Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHED In the Meatpacking District, David Brown writes in to report that Gaslight Lounge and Pizza has shuttered. There was an auction this weekend and everything was hauled away. photos by David Brown Gaslight opened in 1996. On the Meatpacking Gentrification timeline, that's after Florent, after Hogs & Heifers, but before Pastis. Their website calls it, "Meatpacking District's first and oldest bar lounge." In 2015, the Times reported that Gaslight would vanish this year: "Retail changes are also altering the area, with neighborhood institutions continuing to disappear. The Rockfeld Group does not plan to renew the lease of the Gaslight Lounge, a neighborhood fixture with heavy red drapes and antique furniture at 400 West 14th Street, when it expires in 18 months. Instead, Rockfeld hopes to market the ground floor of the five-story landmark building to a high-end retail tenant. " Steven Feldman of Rockfeld group told the paper, “ Ki...

VANISHING Mon Petit Cafe, a 1980s-era French bistro on Lexington and 62nd Street, says adieu . The climate for small businesses in New York, they say, is "a crushing force." Wall Street Journal From their Facebook page : "It is with very heavy hearts that we inform the community that Mon Petit Café has closed after 32 years in business . We are so deeply grateful to all of our customers, many of whom have been with us since we opened our doors in 1984. It has been our family’s (and extended family of staff’s) way of life to run our little restaurant and serve favorites like croque monsiers, quiche and steak au poivre every day (closing just on Christmas day every year). MPC’s owner Daniele raised her children behind these windows and managed even to stay afloat in 1990 after the passing of her husband/business partner. Her eldest, Alessandra, stayed on and eventually filled the empty shoes of co-owner with her mom. Nevertheless, the climate for small busines...

VANISHING The historic Waldorf Astoria hotel is about to vanish. Not physically, but spiritually. It was purchased last year by the Chinese corporation Anbang Insurance Group. They plan to take 1,100 rooms and convert them into condos. The remaining few hundred rooms will be upgraded into a "high-end, boutique hotel that appeals to international (and Asian) travelers," according to The Real Deal . The hotel will close March 1, making February 28 the last night you can stay there for the next three years. And, of course, it will never be the same. Prices will certainly rise (it's reasonably priced right now). As Kim Velsey recently wrote in " The Death of New York’s Grand Hotels " for Surface magazine, "a condo and a hotel...occupy vastly different positions in the emotional terrain of a city." So I said goodbye to the old Waldorf by spending the night. I checked in at 3:00 p.m. and didn't leave the hotel until 10:00 the next morning. Chec...

There used to be a laundromat on West 4th and Bank. I often took its picture because it seemed like a particularly poignant laundromat, especially at night. The laundress would stand working in the window, folding clothing. She had a habit of hanging the peels of clementines to dry on the window's grillwork, creating flowery shapes. At Christmastime, she'd hang candy canes. One day, her window was gone. The Marc Jacobs children's store next door expanded into it . And then, this past spring, the whole laundromat vanished . Its boutique replacement is called Le Labo, manufacturers of fine perfumery. Everything is faux rustic and old-timey artisanal, right down to the "lab technicians," who wear waxed canvas aprons imported all the way from Brooklyn. They've got a scent diffuser made from an Edison bulb and a hunk of wood that's been " forged from the reclaimed wood of New York’s water tanks ." It sells for $590. Everything in Le Labo i...

VANISHING Liberty House , at 112th and Broadway, is vanishing after 49 years in business. And it's no ordinary local shop. photo: Jed Egan, New York magazine It is the last of its kind, a small chain of New York shops first organized in 1965 by Abbie Hoffman and other civil rights workers in Mississippi to sell goods made by poor women of color, with the profits going back to the original communities, and to support the Civil Rights Movement. I talked to co-owner Martha who told me the shop will shutter at the end of April . They'll be having a sale until then, from 20% to 50% off. This time, it's not the rent. "People aren't shopping," Martha said. "They're going online. It's convenient. They tell me, 'I can sit at home and shop in my pajamas.' But people have to shop local or else there won't be any stores anymore." photo via Liberty House Facebook page The second-to-last Liberty House shuttered in 2007, also on ...

Recently, I watched "My Dinner with Andre" for the first time. It begins in the most promising way. The camera follows Wallace Shawn as he walks downtown, along Canal Street past the old electronics and junk shops, past vanished Pearl Paint. He gets on the grubby old subway and heads uptown, all while voice-over narrating the daily challenges of the actor's life--no work, no money, just a mailbox full of bills and a lot of errands involving stationery and xerox shops. Then he gets to the actual dinner with Andre and it's a different movie (the restaurant scene was filmed on a set in Richmond, Virginia), which is fine, but I found myself wishing the whole thing was more like the opening, which you can watch right here: P.S. Here's what Pearl Paint looks like today--the sign has been completely removed:

A couple of years ago, the great little Quad cinema closed , sold to real-estate developer Charles S. Cohen--but with plans to renovate and use it to film selections from the Cohen Film Collection. In this month's Surface magazine, there's an interview with Cohen about what's coming for the Quad. According to the magazine, the cinema will reopen in April, after an extensive renovation that includes a wine bar , and it will be co-run by C. Mason Wells , the former film programmer for IFC. “I always wanted a theater,” Cohen told Surface . “I tried to buy several different chains, but I was never successful. It was an opportunity to do something and use different skills—design, real estate, film." One of the four screens at the Quad will be dedicated to classic films. The whole thing will be "a curated experience," with "soul." “I think it’s going to be a game changer,” said Cohen. “I think it’s going to be one of the best places to see fi...

Yesterday, we watched the Carnegie Deli sign get taken apart . Today, Tweet Ulrich tweeted this heartbreaking shot of it being carted away. The building is coming down. Mega-developer Extell is buying it . On and on and on it goes.

The powers-that-be have body-snatched Chumley's. Like they've done to so many of our classic joints. It happened to Minetta's, to Fedora and Rocco's, the Lion and the Waverly Inn. They tried doing it to John's of 12th Street, but were foiled. Writing on the trend, the Times in 2010 noted that the Village "has become like a theme park of the past, as these restored standards offer a vision of a lost bohemian New York — albeit with a well-heeled clientele and prices to match." "Authentrification" is one word for it. Wrote Alexandria Symonds in 2011 of upscale businesses that authentrify: " in their quest for authenticity, they’re seizing on elements that represent the area’s past and repurposing them as a design scheme ." photo: Alex Smith - Flaming Pablum I don't have to go to Chumley's to know what's happened to it, but in case you need a first-hand account, here's Pete Wells in the Times this week : "I...