourself think ." On a cold winter's night, wander in for a warming glass of absinthe. Bartender and life-long theater owner Lorcan Otway prepares the drink using a combination of the traditional and the "Bohemian Method." He pours the liquor into a shapely glass imported from France. He sets a slotted spoon over the top, perches a sugar cube there and sets it burning. The blue flame is extinguished by drops of ice water dripped from an Art Deco absinthe fountain--a glass jar held by a silver goddess. The sugar cube crumbles. The drink turns milky. You can stop there or ask Mr. Otway to mix it into a "Puca," his own invention. Named for a goblin of Irish folklore, the Puca is a combination of absint

Another payphone has bitten the dust. It happened a few months ago, on the corner of 7th and 1st in the East Village. I took a photo of the extraction, but never bothered to post it. It wasn't the infamous Pee Phone , but I'm sure it had its moments. There's nothing there now but a pale square of cement, cleaner than its neighboring squares. Payphones are vanishing from the city all the time, never to return. Let's take a moment to remember this one and imagine all the junkies who once relied on it, all the lovers' quarrels it endured (receiver smashed into cradle), all the people who needed it for yelling at AT&T when their phones went out, all the drunk drivers who backed into it while trying to park, all the times a person in need slipped her finger into its slot, hoping to find a quarter but mostly coming up empty. Such was the life of a city payphone. Google streetview See also: Pupkin's Payphones Payphone Man

I got an email awhile back from a fellow named George Miller down in Florida. He sent along a couple of photo slides that his father took in Manhattan in 1943 . He especially thought we'd be interested in seeing these two shots of Leon & Eddie's : The first photo is taken from a very tall building (probably the RCA Building) and shows the roof of Leon & Eddie's painted in white with the words: UNDER THIS ROOF STARS SHINE ALL NIGHT. It's a rare view. And you get a great glimpse of 52nd Street before it was all bulldozed, back when it was known as Strip Street . Here's Leon & Eddie's again, up close, complete with a sailor in the picture. It is 1943 after all. I liked George's father's slides of the city and asked him for more. He digitized and sent along a handful. These were my favorites. Here's a wartime scene of Rockefeller Plaza. The statue of Prometheus is tarnished and grim beneath the words: UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. Nearby, a troop

A fantastic collection of Village Voice ads from the 1960s --it was a city of Nina Simone, dollar-fifty breakfasts, John Giorno's Dial-A-Poem, dancing at The Dom, plus dining at the intimate Beatrice Inn. [ SYC ] Very exciting Upper West Side zoning may stop banks and chains from spreading like the plague. As Avi says, "what’s the point of living in New York? You could just as well move to Connecticut." [ WSR ] A 7-11 is replacing the XXX video place on E. 14th St--right next to IHOP. Enjoy your dead suburban experience. [ EVG ] Poet Elizabeth Bishop's paintings on view at Tibor de Nagy until 1/21. [ PRD ] They've taken the subway car out of Golden's Deli on Staten Island . The rent was too damn high. [ HNY ] Art, poetry, and more coming to derelict Park Slope building, once home to eccentric art bar the Landmark Pub. [ BP ] Read an excerpt from East of Bowery by Drew Hubner and Ted Barron. Luc Sante calls it "raw and lyrical." Buy it in print

This interview with third-generation Lower East Sider Chris Quinones from The Lo-Down is too good not to excerpt. (Thanks Goggla .) He loves the Cup & Saucer on Canal and Eldridge because "it’s authentic and it doesn’t come with some lame-ass foreign name. You say, 'Can I get a cup of coffee,' large or small, milk or sugar – that’s it. Not 'Venti,' 'Fettuchini,' 'Lamborgini' or whatever they have at Starbucks." And here's his answer to the question " What sort of changes have you seen in the neighborhood in the last few years?" "Are you serious? Dude, it went from Heroinville to art school hipster dudes with ugly flannel shirts and lame-ass facial hair . But I have to say, I can come home from work without having to worry about a junkie sticking me for my sneakers. The food and bars are all cool, the neighborhood has a lot of hot girls now – it’s safe, I can get Thai food, vegan food, get a quick workout and go to a ba

