Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHED Last night was the last night for Maria's Mont Blanc restaurant on West 48th. photo via New York Stephen wrote in: "Those of us who've been denizens of Hell's Kitchen are losing a wonderful neighborhood bar/restaurant. Fought for at least a year with the landlord. Hangout for the musicians' union across the street as well as theater designers, box office staff, stage hands, and, of course, tourists. Lots of Broadway casts and off-Broadway casts hang after their shows. A truly great spot. And beloved by the surrounding industry." Maria's Mont Blanc has been around since 1982 -- in one location, then another, both on West 48th Street. Eater visited in 2011 and reported: "the feeling that you're in the capable hands of a close-knit family remains. I've rarely seen such conscientious kindness as that exhibited by Mont Blanc's staff toward its faithful clientele." And another one gone while City Hall sits on its han

A few years ago I did a post about the laundromat on West 4th and Bank Street . Marc Jacobs had just expanded into part of it, and I wrote about how I always took its picture because I worried about it vanishing. "It has that look," I wrote then, "old and shabby, and therefore real, a Velveteen Rabbit of a place." I also liked how the laundress decorated the window with orange peels. Well, that's all gone now. I took these pictures a couple of months ago and haven't been back to look, but I figure the place is either still sitting empty or has become another luxury shopping mall chain store. If you know what happened here, please let us know.

VANISHING Reader Sasha writes in to report that Alex's Shoe Repair on 44th and Vanderbilt, across from Grand Central, is closing. Sasha says: "They've been there for ages, and do great work but just lost their lease. He's closing down and not relocating. I was in there for a shine earlier and Alex is bereft, as were many of the customers coming in--lots of head shaking and sad words. Pretty much all the midtown shoe repair places are disappearing, it's a real shame." The sign in the window says May 27 will be their last.

Reader Richard writes in to let us know "the Papaya Dog on the corner of 42nd and 9th Ave shut down overnight. I spoke to some of the doormen at a nearby building and they said the employees were ripping the place up overnight." today This Papaya Dog was one of four in the city ( I visited all the hot dog and papaya joints last year ). It was located in the Elk Hotel, a former flop, nearly a century old. The Elk was sold in 2012 and emptied of tenants. ( I took a tour of the place with one tenant back then --seriously don't miss that one.) We heard awhile back that, along with most of the low-rise block, the hotel was sold again and all the businesses on the block would soon be kicked out . Is that why Papaya Dog closed? Or maybe it was doomed by the luxury hotel rising across the avenue--the one that pushed out Big Apple Meat Market and Stile's Market and 99-cent Fresh Pizza . Then again, maybe it was just that magically powerful tyranny of nostalgia

VANISHING Located on 7th Street in the East Village, Surma the Ukrainian Shop has been in business since 1918 -- nearly a century. photo via Mille Fiori Favoriti Reader Andy Reynolds hears the news that they're closing in the next month . He writes, "Was helping the older woman who works there open the gate this morning. She's like, 'Three more weeks and I'm outta here.' I asked her if it was a landlord/rent thing. She told me the owner--of the shop and the building--was selling the building . She's worked there 38 years." ( Rumor confirmed .) photo: Gudrun Georges Last year, The Ukrainian Weekly did an in-depth story on the shop and its history. Mike Buryk wrote that Surma "was like a lens sharply focusing all those bits and pieces of my Ukrainian ancestry in one very inviting place. The smell of beeswax and the sounds of Ukrainian music coming from the record player always greeted me. As you walked through the door a bell tink

VANISHING? Tekserve , known as "New York's mom-and-pop Apple shop," has been around since 1987. Rumor has it, they won't be around much longer. ( *See update from management below ) Reliable reader Simone reports that she heard from three different employees they are closing shop in August. They say they're hoping to relocate in Chelsea. But, of course, rents are sky-high in a city full of corporate chain stores. When they opened 29 years ago, founded by three former engineers at public radio station WBAI, they filled their space with antique radios and stereoscopes, along with that old Coke machine that dispenses real glass bottles. They were quirky, homey, local. Back then, there were no shiny Apple Stores. Now there are--how many? "What're you gonna do," said one employee to Simone. "It's part of Apple's business model to streamline things, cut out the middleman so they'll have complete control." As a long-time

In 2014, after 81 years in business, and with a steady clientele, Milady's bar closed . Employees told customers that the landlord refused to renew the lease (this has not been confirmed , see comments below). New Yorkers grieved. The space has been empty since. It had a For Rent sign on it all this time, but I guess that didn't succeed in attracting a suburban shopping mall chain. So now there's a bigger, brighter banner--in orange!--strapped across the front of the murdered bar. High-rent blight never got so bright. Come on, Applebee's!

