Vanishing New York Backup

In the midst of great efforts to save our bodegas from 7-Eleven assimilation and destruction , miniature model artist Randy Hage sends in another of his masterful miniatures. This time it's the endangered species known as the New York bodega. all photos: Randy Hage Inspired by the R&R Deli Grocery, vanished from the corner of Albany and Pacific in Brooklyn, the mini bodega has it all. The crummy payphone and bubblegum machines (secured with a cinderblock) out front. The busted hand-painted sign loaded with a list of wares (BEER, MEAT, COFFEE). The window cluttered with junk ads for Mega Millions and menthol cigarettes. The sidewalk littered with dead leaves and trash. Of course, it's what's inside that really makes the city's bodegas special. As Randy says, " A chain store will never be able to foster the sense of community and meaningful friendships that a mom-and-pop type store can. In a busy city, it is the contact with people we know and care ab...

A while back, Ephemeral New York put up a link to a 1958 Village Voice review of Gene's restaurant, citing "fantastic vintage ads for other restaurants and cafes of the era." They are fantastic vintage ads, and I thought I'd piggyback and share a few here from restaurants that have been more recently lost. They are simple ads that appeared in the pages of the Village Voice , mostly text, a bit of illustration here and there. They use the old telephone exchanges and tout their air conditioning--a luxury. Jade Mountain vanished in 2007 after being on Second Avenue since 1931. It had the best neon signs. Its hot-pink CHOW MEIN sign kept glowing until 2011, when it was finally removed. The main restaurant sign was crushed and carted away that same summer. It was salvaged and is currently sitting in a Bronx warehouse. The Phoenix Theatre mentioned in the ad is today's Village East. ( Take a look back .) We lost El Faro very recently --just this Octob...

At the Jefferson Market Library, down the spiral staircase, in the basement where prisoners once were held for trial, you'll find the Greenwich Village Collection. It is an amazing collection of books, mostly on the Village and all on New York City, that you won't find anywhere else. It's a great place to spend an afternoon or to kill an hour in between other obligations. A brief sampling... Nooks and Crannies, by Yeadon, 1979 A guide to New York City of the time. In the East Village chapter, the author begins: "'Surely you're not doing the East Village,' asked a dear friend. 'That neighborhood's gone, it's finished.' His sentiments are shared, I'm sure, by thousands who associate the district with Bowery bums, beatniks, hippies, and a braggadocio lifestyle that rejects societal norms with the singlemindedness of a mainlining addict." The author walks down St. Mark's to 1st Avenue, past George Proko's Pipe and Tobacc...

By now you may have heard that the 9th Street Bakery is closing after 87 years in business. The landlord has doubled the rent. So I went inside, on a freezing winter's afternoon, and sat down with a cup of hot coffee. The bakery was cold. The tops of the tables like slabs of ice. I kept my coat on. The radio played classical music, Beethoven's "Appassionata." Now and then, a customer came and went. 1. "Can I have an onion rye?" "Slice it?" "Yeah." The air judders with the vibrations of the slicing machine. 2. "Do you have a small challah, besides this one?" She coughs and lowers her grocery bags to the floor with a heavy sound. "That's Beethoven's sonata. Nice to walk into a store and hear something like that instead of the garbage they play everywhere. I listen to almost nothing but classical music. I guess I'm more monochromatic that way." She leaves. The refrigeration condenser comes on gr...

Follow "No 7-11" on Twitter and on Facebook for updates on the war on Sevvy. Saturating Manhattan with its chain stores is 7-Eleven 's #1 priority. [ EVG ] The East Village fights back against 7-Eleven. [ NYT ] They used to say " It's better than a bank ," and now? "...a bar owner applying for a liquor license recently used 7-Eleven as a scare tactic. 'We had an applicant come to us and say, 'If you don't approve my license, I know the landlord is also talking to 7-Eleven .'" [ Crain's ] Bleecker Street Records may be vanishing next. [ DNA ] Landlord doubles the rent on 87-year-old 9th Street Bakery --closure imminent. [ EVG ] "The southern end of the High Line will soon transform dramatically, as what are now some of the most open and exposed parts of the park will be surrounded on all sides by large new developments." [ GVSHP ] Middle-class in Manhattan? Maybe, maybe not. [ NYT ] When a busine...

