Vanishing New York Backup

As you know, Rudy's Music Stop closed this year , another casualty along dead and dying West 48th Street's Music Row. Here's what replaced it:

After 89 years, Frankie & Johnnie’s steakhouse has closed -- and is moving not far from its origins. Florence Fabricant noted in the Times last week: " The steakhouse that started as a speakeasy in 1926 is moving a block from West 45th Street, where its building is being put to another use. The last day of service there will be Saturday [12/26], and the new location, once B. Smith’s, will open in early January: 320 West 46th Street, 212-997-9494, frankieandjohnnies.com." I tried a few times, but never got to eat in this place. For a detailed report, see Brooks of Sheffield's 2012 piece in Eater , where he notes: "Despite having dodged the wrecking ball, the owners of Frankie's nonetheless found a way to wreck the joint themselves. Soon after being saved, they ripped out the old hidden bar upstairs—a wonderful, ramshackle little getaway if you knew how to find it, where Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lanskey once drank alongside John O'Hara and Frank Si...

At the end of each year, since 2007, I offer a list of places that vanished during the year. These are the ones I covered on the blog, but there were many more. Please add those not included here in the comments. Click the highlighted name to go to the post for more info. And for previous years' vanishings, just scroll down to the bottom. Avignone Chemist Since 1832. Killed by its new landlord, a hedge fund that tripled the rent. The Unicorn Just 21 years old. Another piece of gay Chelsea gone. Rent increase. La Parisienne Since 1950. Cause of death unknown. Winnie's 28 years in Chinatown, beloved by gangsters and karaoke kids alike. Could not get a new lease from the landlord. Moran's Since 1957. Building sold, a new restaurant took over the space. Caffe Dante 100 years old. Sold by the owners. Penn Books Since 1962. Eagle Provisions Over 75 years old. Owners opted to close in a neighborhood where they no longer fit. Louis Shoe Rebuilders On t...

This is the mohawk wig that Robert DeNiro wore to play Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver . If you want to commune with it "in person," you can find it at the Museum of the Moving Image . Merry Christmas.

One year ago this week, after a mighty fight to save its life , the great Cafe Edison closed its doors. The Polish Tearoom, as it was lovingly known by its many fans on and off Broadway, had been in the Hotel Edison since 1980. Last winter, the new owner of the hotel denied a lease renewal to Cafe Edison, despite passionate pleas from the Broadway community, magicians, local politicians --including Mayor Bill de Blasio --and thousands of fans who made our case via national and international news. While the hotel owners originally claimed they would replace Cafe Edison with a "white-tablecloth" restaurant and a "name chef," they recently announced that a local mini-chain called Friedman's Lunch would be going in. "Just like the Cafe Edison," reported the Daily News in September, "the new restaurant is not some flashy, white-tablecloth type space... It’s a modest, family business." The real-estate broker on the deal told the paper, “It’...

VANISHING In case you missed the news , the Garage restaurant is closing. via Brunch Upon a Time Reader Elizabeth writes in that the last day is January 3 . She says, " their rent was going to be hiked to $50k a month . So they are closing. I am heartsick. My friend George and I had Thanksgiving dinner there many times over the years, and loved hanging at the big beautiful wood bar and listening to jazz. No plans to try to reopen in NYC." I don't know how long exactly Garage has been on Seventh Avenue in the Village, but I guess it's been about 20 years. Originally a garage, the building has long been a home for jazz and theater--of one sort or another. Over 75 years ago, it was the Nut Club , a nightclub that hosted cockroach races. cockroach racing (photo via GVSHP ) In the 1950s, it was jazz club The Pad and then Lower Basin Street, where Dave Brubeck played . After jazz, the building housed live theater as the Sheridan Square Playhouse, ho...

You may recall that last fall I reported that La Lunchonette would be forced to close, thanks to the High Line Effect that is sweeping small businesses from Chelsea. The 28-year-old restaurant hung on longer than expected, but now the last supper has been announced. La Lunchonette's final night will be this New Year's Eve.  Owner Melva Max adds, "A ten story building will be erected, another 'starchitect' flexing their creative muscle along the old rail line." After the High Line opened, Max's landlord’s phone didn't stop ringing, and it was always a real-estate developer on the other end. She told me, “My landlord’s not a bad guy, but how you can you say no to offers of $30 million?”  She also noted, “The neighborhood is so gross now. It’s all tourists coming for the High Line. People always say, ‘But wasn’t it great for you?’ The High Line has been the cause of my demise.”  Stop in before La Lunchonette is gone -- taking its delic...

This past spring, Crain's reported that Pearl River Mart, the excellent Asian emporium, would be forced to close at the end of the year due to an insane rent hike. Now reader Andrea R. writes in with a final (ish) date. A friend who works in the store told her: " the closing date is around February 10 ." Pearl River first opened in Chinatown in 1971. It has since moved twice, but this may be the end of it, due to sky-high rents all over the city. As Crain's reported, " Pearl River currently pays more than $100,000 a month for its shop, and rent would rise more than five times when the lease expires ." That's over $500,000 per month. And this is why we need to #SaveNYC .

