Vanishing New York Backup

Vernacular Typography is the creation of graphic designer and Brooklyn native Molly Woodward, who has spent the past decade taking photos of the city's "found lettering." All over the city, and the world, local signage is disappearing and being replaced with mass-produced signs and the brands of global corporations. Molly is trying to preserve it--and she has a Kickstarter campaign to help do that. I asked her a few questions about "endangered local signage." from Vernacular Typography Q: How are you defining "Vernacular Typography"? A: I guess it should technically be Vernacular "Lettering," but I define Vernacular Typography as the found lettering that exists in the built environment and surrounds us everyday. It doesn't have to be pretty or use an existing typeface, it's just any visual representation of language. Q: How do you think New York City's vernacular typography differs from other cities around the country and th...

About a week ago, a Starbucks opened on the corner of E. 3rd Street and 1st Avenue. As Grieve pointed out, it's a Starbucks "Reserve," which means it's special. Starbucks says it's there to remind us of "the early days of the specialty coffee business that we helped to create." In other words, they want us to feel like we're in a real place and not a fake place. I guess that's why the signage is hand-painted on the bricks. It's more rustic that way. Maybe, if it looks authentic, it won't be egged or covered with GET THE FUCK OUT signs . Before Starbucks came to this corner, and before its predecessor The Bean, there was Little Rickie. Tom Perottet Originally opened on First Street in 1985 by Phillip Retzky, Little Rickie moved to 49 1/2 First Avenue in 1987. They sold nostalgic, kitschy novelties--a lot of Elvis and Jesus, Mexican Day of the Dead skeletons, and vintage stuff. It was a great little place. (You might argue that Little Ric...

VANISHED It has happened. After 119 years in business, after being on the brink of closure in recent years, the great Manganaro Grosseria on 9th Avenue has shuttered. all photos: my flickr, 2008 A reader alerted me this weekend, writing, "Walked by Manganaro's today and saw a sign that said they were serving their last Sunday lunch... The window display is bare and you can see the ancient glass and wood sliding doors. All of the photos are boxed up and on the floor. There are no more tables and chairs in the back. Out front, decades worth of paper signs, chairs, and baskets were in the trash. The place looks like a movie set now, empty and displaced from time. I fear the place will be gutted to make room for a Subway ." A call to the restaurant confirmed they are closed and their website has the following note: " As of February 27, 2012, Manganaro Foods will no longer be open in New York City. We will let you know when we re-open. Thank you for your many ye...

Luna Lounge owner on the LES: "you get what you deserve in this life, I believe. And, because few people were standing up for places like Collective: Unconscious, Tonic, CBGB and Luna Lounge, the Lower East Side must now live with obnoxious bistros that cater to people with little interest or understanding of the former importance of this neighborhood." [ EVG ] Death of a bodega prompts " No more yuppies--bring back our bodega " graffiti on E. Houston. [ BB ] CB2 says "No!" to NYU 's monster expansion. [ Curbed ] Glenn Beck attacks the Park Slope Food Co-op for boycotting Israel. [ BP ] When being an iPhone zombie just isn't enough: Check out the LES Film Fest lineup. [ TLD ] Harlem neon nocturne. [ NYN ] Anapoli ice cream parlor celebrates 115 years in Bay Ridge. [ NYDN ] Redesigning 51 Astor Place with " fragments of lost East Village landmarks ." [ Curbed ] March 9: Networked New York --with blogger panelists. [ P&W ] ...

A somewhat belated post about last week, when the Coen Brothers took over a block of E. 9th Street and transformed it, storefront by storefront, into a dreamscape of Greenwich Village circa 1961. more photos on my flickr It was a treat to walk down that block, lined with antique cars, and to step back in time, in a way. There was the Kettle of Fish, before it was taken over by Wisconsinites and became a home of Packer fandom in so-called " Little Wisco ." I went to the real Kettle of Fish when I first arrived in the city, hoping to find some kind of bohemians, poets, like there used to be--but all I found were frat-boy types. It was my first disappointment. The Coens also created a faux used bookshop. I gazed longingly at it, wishing it were real. It looked so inviting, so tempting, with its flopped-out awning and carts loaded with books--a dying thing that once seemed indestructible, eternal. It hurt to look at it. Remember when bookstores were everywhere in the city? It w...

