Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHING After 20 years in business, the Paradise Cafe in Chelsea is closing. Today is their last day. Reader David sent in a photo of their goodbye sign: The cafe is a throwback to the 90s, with mosaic art on the walls featuring flea-markety ceramic deer and doll heads. They also make great sandwiches. Possibly the last independent cafe on this stretch of ever-gentrifying 8th Avenue that isn't a Starbucks, they have a much-appreciated sign by the register that reads: "If you insist on ordering using Starbucks terms, we will be forced to charge you Starbucks prices." And another one's gone. Go in today for a delicious sandwich at "special prices" and say goodbye. On 8th Ave near 17th St.

VANISHED Last night was the last night of Max Fish on the Lower East Side--and it was packed . We've been hearing of this closure for a few years now. Due to a large rent hike, Max Fish is moving to Brooklyn. As the Lo-Down reported, "When Max Fish first opened, Rimkus was paying scarcely more than $2,000 month. Arwen Properties, her landlord, is reportedly seeking $20,000/month for the space next door." You could argue that Max Fish is being gobbled up by the monster it helped create. There may be some truth to that, but Ludlow Street had attracted artists and hipsters way before Max Fish arrived. In the 1960s and 70s, members of the Velvet Underground lived and recorded music there. John Cale recalled , "In the fifth-floor apartment in '65, Lou, Sterling, and I combined the music of Erik Satie, John Cage, Phil Spector, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan. The result was a new form of rock—more about art than commerce." Warhol superstars also found

VANISHED  Big Nick's on the Upper West Side closed for good last night. West Side Rag reported the news first that yesterday would be Nick's last day. After 51 years in business, and remaining ever popular, the beloved burger and pizza joint could not afford the massive increase in already high rent--from $42,000 to $60,000 a month. The landlord refused to negotiate a better deal, and Big Nick's has been on a month-to-month for awhile now. An employee said the space will become a bank. However, as City Council member Gale Brewer wrote on her Facebook page today, " A bank cannot come in --per the law that I passed--if the length of the store is more than 25 feet. That's the max for any bank." So maybe a Williams Sonoma? Or how about a Pottery Barn? It's getting boring, isn't it? Enjoy these photos from the last night of Nick's , by the folks at Zipper:

Gorgeous, wonderful, should-have-been landmarked Eagle Clothes sign goes into the garbage heap. [ NYN ] After 22 years, Splash is closing because "maybe we don’t need gay bars." [ Next ] "In our current desire to acquire civil rights equal to the straight community, we have chosen to assimilate and to clean up our act . When I recently explored some of my old haunts, I was amused. The Anvil is now a gentrified, chic restaurant, complete with white linen tablecloths and candles. The waterfront along the Hudson River has become the lovely, serene High Line public park." [ HP ] Bloomberg's massive rezoning of Midtown really just not a very good idea. [ Curbed ] Latest word on Odessa closing : August 15. I hate this shit. [ EVG ] Sex & the City “might as well have been a tourism campaign for a post-Rudolph Giuliani, de-ethnicized Gotham awash in money." --Brett Martin [ NYer ] Lovely photos of Hart Island --and its Potter's Field. [ UC

VANISHED It happened. Pizza Box is gone, the windows covered in brown paper. The following photo appeared this morning on Facebook. photo: Raphael D'Lugoff, on GV Kids 1960s A comfortable neighborhood joint, beloved for its large backyard and good slices, Pizza Box opened in 1957. We first heard the news from DNAInfo in April that the place would be closing and that Spanish fast-food chain "100 Montaditos" would be moving in. "It's affordable elegance with charcuterie and jamon at a reasonable price," said the franchisee. I went in for a last slice. Later, a reader told me that Pizza Box would not be closing. That, obviously, turned out not to be true. To Hell with Bleecker Street.

VANISHED For years, people have admired the Pepsi-Cola HOTEL sign that hung on chains outside the Elk Hotel on 9th Avenue and 42nd Street. The faded paint, the old typeface, reminded us of a lost Times Square, of fleabags and flophouses, of Travis Bickle rolling by in his Checker cab looking for underage hookers to save. The sign is now gone. Nothing remains of it except its chains, a rusted triangle of braces hung between two windows and the words HOTEL CLOSED. Those windows once belonged to a man called Pops, an 86-year-old disabled war veteran who relied for years on the kindness of his neighbors to bring in food from the outside. But Pops was evicted, along with Coo-Coo and the rest of the hotel's tenants, as we learned from Mark Schulte, the last of the Elk's holdouts. He has since moved out, too, and the 88-year-old hotel stands empty, a husk of haunted rooms. Across the avenue, a cluster of old buildings, recently containing the Big Apple Meat Market ,