Riding the Nostalgia Train sounds like something you do when you're lost in reverie and memory, pining for what used to be. If that's what it is, then many New Yorkers are casting backwards through time on Sundays this month , riding antique subway cars along the M Line, from Second Avenue to Queens Plaza and back again. The people on the Nostalgia Train are a different breed. Some come dressed in period costume, Depression-era hats and coats, shoes and neckties, dark lipstick shades of another epoch. These otherworldly anachronisms dance on the station platform to the music of a little swing band, the slick-haired singer crooning "Night and Day." Others come in MTA paraphernalia, railfans dressed in t-shirts and knit winter caps proclaiming their favorite subway line. The F and the 6 are tops. One young man sits grinning, running through a near constant patter of conductor announcements. He's got the script down and compulsively, giddily recites its lengt...

One year ago, right about this time, DeRobertis' Pasticceria closed after the family opted to sell the building in increasingly hard times for small businesses. It had been on First Avenue in the East Village since 1904. Last week I shared the news that they opened a new shop , way out in Clifton, New Jersey. You can order their pastries online, but it won't bring back the feeling of sitting in their glorious cafe. Going into Black Seed bagels won't bring it back, either. Black Seed, photo via Eater DeRobertis As I do with all of my favorite places when they've been taken over and partly preserved by new owners, I forced myself to enter DeRobertis' replacement. Stepping inside Black Seed, I was surprised by a sudden physical dysphoria. My stomach clenched, my head spun, my whole body trembled like a tuning fork. The cognitive dissonance of being in a space so intimately familiar, yet rendered utterly strange, was too much to bear. The Black S...

Where Ess-A-Bagel once was, there is a Tal Bagels (since September) and, just this week, a Bank of America. Ess-A-Bagel was here since 1976. They were forced to close this past spring , to much weeping and rending of garments. Why put another bagel shop where there already was a hugely successful and beloved bagel shop? I have no idea. At least Tal uses the term "appetizing" on their sign, a word with an interesting history . As for Bank of America, there's nothing appetizing about it. Ess-A-Bagel plans to reopen a new shop just a little further south on First Avenue.

Some good news for a change. The DeRobertis family, moved from their historic space in the East Village one year ago , has just announced the opening of a new shop in Clifton, New Jersey. Via email, they write: "This is the DeRobertis Family. Well, the reason I am contacting you is because on Nov. 23 we opened up a place called DeRoLicious Delights. My Father John, Brother John, Tony the Baker and I (Dana) have decided to continue the business in Clifton, NJ. We are very excited to be back sharing our family tradition with new and old friends. We have a retail space available to visit AND an Online Shop available for people to order Biscotti, Butter Cookies & more ." You can find them online here -- follow them on Instagram -- and visit them in person at 64 1/2 Market St., Clifton, NJ. Some of the old furnishings have gone with them, including the tables and chairs, and their excellent Wall of Fame:

VANISHED After nine months of sitting shuttered by the City, after hopeful rumors that they’d soon be reopening , Chelsea’s wonderful La Taza de Oro has called it a day. Sadly, it's been confirmed, the beloved 68-year-old Puerto Rican luncheonette has closed for good. I will miss it. A tipster wrote in, " They were looking forward to opening in January, and as of not that long ago were still going to open, but the city recently put additional financial burdens in the way that make it impossible for the small business to open back up ." I went by the restaurant to find proprietor Eric Montalvo, husband of Maria and son-in-law of the man whose uncle originally opened the restaurant in 1947 . Mr. Montalvo was mopping the floor, cleaning up the place and taking it apart. He let me inside and we talked awhile. The bright yellow hand-painted menu signs had already been removed, but he put them back up, proudly, so I could photograph and admire them. He told me ...

A little while ago, New York magazine published a piece on how Chinatown has stayed Chinatown , instead of becoming yet another bland, suburban, luxury Nowhere like most of Manhattan. It really is one of the last holdout neighborhoods of the old New York. I love the relative lawlessness of Chinatown's sidewalks, where all manner of business is conducted. The place has not been regulated and tamed. One phenomenon I particularly enjoy is that of the sidewalk cobbler. While s torefront cobblers across town are dying out, thanks to skyrocketing rents , these renegade merchants survive. There are many of them, but my favorite has a wide space on Elizabeth Street by Grand. Not the ruined Elizabeth Street of "Nolita," but the other Elizabeth Street, further south. The cobbler's stall, if you can call it that, consists of a long piece of plywood erected alongside a corner herb market. It is beautifully decorated with hand-drawn illustrations, glued to the brick wall....

When the Pearl Paint mothership suddenly shuttered last year , artists all over the city--and the country--wept. Soon after, artist Barry Fellman recreated the interior of the store, traveling to Texas to buy Pearl's original cabinets, fixtures, and various products, and turn them into an installation. "Art Show" is on view once again at the Center for Visual Communication in Miami, and will soon be touring the country. From the press release: "The installation provokes questions about the availability of art supplies, how they are purchased, and how their use is changing as artists adopt digital technology and new forms of presentation. Art Store extends Duchamp's seminal Readymades, sourced from consumer culture, to a collection of mass produced objects actually used to create art." "Art Store will be launched in 2016 as a traveling installation to activate communities nationwide by serving as a point of engagement to support local museums,...