The once-wonderful Gordon Novelty Shop is getting filled--with fancy kitchen wares from Williamsburg, because food is New York's fetish. [ Racked ] Ed Hamilton talks about the Chelsea Hotel demolition --and we learn what a PFA is--on the Mike & Judy Show. [ M&J ] Check out Death and Life on the Bowery : an interview with Drew Hubner and Ted Barron. [ NSTAW ] Bloomberg gets heckled and shouted down by crowd in Harlem. [ RS ] Signs of Coney's Club Atlantis resurface. [ ATZ ] A new batch of ghost signs . [ FNY ] Script in New York neon signs. [ NYN ] The last remnant of Mars Bar fades away. [ EVG ]

Montero's Bar announced on their Facebook page yesterday the sad passing of matriarch Pilar Montero: "Pilar passed away Saturday night and will be missed dearly by her family and friends. On Tuesday, January 17th, there will be a one-day viewing at Raccuglia & Son Funeral Home, which is located at 323 Court Street at Sackett Street from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m... Please feel free to pass this information on to others. We welcome you to share your memories of Pilar here, on our Facebook Page . We at Montero's thank you for the love and support." photo: Fred Conrad, NY Times Pilar and her husband, Joseph, opened Montero's on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue in 1947. It was once a haven for longshoremen and sailors--some of whom still find their way here during Fleet Week every year. Reported the Times in 1995, Pilar "was born on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village and first came to Brooklyn as a little girl on the ferry on which her father worked." She re

Commenter Jeff calls our attention to the (real or faked?) Facebook profile pic (changed since this posting) of boutique hotelier Ed Scheetz, who is now heading up the management of the newly gutted Chelsea Hotel. Says Jeff , "Its Patti smith standing in front of the Chelsea with Robert Mapplethorpe and Ed has photoshopped his face onto Roberts head!! and it says Hotel Chelscheetz." Meanwhile, listen to Ed Hamilton talk about the hotel and last week's Patti Smith kerfuffle on the Mike & Judy Show . Recent Chelsea coverage : Patti at the Chelsea No Patti, No Mob

Chelsea residents reveal the secret Patti Smith "shrine." [ Gothamist ] Bloggers Marty and Melanie star in a story by Mick --don't worry, it's SFW, no exchange of body fluids. [ MAM ] The replacement for Ray's Pizza on Prince has opened--it's a pizza place run by Italians. And "The former site of the Ray's restaurant alongside the slice shop will become a luxury spa." [ DNA ] Enticing and mysterious photos inside the abandoned Avenue A theater about to be demolished. [ EVG ] Inside Lucy's Bar on Avenue A. [ Eater ] The Times checks in on Little Wisco : "a Wisconsin accent [is] both out of place and right at home in Greenwich Village, 'Is that unbelievable or what?'" [ NYT ] Check out the women photographers of the Lower East Side at the 14th Street Y .

Last night, at the request of the Chelsea Hotel's tenants, Patti Smith canceled her show at the hotel . She said on her website , "My motivation was solely to serve the tenants. If this serves them better, than I am satisfied." The hotel tenants were happy and thankful . But then people wanted to know: Was the flash mob "die-in" still on? I'm not sure you can cancel a flash mob once it's been called into existence. There are no "how to" instructions online for doing so and Bill Wasik, inventor of the flash mob, offers no advice in his book on the topic, And Then There's This . Since the die-in was meant to offer support to and solidarity with the tenants in their plight to save their homes and the integrity of the Chelsea Hotel, then why not let the mob be? Concert or no concert, a die-in at the Chelsea still seemed relevant. By 7:55 a small crowd had gathered under the Chelsea awning. When 8:00 came, nobody dropped dead, nobody lit a