VANISHED This past summer, while summing up Bleecker Street's Luxe Blitz , I wrote: "Today, from 10th Street all the way northwest, the only businesses left on Bleecker that aren't high-end mall stores or intimately connected to Sex & the City are the art gallery A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (since 1976) and the 22-year-old Arleen Bowman boutique." And then there was one. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is gone after 36 years. A "Store For Rent" sign hangs in the window. The realtor crows in the listing , "This is the 1st time in over 3 decades this Store has become available! Located in the heart of the Far West Village Gold Coast Retail Mecca along side Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Michael Kors and INTERMIX. " today Of course, it was impossible for Tom Martinelli's little gallery and frame shop to last here, not with Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Juicy Couture, and all the rest squeezing and clawing, spreading like a virus along a...

Mark Schulte has been a lease-holding tenant at the Elk Hotel for the past 5 years, moving in permanently after 15 years of being a transient guest at the 87-year-old flophouse off Times Square. On February 7, he tells me, he and the rest of the Elk's tenants arrived home to find new staff working the front desk and two days' notice to vacate the premises. Without warning, the building had been sold in a purchase that nearly completes the acquisition of an entire block of tenements along 9th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. all photos: my Flickr As Mark walks me down the Elk's murky hallways, I step carefully across checkerboard linoleum floors so mushy it feels like my feet will break right through. Here and there, we pass over the litter of syringe wrappers, cigarette butts, and beer bottles. We peer into abandoned rooms, miserable warrens of cracked walls and moldy ceilings, some just big enough for nothing more than a twin-sized mattress. In one room, a de...

The urban etiquette signs keep getting better and better: The Famous Original Ray's on 6th and 11th, shuttered last October, then revived by rival Ray's in December, will now be reopening under its original Original Ray's owner. Astounding. [ DNA ] Edmund White reads tonight at Three Lives & Co . Chairman of Community Board 4 sticks it to the new Chelsea Hotel owners . [ youtube ] Wednesday, Big Nick's Burgers rolls back prices to 1962 to celebrate 50 years on the Upper West Side. [ WSR ] Trash & Vaudeville : "the last surviving punk rock boutique in NYC." [ BI ] The East Village, " last authentic neighborhood in NYC ," says real estater, getting hotter and fancier every day. [ EVG ] At the changing corner of 12th and Broadway . [ FP ] Cheeseburgers at the Old Homestead . [ TWM ] Great shots of Brooklyn's old Parkway Sandwich Shop . [ BYP ] The destruction of Coney's antique trolley relics . [ ATZ ]

Somebody would really rather have a public park in the empty lot where the Astor Place Death Star is scheduled to land. These stickers and more are up all over the plywood: Foodie trucks headed for Coney Island. [ ATZ ] Oh God, the rescued Hinsch's is closing again. [ Eater ] Sadly, Elegant Woolen & Silk leaves Orchard St. [ BB ] Cruising the West Side piers in 1976 . [ Gothamist ] Mourning the loss of Jamaica's Estates pharmacy neon signage. [ NYN ] What's it like to travel the texter-heavy sidewalks of the city in a wheelchair? Not so good. [ AANY ]

The new owners of the Chelsea Hotel plan to put a rooftop extension with a bar on top of the bohemian icon--and they've applied for a two-story scaffold to go up there. Last night, the Community Board 4 Landmarks Committee held a meeting to hear the Chetrit group's proposal. Sherill Tippins, author of the upcoming Dream Palace: The Extraordinary Life of the Chelsea Hotel , reported on her Facebook page that the event was " packed with concerned residents and people from the neighborhood," but the actual hearing was postponed "because the owners refused to say what they wanted to use the new rooftop structure for. " Living with Legends reports that the owner and architect "had lots of pretty pictures that didn't reveal much. When questioned for further details, the group proceeded to stonewall the Committee." DNA Info reported that a lobbyist for Chetrit said of the rooftop construction, "That could mean a bar. That could mean a lo...