VANISHING A guest post by Emma DeCorsey The beloved Upper West Side store Granny-Made is closing on July 31, exactly 27 years after its opening. Its owner Michael Rosenberg is one of the city's true mensches. I worked there for the first five years I lived in New York. Opened on August 1st, 1986 , it began as a closet-sized boutique specializing in handmade knits for women and men during the sweater boom of the late 1980s. Like Florent with Gansevoort St., it was partially responsible for turning Amsterdam Ave. from sketchy to idyllic shopping street. Michael named it after his beloved Granny Bert Levy, who knitted sweaters for WWI soldiers and later for her children and many grandchildren. Around 9/11 the store morphed into a baby and childrens' clothing and gift store in order to remain open and to reflect the rapidly changing neighborhood, while still carrying womens' sweaters and a vast array of rare & wonderful gift items. It always had a certain magic a

Check out this collection of old signs hiding under new signs. [ NYN ] Nostalgia is good for you. Don't let them tell you otherwise. [ NYT ] The hyper-gentrification of Long Island City , photos by Nathan Kensinger. [ Curbed ] Remembering the Astro Tower . [ ATZ ]   Mars Bar --two years later. [ GL ] A reader lets us know that Pepe Verde , opened in the Village in 1998, closed recently. The space is being marketed with the empty restaurant next door. A Red Lobster is opening next to the venerable Apollo Theater in Harlem. [ HB ] The Met's Punk show "captured about as much of the genuine spirit of Punk as, say, Disney World's "It's a Small World After All" ride captures the authenticity of the planet's cultural diversity." [ FP ] Q&A with Nick Zedd . [ EVG ] Some folks in Chelsea are trying to get a park built on 20th Street and they're asking for your help. [ 20thSP ] Meanwhile, developers by the High Line are tr

The corner of 5th Avenue and Bergen Street in Brooklyn used to house a cheap little furniture store, but Bobo Bergen is expanding and the space is now home to "high-end Scottish whisky bar" the Duke of Montrose, according to Here's Park Slope. Construction on "the Duke" revealed an old butcher shop sign long hidden beneath the furniture shop's sign. It appears to be hand-painted on metal. A week after I took this first photo, I received the following shot from reader Joel Schechter with a note saying the sign is being stripped off. Joel saw "a pile of the panels from the old sign removed, stacked on the ground. One of the panels was bent like a pretzel." Does anyone know anything about this butcher shop specializing in "Quarters for Holiday Poultry"?

VANISHING Sofia's Italian restaurant has been in Times Square's Edison Hotel for over 35 years. Now we hear they've lost their lease. Reader Paul Jeromack passed along this message from his friend Ron's Facebook page: "Last call to experience the world's greatest, authentic, living 1920s - '30s 'hot-dance Jazz band': Vince Giordano and His Night Hawks at Sofia's. It's the end of an era; leading hopefully to a new one. If I ever encouraged you to go or invited you to join me NOW IS THE TIME! Sad to report that Sofia's is closing in August (they have lost their lease). Mr. Giordano doesn't know for sure if the last performance there will be on Tuesday, August 13th or Tuesday, August 27th." I've never been to Sofia's, and Lost City Brooks gave the place a terrible review , but it makes me nervous and I'll tell you why. In 2010, the Edison Hotel denied the Rum House a new lease after 37 years , it change

So I completely forgot my own blog anniversary yesterday. Six years! A big thank you to everyone for reading, commenting, and supporting "Vanishing New York." It would not be worth doing without you. Without You I'm Nothing - Sandra Bernhard from LoLo on Vimeo .

Journalist Mitch Broder has been writing the blog " Mitch Broder's Vintage New York " since 2011, covering the "classic old haunts" of Manhattan, from Katz's to Eisenberg's to Bill's Gay 90s. Recently, Mitch published a book on the topic. Filled with full-color photos and detailed descriptions of each classic place, Discovering Vintage New York is a must-have guide to what remains--before it vanishes. Mitch will be talking about his book this Thursday, July 18, 7:00 at the Strand --go see him. We had the chance to chat a bit over email, and I asked Mitch some questions. How did you go about choosing the vintage spots for this book? To start with, they had to be at least 50 years old (though I let one slip through at 45). But atmosphere was as important to me as age. My idea was to create a collection not just of old places, but of old places that take you back in time. I chose places that look the part, so that you could go to any one of the

There's a 1961 map of Greenwich Village hanging in the men's room at Julius' bar. If you see it there, you might think, as I did, that it's an antique, a one of a kind that you'll never be able to find. But that'd be wrong. A week later I saw it again, this time in the window of a frame shop on 14th Street. The map, originally drawn and published by cartographer Lawrence Fahey, was rediscovered and reprinted by local tour guide and amateur historian Tom Bernardin , author of the Ellis Island Cookbook . Tom told me the story behind the map: "When my dear friend Margot Gayle died, her daughter called me and asked if I wanted to go to her apartment for Greenwich Village and New York City books and stuff. Fortunately, I had a friend here and we loaded up a taxi. For the longest time, I had the map, folded, staring me in the face. A friend was unemployed and teaching himself Photoshop. So I had it scanned and he spent hours meticulously cleaning it up. F