I'm posting at The Paris Review Daily today --a kind of behind-the-scenes blog-walk back in October to visit Ray's Pizza--if you like it, please leave a comment there. Maybe I can do some more. Thanks for reading. [ PRD ] This week, street artist Jay Shells turned a JR eye on the old Village Paper into an exuberant homage to Clockwork Orange : A round-up of media coverage of Patti Smith's controversial Chelsea Hotel concerts . [ LWL ] The Voice reports on the Chelsea story . [ RS ] If these walls could talk--an inside look at the Chelsea Hotel with a 17-year resident. [ MF ] Take a photographic walk through the East Village in 1997 . [ EVG ] Retail company REI to turn public Sara Roosevelt park into advertising opportunity, aka "Winter Wonderland." [ BB ] A "monster deal" for Shake Shacker Danny Meyer at Bloomberg's Hudson Yards. [ Eater ] A 7-11 is birthed beneath the Flatiron Building. [ FP ] Casinos for Coney ? [ ATZ ]

Last night Patti Smith played a private concert at the Chelsea Hotel. Reported Ed Hamilton, blogger at Living with Legends , on his Facebook page , "tenants were not invited... Gene Kaufman, the architect, is in attendance." An audience member--invited to the party by the hotel's controversial new management company, King and Grove (a "lifestyle hotel brand defined by modern luxury with eclectic influence")--tweeted a photo of Patti onstage in the hotel's ballroom. Hamilton shared the link: Tonight, she's playing a concert for the tenants--a move that many are not happy about. Wrote the Times last night, "Some wondered whether the new owner, the Chetrit Group, was using Ms. Smith in a craven attempt to make peace. Others demanded that Ms. Smith cancel the show ." Smith responded to the negative press on her website, outlining how she is working with the hotel's new management (without pay) and saying, "My small performanc

"For 56 years," wrote the Times in 2007, "since it opened during the Truman administration, 55 Grove Street in the West Village has been a piano bar, cabaret and comedy club for the quick-witted and full-throated. First it was Upstairs/Downstairs, then the Duplex (which remains open at another location), and finally it became Rose’s Turn." Rose's Turn closed in 2007, ending 56 years of history. Let's take a look at what has replaced it. before after 55 Grove is now the home office for interior design firm S.R. Gambrel . Town & Country called Mr. Gambrel " the darling of young Wall Streeters ... the go-to decorator for a great many of today's young titans of finance and technology." after What was a ramshackle, nondescript tenement is now a sleek showplace, like something flown in from the Hamptons. An alabaster lioness guards the big front window. An apparent master of transformation, Gambrel has also taken a "nightmare" of a

Chelsea Hotel residents call on Patti Smith to cancel show for Chitrit. [ LWL ] Sad shutter signage from Rocky's in Little Italy , as the 30-year-old small business has been booted to make room for newcomer Balaboosta: A helpful guide for zombie texters . [ NYT ] The Bed Bug Club ( pic ) has vanished. [ LC ] On New Yorkers' passion for mega-supermarkets . [ NYer ] Village Farms , formerly the Loews Hollywood, is being demolished on Avenue A. [ EVG ] Eerie photos of Bloomfield, Staten Island. [ NK ] A neon relic in the Bronx. [ NYN ] Listen to photographer Frank Jump talk about Fading Ads of NYC on Leonard Lopate. [ WNYC ] Frank also has a book of the city's ghost signs --order it from St. Mark's or find it today at the Strand . TG170 closes for good after two decades on Ludlow. [ BB ] On nostalgia and other things--blogger Joe Bonomo interviews me for No Such Thing As Was .

VANISHED (from Manhattan) : Last week Lost City brought the sad news that La-Rosa Cigars has left 6th Avenue and gone to the Bronx. We saw this coming in 2007 when the neighborhood of florists and wig shops was targeted for "revitalization." Now that the big glass towers have come, let's look back at what we've lost. Originally posted October 2007 : Much is changing along 6th Avenue in the upper 20s and lower 30s, but there remains a fascinating assemblage of small businesses -- holdout flower shops, wig shops, and assorted wholesalers. Sadly, many of them are vanishing as luxury hotels, condos, and retail towers flatten the neighborhood. On the second floor of 862 6th Avenue is a small cigar factory and shop that’s been in the area since 1958. La-Rosa Cubana Cigars was founded by A. Antonio Almanzar, a cigar maker from the Dominican Republic. It is now run by his son Frank. When you step inside the shop, you are pleasantly overcome by the deliciously strong,