Vanishing New York Backup

The surviving peep shows at the margins around Times Square keep vanishing. Yesterday I reported on the demise of old Show World . There's a smaller, less storied spot a few blocks south on 8th Avenue at 39th Street--and it's vanishing, too. Vihan's Video, with the ever-photogenic neon sign on the front, has a giant FOR LEASE banner on it. "3-Floor Flagship," it says. "Restaurant/Bar." Sadly, this whole corner is being destroyed--and it was a good corner, too, an old slice of the old city hanging on at the edge of the Garment District. Last year, the marvelous Mayfair Barber Shop was replaced by the boring, useless Corvo Coffee . More recently, NYC Fried Chicken shuttered. It was always a good spot to watch the people seated at the windows. The Shoe Repairs place next door is still open, but for how long? And there's a liquor store with two antique neon signs--for some reason, it is shown in the realtor's listing . Barber shop, c...

VANISHED When I'm in the neighborhood, along 8th Avenue in the lower 40s and upper 30s, I like to visit the Mayfair Barber Shop . If I need a haircut, I get a haircut. If I don't, I just commune with the place. This past Friday, I attempted a visit, only to find the Mayfair gone. 2013 I was shocked (though by now I shouldn't be) and heartbroken. I had that familiar sense of disorientation--was it here or there? An expanding coffee chain has taken its place, sanitary and generic, its windows full of people staring into screens. This is what change looks like in the city today, all moving in the same direction of sameness. today This corner of 39th and 8th has long been a holdout of the old city, containing the barber shop, next to a combination cobbler/tailor, a Halal fried chicken joint, a liquor store with a good neon sign, and an adult video store. The loss of the Mayfair has me worrying for the whole thing. 2013 It was a gorgeous little barber shop...

VANISHED Late last week, I headed to the Greek Corner Coffee Shop Diner , as I often do, looking forward to a cup of coffee at the pistachio green counter. Instead, I found it gone. I was heartbroken. A goodbye sign in the window said they'd closed on December 31--"After exactly 36 years, 5 months, and 15 days." They'd been on the corner of 7th Avenue and 28th Street since 1980. Back in March, I shared the rumor that the place was going to close , but I could not confirm it. I was told: The building has been sold. The building might be sold. There are holdouts who won't budge. The building won't be sold. Everything will be okay. Who knows? There's no notice of a recent sale in the online building records, but it could be imminent. Was the coffee shop pushed out or did they just decide it's time to go? In their goodbye sign they say they're opening a new place in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, called Blue Door Souvlakia . It looks nice, but nothi...

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...

Don't worry. It's not vanishing yet. The Mayfair Barber Shop sits around the corner at one of the city's best little overlooked corners--best because it's a slice of the old city, miraculously preserved. Walking up 8th Avenue, as you approach 39th Street, after you pass the Peep Show Video joint, you see the lovely LIQUOR STORE neon sign, and then a hand-painted sign for the Mayfair that says "around corner," with an arrow pointing the way. See all my Mayfair photos here You turn and pass a SHOE REPAIR shop--zippers replaced, orthopedic work, while-u-wait. Pushboys, too old to be called boys, heave past with racks loaded with bolts of fabric, the last remains of the once bustling Garment District. Here and there, you find the old, true city hidden in the weave of the new. When you step into the Mayfair, the air is cool and smells of Pinaud. Two barbers vie for your business, directing you to their chairs. You follow the one who reaches out, almo...