July 18: Your last chance to tell NYU where to stick it . Say NO to their 2031 plan! [ FASP ] July 24: See "El Barrio Tours: Gentrification in East Harlem " and be a part of the neighborhood discussion. [ EBT ] July 28, August 3 and 4: Celebrate punk rock and the riots in Tompkins Square Park. [ FB ] Performance art and neoburlesque return to the LES with COW. [ EVG ] Orchard Street is still Orchard Street--here and there. [ HNY ] Landmarks approves transformation of Coney Island Child's into a theater--apparently to be patronized by dimwitted-looking people. [ Brownstoner ] Unfinished memoir published posthumously from Bob Guskind , blogger of Gowanus Lounge. [ UV ] Take a walk on 18th Avenue . [ OMFS ] That vanishing of gas stations around the Village and Chelsea has been halted, slightly, by the return of a gas station--that lost Lukoil on 8th Avenue and Horatio is now a Mobil. And they look very happy to be here: photo: Thomas Rinaldi

Bleecker Street needs more luxury shopping mall chains! Retail space on the western "Gold Coast" end of Bleecker is not unlimited, but you can make more by converting the first floor of your townhouse into retail. That's what's happening to 397 Bleecker. This lovely little townhouse was sold (asking price $5.3 million) and the new owners are knocking out the first floor. (This was done in another townhouse two years ago to make room for Jimmy Choo.) The sales listing reads: "this historic townhouse is one of a privileged few homes with access to gorgeous Bleecker Gardens with its beautifully landscaped plants, trees and a fountain pool." (Check out the listing for photos of those hidden gardens.) Did you know that Bleecker "has now surpassed London's Bond Street and Los Angeles' Rodeo Drive in retail price per sq. ft." ? Here's the rental listing if you'd like to open a store here--maybe a used bookstore or a recor

Gail Victoria Braddock Quagliata is a photographer in Brooklyn who has taken on the task of capturing every bodega in Manhattan. Her photos, along with a map, are featured on a webpage with the same name: Every Bodega in Manhattan . I asked Gail a few questions about her project. Q: Why photograph every bodega--what's important about the city's bodegas? A: When I moved here from Chicago a decade or so ago, the bodegas were among the first features I appreciated as unique to this city. We don't really have them where I come from, it seems to be either chain convenience stores or grocers. The bodega seems to cater specifically to its own neighborhood in addition to carrying basics. I've seen home-cooked Dominican food for sale in a largely Dominican neighborhood, religious tracts on prominent display near an Islamic center, and caviar advertised off ritzy 5th Ave, all crammed in next to cigarettes, flowers, diapers, beer, tiny overpriced bottles of aspirin. Plus

Reader Philip Shelley turns us on to a great find--from the NBC/Universal Film Archives, originally shot for NBC News, it's a whole bunch of 1970s stock footage of the city. Click here to watch Part One --it includes Times Square, a quiet part of town compared to today. The silent, shuffling crowds go by, only the sound of their feet making noise. The streets are more subdued, and they're also sexier with their 1,001 Danish Delights, porn houses that offer a "box lunch," sidewalk barkers drumming up customers for the "anything goes" psychedelic burlesque. The footage moves along. Sixth Avenue is desolate. No crowds. The whole city seems a bit hushed. Until you get to total pandemonium at what looks like Bethesda fountain in Central Park--people riding bikes and rowing boats in the water. You'll also find rare scenes in the old Children's Zoo. Click here to watch Part Two , which goes from Harlem to Brownsville to the South Bronx, de

In 1974, the Village Voice hired Stan Mack to write "Real Life Funnies," a brilliant, observational comic strip that eavesdropped on the city, collecting the voices of the streets, the jazz joints and cafes, the consciousness-raising groups and cocktail parties. The strip ran until 1995 , and Stan moved on to other projects. "Real Life Funnies" remains as an invaluable time capsule of two decades when New York City was still a wild, weird, creative place filled with people who, at the very least, had something interesting to say. Recently, I got the chance to talk to Stan about his work. from "An Evening with a Male Liberationist" Q: Your work beautifully captures the culture of the city in the 70s and 80s. The language people used, and the way they spoke, the topics they spoke about, are familiar from the films of Woody Allen--neurosis and art and sex. It's a different city now. What do you find yourself overhearing these days? A: Mostly

In Bloomberg's New York, even the businesses that cater to the rich are being given the boot. Reader Dan let us know about Flowers by Philip. After 45 years at 1141 Madison Avenue, plus another decade in business overall, the second-generation florist has lost their lease. Luckily, they found a new spot over on Lexington . As the Times reported in 2009 , even luxury stores can't afford the sky-high rents of Madison Avenue. It's the same story that's happening everywhere--small, old businesses are being kicked out to make room for more and more global chain stores. Flowers by Philip is real Upper East Side--old and posh. Says the website : "Flowers by Philip is owned and operated by Philip Mercedes continuing a family tradition begun by his own father and the founding of the shop 52 years ago. Flowers by Philip combines the elegance and style of Madison Avenue with the customer service and friendliness of your trusted neighborhood florist." Design