The New York Public Library's plan for renovating the Main Branch has been approved by Landmarks . This means it will be transformed from a research library to a research and lending library. The magnificent and mysterious stacks beneath the Reading Room will be demolished, and most of the books will be exiled to storage in New Jersey. This renovation was the topic of what might well have been Ada Louise Huxtable's final critique before her recent death. In the Wall Street Journal she wrote, "a research library is a timeless repository of treasures, not a popularity contest measured by head counts, the current arbiter of success." And, in short, " You don't 'update' a masterpiece. 'Modernization' may be the most dangerously misused word in the English language ." I love the way books are retrieved today in the reading room. You get a number and wait for them to emerge, via dumbwaiter and a complicated Rube Goldbergy conveyor sys...

I've written before about the history of 1551 Broadway , and the Gaiety Theater upstairs. But the story seems never to end. Every time I come upon another image of the building, I feel compelled to post it here. Like the 1980 shots by Andreas Feininger and a magnificent color photo from the 1940s, when the Orpheum Dance Palace was still upstairs (and HoJo's was a Childs restaurant). Here are a bunch of photos from the days in between the Orpheum and the Gaiety, between the dime-a-dance and the jerk-off grind, when the second floor of 1551 Broadway belonged to the Follies Burlesk . Bob Gruen, 1972, via Ephemeral New York In its heyday, the Follies Burlesk sported major signage for "the most beautiful showgirls in the world," "glorified burlesk," and the " all live whirly girly revue ." 1974 saw the arrival of one Lisa Ct. Cyr ("plus 6 young new oxotics"), surely a poor man's knock-off of Lily St. Cyr, star of 52nd when it w...

When the popular and still-expanding Torrisi restaurant venture took over the Thompson Street space occupied for 89 years by Rocco Ristorante, after a massive rent hike , we heard that the owner of Rocco's would be taking his great uncle's antique neon sign with him, along with the hope of moving it to a new space nearby. It had, after all, been casting its warm glow over the street since 1934 . But that plan would not come to pass. 2011 The Observer later reported: "Rocco’s owner threatened to take the landlord to court, and the classic neon red ROCCO sign with him... One thing about the Torrrisi boys’ growth into the old Rocco space is certain, however: They are definitely keeping the sign ." The new restaurant is called Carbone, after one of the Torrisi team members, and now the name has officially been added to the property--superimposed over Rocco Stanziano's . the new old sign today (thanks to Frank for the pics) The old neon tubes have been ...

There's still time to enjoy Lunch Hour , the NYPL exhibit that celebrates the history of lunching in New York City. Free to all and located at the Main Branch (I refuse to call it by its new name ) until February 17, the show is definitely worth the visit. Filled with vintage menus and photos from places like Delmonico's, Sardi's , and Schrafft's , and an interview with the inventor of the stainless-steel hot dog cart, the show also has a few poetry treasures--a signed copy of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems and a hand-written version of W.H. Auden's "In Schrafft's," which begins: Having finished the Blue-plate Special And reached the coffee stage, Stirring her cup she sat, A somewhat shapeless figure Of indeterminate age In an undistinguished hat. But the biggest draw of the Lunch Hour show is their restored Horn & Hardart Automat. If you squeeze your eyes, and imagine the scene in black and white, you can almost feel transp...

As the 7-11 convenience store chain continues its massive push, pressing forward with its clearly stated goal to consume New York City's bodegas with its " Business Conversion Plan ," some East Villagers are taking action. 7-11 smashed on St. Mark's Our friend Liberation reports the scene last night: "There was a great turnout at the Father’s Heart Ministries to discuss the 7-11 coming to Avenue A and 11th Street. A really diverse crowd of 50 or so people showed up, all of them sick of the chain stores consuming the neighborhood and wanting to do their part to protect the local businesses with roots in the community . The meeting served as a jumping off point to brainstorm ideas and get more people involved. Because the group was diverse so are the skills they bring to table. In the next few weeks people can expect a new website for the project and action steps people in the community can take to push back against 7-11 and, in the long term, possibly o...