I must have walked on 27th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue a million times. But somehow never noticed Master Cutting Table. Maybe the shutters were always down when I went by. Maybe I was too distracted by the neon of the weird old Senton Hotel. In any case, recently, deep in the depths of a rather bad mood, I came upon the miracle that is Master Cutting Table. It was the decapitated Charlie McCarthy doll heads that caught my eye. And the mannequin in the vest and Spartan helmet. I got closer and looked in through the plate-glass window. It was like looking into one of those panoramic Easter eggs as a kid. A whole world opened up. And, seeing what I saw, my mood instantly lifted. American flags. Antique clocks. JFK and RFK posters. A bigger than life-size bathing beauty cardboard cut-out. Pressed-tin ceiling above and wooden floorboards below. A long path leading to the back of the shop through dozens and dozens of old garment industry machines: Gold Stampers, Wire S

Downtown, at Broad and Stone, Giuliano's pizza place has lost the skin of its signage. Google Maps Reader Greg Wyles, sends in a photo of the sign hidden beneath the sign, recently revealed. He says "the Pizza Place that had been there was knocked out by Hurricane Sandy and there has been construction going on and off" ever since. Last year, spotting the shape of Giuliano's sign, Thomas Rinaldi at New York Neon suspected it was an antique. He did a little digging into the history of the sign and found photos of Blank with its neon intact. As for A. Blank -- no history remains. Only this. Since 1899. Anthony Cortese, flickr

Five years ago, I posted here about the Battle for Astor Place , writing, "The City's Department of Transportation and Cooper Union are unfolding their plan to turn Astor Place into what they call a public park, but what is clearly an amenity for more condo and office towers, setting the stage for further upscaling of the East Village and Bowery." Today, that vision is coming true. Across from Gwathmey's "Green Monster" condo tower, the Death Star has since risen, a dark, hulking slab full of tech companies. Astor Place's center has been flattened and reshaped--part of the street has been erased, and the Alamo cube was hauled off for polishing, yet to return. And now we have our first "public" private advertainment event. Yesterday, NYCxDesign's "Design Pavilion" opened between the Green Monster and the Death Star. It features interactive advertisements from IBM, a resident of the Death Star, and is sponsored by 125 Gree

I often worry about the car wash on 10th Avenue and 24th Street. It is the last remnant of " Gasoline Alley ," the world that existed before the High Line dramatically changed this part of Chelsea, when it was all blue-collar businesses , largely related to the care and maintenance of automobiles. They've been there for over 35 or 40 years and are now utterly surrounded by high-rise jillion-dollar glitz. I take the car wash's picture pretty much every time I walk by. Just in case. I took a ride through the thing, even though I have no car. I saw a cabbie going in for a wash and hopped in, paying him for the opportunity just to ride through. Here's the scintillating film footage of that adventure. Enjoy those soapy mitters. Anyway, a good sign recently appeared on the car wash: "Under New Management." I'd like to think this bodes well for the future of the place. "Under new management" presumably means they're not s

Recently, I received this note in an email: "I am a granddaughter of Alfred Schwarzenbach and my father worked in the building for years. We are all appalled about the disappearance of the clock! How can we find it? Who has the authority to simply take it away? If they don't want it, why not give it back to the family? All questions with no answers! Maybe you can give us some!" It came from Ines Franck in Switzerland. She is referring to a post I did in 2014 about the lovely Silk Clock on the former Schwarzenbach building on Park Avenue and 32nd Street. Before, via 14to42 The clock was removed when the building was sold, stripped, streamlined, and turned into TIAA-CREF's 470 Park Avenue South. At the time, we wondered what would happen to the clock. Would it return to the public sidewalk once the renovations were done? After My original tipster on the story went over and took a look. The Silk Clock has not been returned to the exterior where it can

When Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961, the word "gentrification" had yet to be coined. The process that would eventually destroy the global cities of the 21st century had not yet been observed. British sociologist Ruth Glass would come up with it in 1964, and it would arrive in New York City in the 1970s. Jacobs did, however, detect a process that is clearly the same one we are contending with today--what I call hyper-gentrification . Jacobs would call it over-success. She wrote: "so many people want to live in the locality that it becomes profitable to build, in excessive and devastating quantity, for those who can pay the most. These are usually childless people, and today they are not simply people who can pay the most in general, but people who can or will pay the most for the smallest space. Accommodations for this narrow, profitable segment of population multiply, at the expense of all other tissue and all other populat

As you know, the beloved Pearl River Mart closed when its rent was hiked from $100,000 to a reported $500,000 per month. Here's what remains. #SaveNYC .

Last evening, after their Easter celebration, St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church burned in a massive, four-alarm blaze battled by nearly 200 firefighters. Photos shared immediately on social media showed the church engulfed in flames, exploding through the stained glass rose window, destroying the roof, leaving nothing but the brownstone shell. Thick, dark smoke billowed high into the air over the area around Madison Square Park. Tim Teeman, Twitter photo: Zokster Something The congregation of St. Sava had just celebrated their Easter services earlier in the day. Photos posted to their Facebook page only two hours before the fire showed a full house inside the landmarked historic church. Early reports stated that no one was inside during the fire. Parishioners stood on the street, watching and weeping. “We're all alive, but the building is gone,” the parish priest, Fr. Djokan Majstorovic, told RT . And what a beautiful building it was. Easter celebration, photo via