Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHED The Paris Cafe at South Street Seaport is no more. After being in business since 1873 and surviving the numerous trials and tragedies of history, including a comeback from Hurricane Sandy , it could not survive the coronavirus shutdown of the city. On their Facebook page , they announced: "To all our wonderful patrons and friends I would like to extend a sincere thanks and a fond farewell from The Paris Cafe. Through no fault of anyone but the outbreak of this virus we are unable to forge a way forward that makes economic sense. We had no option but to close our doors. Hope springs eternal and perhaps with a change in the economic climate we may find our way back. With all our hearts we say thank you for all the fun, friendships and laughter as well as the few shillings spent. My thoughts are with our lovely staff at this time and we would like to thank all who subscribed to our Go Fund Me fund which is gratefully appreciated by staff in need. Our friendships wil...

Tribeca Citizen reports: "SP’s Nuts & Candy, the store at 166 Church that you probably know as We Are Nuts About Nuts, is closing at the end of July." Why is it closing? Is it because people don't buy enough nuts? Is it because tastes have changed? No, it's because "the landlord didn’t seem to want him to renew." As the Times wrote in 2010: "There are plenty of places to buy nuts in Manhattan, from Whole Foods to CVS to the occasional subway platform. But if you want them fresh, perhaps even still warm, from the roaster, SP’s Nuts and Candy may well be your only option. Once upon a time, shops like this were a staple of city life, quick stops for a cheap, salty snack and a whiff of nuttiness. Today, SP’s owner, Michael Yeo, is keeping alive a New York tradition that has all but vanished over the past several decades, one he simply happened into."

Many of you have noticed the vintage Loft's Candies sign downtown on Nassau Street--I wrote about it here back in September. Two Boots Pizza is moving in to the space--and they say on Twitter they're restoring the sign. So it's not going anywhere.

Signs sometimes come down in the city and reveal antique signs underneath. At 88 Nassau Street recently, Loft's Candies was revealed: Loft's was once a chain store started in New York. Will the future excavation of an ancient Starbucks be as elegant?

Back in May we took a look at an uncovered old neon sign: A. Blank at the corner of Broad and Stone downtown. It had been there a long time. Now, reader Goggla sends in a photo of the sign's replacement. No neon. Just plastic. An urban artifact uncovered and then re-covered, to be discovered again one day.

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

It's not often that I go to the South Street Seaport. It's full of tourists and has become the sort of place--like many in New York--that caters exclusively to the tepid tastes and desires of tourists, with suburban shopping mall stores and an outdoor food court. It's far from Joseph Mitchell's old Seaport , that's for sure. But I went recently and found a few things worth the bother. One Grand is a temporary pop-up bookshop that just opened in a store called Whisper Editions at 6 Fulton Street. They sell antler sculptures and $135 makeup bags. Bypass those to access the bookshop upstairs. Opened by Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of Out magazine, One Grand is organized around the question "If you were on a desert island for the rest of your life, what 10 books would you take?" The people who answered include Tilda Swinton, Justin Vivian Bond, Edmund White, Michael Cunningham, and Penny Arcade. This is " curated " bookselling ...

VANISHED In 2012, I checked in with the Roxy Luncheonette , a little swivel stool and counter place down on John Street that had survived since 1944 . Now, in its 70th year, the Roxy has shuttered. Roxy egg cream, 2009 Reader Frank writes in with the sad news and recent photos: "At some point in the last 18 months or so, the owner sold it to new operators. They modified the name, calling it Roxy's East West Diner. It was basically the same--still a diner--but not quite as good." "Worse," Frank adds, " the ongoing, hellish construction on John Street kept the Roxy (and its neighbors) hidden under a sidewalk bridge . Tragically and ironically, workers carted off the sidewalk bridge last week--just in time for the Roxy to close." Roxy today In 2012, a reporter asked the Roxy's long-time owner how long he thought he'd be able to stay open with all the construction outside. "Couple more months," said the owner. "...

Founded by a group of firefighters, Suspenders Bar & Restaurant opened on lower Broadway in the Financial District in 1988. Tonight is their last night. photo: Midtown Lunch Reader Kevin Corrigan wrote in with the news: "Before I even sat down, I heard one of the bartenders saying, 'Yeah, tomorrow might be the last day.' I ordered a Guinness and overheard a few other things like, 'Are you going to move to another location?' I heard a waitress say, 'It's just too emotional for me right now.'" The Tribeca Trib reported the story earlier this month, writing that the pub's landlord, Capital Investments, refused to negotiate the lease or give an extension. June 1 was the closing date given, but I called the bar to confirm and tonight is the end for Suspenders. They'll stay open until midnight, as long as they get a crowd. photo: Kevin Corrigan After 9/11, Suspenders became a place for first responders to take a break, find co...