Back in May, the Atlas Barber School was forced out of its Astor Place location due to hiked rent after training barbers and offering cheap haircuts since 1948. What's taking its place? A UPS store. Another national chain takes the place of a small, historic local business in the East Village. Around the corner, at 51 Astor Place, the Death Star towers, dark and hulking. Has it already begun sucking the life force from our neighborhood? What will be its ultimate impact?

Reader Everettsville writes in about his recent visit to the Lexington and 51st location of Barclay-Rex, part of the tobacconist business that's been around since 1910: "They were having a two-for-one sale. Why, I asked? 'Last day in business...today' the guy said. When I asked why, the guy told me, 'the landlord didn't stop at just doubling the rent, he tripled it.' When I sarcastically promised the guys behind the counter that I wouldn't patronize the 7-11 or Fro-Yo joint that would take its place, they corrected me: 'No, it's gonna be a burger joint! '" Feil Organization Barclay Rex has two other locations in town --one near Grand Central and another downtown on Broad St. The original was opened on Barclay (hence the first part of the name) in 1910 by Vincent Nastri, a pipe maker from Salerno, Italy, with his dog, a Great Dane called Rex (hence the second part of the name). The business is still run by Vincent Nastri (the Th...

Reminiscence is having a closing sale. A tipster writes in to say, "The sale runs until January 30. There's a chance they might be moving locations." Update: Reader Bryn says, "They are moving back to their old hood on 13th and 5th. PHEW!" Opened by Stewart Richer in 1975, the shop has bounced around town quite a bit, with locations on MacDougal, Avenue B, and Fifth Avenue, finally settling on 23rd Street near the Flatiron. In the 1970s, it was the place for colorful Army work overalls dyed by Richer--as well as these amazing pants . In the 80s, you could find two-tone creepers with faux-pony on the toes. (The store's wares were regularly featured in New York magazine, where all of these clippings were found.) Lady Zombie at the Examiner recently visited the store and called it "a proverbial 'diamond in the rough,' in the form of an incredibly cool vintage shop...fully stocked for the shopping pleasure of novelty enthusiasts, p...

VANISHED Suzie's Chinese restaurant on Bleecker Street has closed after serving the Village for 39 years. I can't say anything about Suzie's first-hand, but Brooks of Lost City wrote it up for Eater in 2010. In the post , he called it " one of the only notable, sit-down Chinese eateries left in the Village." Opened in 1973 by Susie Ying and her relatives, the restaurant went through a renovation and change of menu after Ms. Ying's retirement and subsequent death in 2010. After that, business faltered--though NYU students still loved it. On the school's blog , a student waxes nostalgic for Suzie's, recalling late-night takeout extravaganzas and that "The space was an authentic Chinese restaurant experience, in vein of the classic Seinfeld episode 'The Chinese Restaurant.' Mildly tacky, but relaxed. Comfortable, with a slight flair. Little umbrellas in the drinks, etc." One commenter replied, "This is like a death f...

VANISHED Opened on Greenwich Avenue in 1992, the designy gift shop Mxyplyzyk has closed. Reader Tommy Raiko wrote in with a photo, "I walked by and saw the place entirely vacant, with a good-bye sign taped to the windows." In the sign, owner Kevin Brynan writes, "For 20 years we maintained a vision that has set us apart... We sincerely loved being a part of this community and we will miss this corner." There is no explanation for the closure. photo: Tommy Raiko I sent an email to Mr. Brynan to ask what happened. He responded: "After 20 years running an independent store in Manhattan, it just became impossible. With the closing of St. Vincent’s 2 years ago (the largest employer in the West Village), this incredible recession, and tenants being responsible for real estate taxes, I was just forced out. It is quite clear the current city administration prefers chain stores over the 'mom and pops' with their tax abatements. This island is destin...