Il Vagabondo

VANISHING?

The Italian restaurant Il Vagabondo has been on East 62nd Street since 1965--and longer than that as a bar. It has the only in-restaurant bocce court in town--it was built in 1910. And now we hear it might be closing.


1968

Restaurant critic Gael Greene tweeted today that Il Vagabondo will be forced to shutter in the spring because the "townhouse it didn't own was sold":




I called the restaurant and the woman who answered was unaware of any upcoming closure. That's not always solid, but let's hope this one is just a rumor.

For more on this classic red-sauce joint and its bocce court, watch this.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8th St. Hyper-gentrified

Image
For some time, 8th Street has been a ghost town . The once-plentiful shoe stores and other small businesses that lined it have dropped like flies in recent years. Trendy restaurants have tried to get a foothold and failed. It's ripe for "revival" and now the big guns are being rolled in to force the street into hyper-gentrification mode . The Daily News files a startling report on 8th Street's upcoming upgrade--it's going from "under-retailed" to an "artisanal center." Marlton House, Jeff Bachner, Daily News Stumptown Coffee is coming first--they're a foodie favorite in the uber-hipster Ace Hotel (formerly the Breslin, a tragic story there). After that, BD Hotels , of the Bowery and Jane Street Hotels (more controversy there), will open a new boutique hotel in the former SRO Marlton House. The neighborhood flippers have arrived. Says BD Hotels' Richard Born, "We’ve had the experience of changing neighborhoods like wit
Read more

Carmelita's Reception House

Image
Some years ago, on the southwest corner of 14th St. and 3rd Ave. , above Disco Donut, there was a place called Carmelita's Reception House. Walter Grutchfield at 14to42 writes, "I'm not sure what it was, but Carmelita's Reception House dates from the late 1970s and derived from Carmelita for Bridal, Corp., (bridal gowns and such?) from the mid-1960s." Lori Horvitz recalls in her non-fiction story " The Last Days of Disco Donut ," "I thought Carmelita's was a massage parlor that doubled as a house of prostitution. Only years later did I find out it was a legitimate bar that frequently held parties for gay women ." Filling out the mystery, reader Yvonne B. sent in the above ad for "Girl + Girl" at Carmelita's, and we got an informative comment to my post on 14th and 3rd from "SF," who writes: "If anyone cares to read more about Lite Lounge at Carmelita's contact me. I rented Carmelita's
Read more

*Everyday Chatter

Image
Finding her beloved theater turned into a Sephora , Leslie Nipkow writes, "I want to sit in a theater seat and lose myself in somebody else’s imagination for a few hours. I want to be reminded that my world does not stop at the front of my face." [ Times ] The Stuyvesant Polyclinic is to be a "think-tank sort of thing" and not a private mansion , as previously marketed. I guess Lenny Kravitz wasn't interested after all. [ Times ] via [ EVG ] On Grand St., a developer's condo plans go up in smoke for a homeless shelter . He claims the locals were "jealous." [ NYP ] A look at one of the Bowery's last flophouses --and Sam Chang's (so far thwarted) efforts to turn it luxury. [ Metro ] “This might be the beginning of the end of the American empire .” [ Times ] The Cooper Union "hive" gets glass between the metal sheets: New blog in town : Check out "No New York." See Richard Sandler's films at the 6B Garden August 22-
Read more