A reader writes in with these photos from outside City Hall. A "rich woman" was carrying an anti-Bill de Blasio sign and arguing with passersby. Get ready for "crime, muggings, rapes, murder," she insists. "Save yourselves, protect your children." According to the reader, "She was saying that she worked hard for her money, and that de Blasio is now going to take away her wealth so it can be distributed to those who don't work or are lazy . Then the argument was interrupted when a couple of tourists asked where the World Trade Center is. Amazingly, both parties lowered their voices and were helpful to point it out to them."

I received the following note from reader Jim Duffy, along with photos from his friend Amy L. Anderson: In Lower Manhattan, at the corner of Broad Street and South Street, is a wall about six feet high that faces out to New York Harbor. It's part of the office complex of 125 Broad Street. The wall is being repaired, and as the white facing material is being removed, we can now see a silvery, fiberglass-like building material that is covered with graffiti -- actually "scratchitti" -- from 1976. On July 4, 1976, bicentennial day, as thousands of people crowded to watch the tall ships in the harbor, some of them, most likely teenagers, were carving hearts, names, zodiac signs, phone numbers, and messages. "Grace + David," "Sophia 'N Harvey," "Happy Birthday America," "July 4, 1976," "I Love My Mother," "Diane '76," "Gerald Ford, Op Sail and Queen Liz Were Here." It had all be...

Two years ago, Carmine's at the Seaport was forced to close after 107 years in business when the landlord raised the rent to $13,000 a month. Today it's still gutted and empty. In this depressing photo sent in from reader Frank, all that remains of Carmine's is the pressed-tin ceiling. The Five Guys burger chain people were supposed to bring an upscale steakhouse here , but that was announced a year ago and the "For Lease" signs are still on Carmine's facade. As Frank says, "Wouldn't it have been better to keep Carmine's in business and get some kind of rent, instead of nothing for the past two years?" my flickr, 2008

VANISHING? A few years ago I wandered into the Roxy Luncheonette down on John Street, between Broadway and Nassau, where I never wander. It's a lovely little gem that has survived since 1944 . At the time I wrote, "It's got everything a luncheonette should have: chrome swivel stools, a quilted stainless steel backsplash, and good egg creams." Now a reader writes in to say the Roxy is about to vanish . "The construction down here is awful," says reader Frank, who lives in the neighborhood. Six different construction projects are happening all at once on John Street--including a new dorm and hotel. The local Downtown News calls it the " Hammers of Hell ." "It's been going on forever and the Roxy just won't make it," Frank writes. "I never see anyone in there. Who would want to go? It's so loud with all the jackhammering, and the streets are torn up something awful. The owner says he'll need to close in a few months in...

VANISHED (and then, partly, not) "The books have been seized, librarians have been gassed and jailed ." If this message wasn't coming over the Occupy Wall Street Library's Facebook page , you might think you'd been hurled back in time, to 1933 Berlin when Goebbels "consigned to the flames" thousands of books. But this was yesterday in New York City and Bloomberg was the leader giving orders. all photos November 2011 Just a few days ago, I made a visit to Occupy Wall Street and was impressed with the growth of the People's Library, which I'd seen evolve from a few cardboard boxes of books perched on a ledge to a lighted Quonset hut (donated by Patti Smith ) loaded with well-organized titles in every genre. So it was with great sadness and outrage that I heard the news yesterday morning about the NYPD raid on Zuccotti Park and their destruction of the People's Library . After the initial shock, we learned that the NYPD tossed more than 5,000...

We hear the old newsstand on Water and Fulton has been Cemusaed. Grieve has a shot of how it was before, a battered green box, tough and reliable-looking, like an old lunchbox. And now it's another blank spot in the world. In the Village, here's the one that replaced the lovely, lively brown stand at West 4th. Another nothingness. What remains? Lately, the Village's newsstands have been slaughtered . But here's one lone survivor at 6th and Waverly. It's a beauty with its pitched roof and caged storm lights, its jaunty awning like the short bill of an umpire's cap, its hunter green coat of paint. How long will it last? See Also: Newsstand Slaughter Hojo's Lost Newsstand Another Newsstand Union Square Newsstand Jerry's Newsstand Lots more about Bloomberg's destruction of the old newsstands & All my newsstand photos

Thanks to reader Fabulous for turning us on to the 1932 film The Penguin Pool Murder , which features several rare interior shots of the old New York City Aquarium, which you can read about here . The Aquarium was closed by Robert Moses in 1941 , when he planned to build a bridge at Battery Park, so these scenes are from its final decade, after being a showplace since 1896. Moses called the Aquarium an " ugly wart ." In The Penguin Pool Murder , it's clearly no such thing. The film footage not only shows the Aquarium as a backdrop to the drama (murder! mystery!), it lingers over its details, highlighting many of the fish and other occupants, with close-ups of their tanks, including action shots of an octopus grabbing its prey, and feeding time at the (itty-bitty) seal tank. It appears that every inch of the Aquarium is on this film--the director's office, behind the tanks, even inside the men's restroom where you can enjoy the sight of 1932 New York's paper-to...