Tonight at 6:30: See what the new owners plan for the Chelsea rooftop --and tell them "Hell, no!" [ LWL ] Gird your loins--here comes the glassy corporate monster about to land on Astor Place . IBM and Microsoft drones are on their way! The Battle for Astor Place rages on! [ Curbed ] E. 9th Street turns 1960s for a Coen Brothers movie . Wish the bookstore was real. [ EVG ] More neighborhoods are trying to zone out the chain stores . [ Curbed ] Brooklyn parents are getting their kids hooked on little Babyccinos --customers of future Starbucks. [ Eater ]

We got a heartfelt comment this week from the Lutak family about the end of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge . Roman Lutak writes, "Would like thank everyone who attended, contributed, socialized, was over served, lived, or in anyway uplifted and made it the Holiday Cocktail Lounge. The last three years have been extremely difficult since my dad Stefan left ( February 3, 2009 ). This was not an easy decision or done out of haste . But the reality of the matter is the Holiday as everyone really knew (knows) was really Stefan. Once he passed, it was never going to be the same. No new employees or managing was going to change that." Stefan, by Mike Marvin He continued, "As I said in yesterday's NY Times interview 'I am going to finally get a chance to grieve' without the responsibility of maintaining the 'Holiday' legacy. As stated, I had no intention of leaving my mark on it since this was really my mother and father's legacy. And can rest kno...

Yesterday, Gothamist posted a gorgeous group of photos by Sol Libsohn, all taken of New York City restaurants in 1938. The first photo in the batch has no story attached to it, but it jumped right out at me. Do you recognize it? Sol Libsohn, MCNY Aside from looking rather Hopperesque, this image of the R&L Lunch looks very familiar--as the earliest incarnation of the former Florent . It's that little 69 in the upper left corner that really gives it away. my flickr This space opened as the R&L luncheonette in 1938--making it brand new in the above photo. In 1955, it became the R&L Restaurant, with the lovely chrome sign that remains today. Owned by Ari Lucas, the R&L was a place where longshoremen and meatpackers wou ld dine at night--they called it "Eatem and Beatem," according to the Chicago Sun , "because they would zip in and out around 3 in the morning." In 1985, Lucas' daughter took over the R&L and rented it to Florent , which cl...

Has the wonderful Bill's Gay 90s been sold to the velvet-ropers? [ LC ] But Grub St. confirms that John DeLucie is NOT taking over Bill's . So what's the story here? [ Grub ] a recent night at Bill's Rock & roll synagogue comes to the luxury tower above the 7-11 on the Bowery. [ EVG ] One long-time newsstand operator fights against the city's Cemusa strong-arming . [ BB ] 20 shuttered restaurants New Yorkers miss most. [ Eater ] Celebrate Valentine's Day at Hotel Astor --in 1906. [ ENY ] Remembering Fleischmann's Vienna bakery --on Broadway and 10th. [ GVSHP ] Djuna Barnes at the Brooklyn Museum. [ CNY ] "Brooklyn boldfaces," like Maggie Gyllenhaal, send "minions" to do their Park Slope Co-Op shifts. [ AW ] And now, from Greece, Starbucks in flames :

VANISHED This weekend, we got the following note from an anonymous commenter: "Yesterday, a sign was posted on the front door of the Elk Hotel simply saying 'Hotel Closed.'" I followed up with a phone call and spoke to a gentleman who confirmed it, saying, "We're closed. No more hotel no more." Closed for good? "For good." We've been watching this one for awhile, waiting for the venerable old hot-sheets flop to fall, especially once the luxury glass towers started rising all around it at 42nd and 9th. Still, it always stings to get the news. And I regret never going inside--they rented rooms by the hour, after all--just for a look, to soak in the atmosphere. (I never went into the Shore Hotel , either.) A New York Observer writer rented a room in 1999. He called the Elk " one of the few surviving remnants of 42nd Street’s seamy and seedy side , a barely living connection to the gray days when Times Square was the reigning kingdom...