Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHED John Jovino, the oldest gun shop in the United States, has closed for good after 109 years in business in Little Italy. Founded in 1911 by John Jovino, and originally located in the gun center around the corner on Centre Market Place, the store was purchased by the Imperato family in the 1920s and has been run by Charlie Hu since 1995. It's been featured in many films, including Mean Streets and Serpico , and its famous wooden revolver sign has been a landmark in the neighborhood for over a century. Charlie removed his mask briefly for this socially distanced shot.  All photos by Stacie Joy. Charlie, also known as "Gun King Charlie," was packing up the shop this week and graciously consented to speak with Vanishing New York about the end of an era. Stacie Joy visited with her camera and listened to Mr. Hu tell his story. Like many small business people who are forced to close, having a compassionate ear is an important part of saying goodbye. ...

I missed this sad news, until I saw this memorial on a wall of plywood at Mulberry and Grand in Little Italy. Vincent Cirelli Sabatino, lovingly known as Vinny Peanuts, died on April 13 from complications of COVID-19. He was 68 years old. His family posted the announcement on Instagram . He ran Vinny's Nut House, a fixture on the corner for nearly 50 years. At the Feast of San Gennaro, the stand was always brightly lit and busy, with Vinny cutting big bricks of torrone with a knife and a hammer. It was a beautiful thing. Vinny was one of the last holdouts of authentic Little Italy. As he told Pavement Pieces a decade ago, “There’s no more Italians left. There are no more stands like me. Before, there used to be 10 stands down just this one block that sold Italian food, just like mine. Now, I’m the only one left.” I always got his lemon cookies, which were the best. Just the best.

What happened to the wooden revolver hanging off the sign of John Jovino's in Little Italy? ( See my update here on the fate of the sign--and the closing of the shop .) It was there and now it's gone. Maybe they put it away for safekeeping during the coronavirus shutdown? Jovino's has been in business since 1911 and used to be around the corner on Centre Market Place, before the block was luxurified by the Novogratz family. ( I wrote all about it here. ) I don't know how old this particular Jovino gun is, but an earlier version of it shows up in a photo by the great crime photographer Weegee, who lived in a one-room apartment above the shop from the mid-1930s until 1947. Weegee The gun also made an appearance in the 1973 Al Pacino movie Serpico . It makes for a very photogenic antique sign and I hope it returns.

On a warm spring day outside the Cafetal Social Club at 285 Mott Street you might find the filmmaker Paul Stone and his adopted family, including neighborhood guys like Vinny Vella, aka "the Mayor of Elizabeth Street," and Dominick Ferraro. For over 60 years the Cafetal was a social club. It's been a home-style Italian restaurant for 6 years. The guys hang out on the sidewalk to drink coffee, shoot the breeze, and reminisce about life in old Little Italy, childhoods spent sleeping on fire escapes and showering in fire hydrants with bricks of Ivory soap. Stone, a half-Italian, half-Irish native of Brooklyn, moved to Elizabeth Street in 1985. He lived in Martin Scorsese's building, played in punk bands, and made movies. In Mulberry: A Gentrification Story , he shows how the neighborhood changed in just a few short years. "A few years ago," he says, "it went from slow gentrification to hyper-gentrification. The dial got turned way up. It was a co...

VANISHING I wrote a piece for the Times this week about the closing of Moe's Meat Market, a butcher shop on Elizabeth Street turned into an artist's studio and gallery in 1977. Back then, Bohemians and working-class Italians mixed on a street once affordable, now taken over by luxury. Moe’s Meat Market, in Little Italy, hasn’t been a meat market for 40 years. But the floor is still tiled in black and white, the walls covered in porcelain-enameled tin sheets. When the artist Robert Kobayashi, known as Kobi, bought Moe’s and the rest of its building in 1977, he moved in with his wife, the photographer Kate Keller, and installed his studio in the storefront, leaving the walls intact. As a sculptor who worked with tin, maybe he felt an affinity for the sheet metal. Maybe he just appreciated the history. Read the rest at The Times the basement wine press

Reader Monique wrote in to say: "The Sile sign is gone on Centre Market Place, seemingly overnight. I work on the block in a converted gun shop and was comforted by its sight daily. All of a sudden it is gone, turned into white... nothing." The white nothing, photograph by Monique I wrote about the vanished gun shops of Centre Market Place back in 2011--trust me, it's a fascinating bit of history . The Sile sign was the last remnant of the gun district. These little things. They matter in the psychogeography of the city. 2011

I'm a fan of the great, but somehow little known, Forlini's restaurant , so I was excited to see they put some vintage photos up on their website of the place back in the 1950s and 60s. Forlini's dates to 1943. It's a favorite place for judges , lawyers, and other people involved in the justice system, thanks to its location close to the State Supreme Court house. Tourists to Little Italy seem to be completely ignorant of its existence, and let's hope it stays that way. About once a month or so, you can go and hear the song stylings of Mr. Angelo Ruggiero , a scene that should not be missed. Check out the full gallery of vintage photos here .

An affordable housing project may be getting built on uber-luxurified Elizabeth Street . However, its construction could mean the demolition of the Elizabeth Street Garden. Neighbors have been fighting to protect this space--with a Friends of the Elizabeth Street Garden website that provides all the details and info on action you can take. Now actor Gabriel Byrne offers his support in a new video by Simon J. Heath. Byrne has a place on Elizabeth--he bought a $3 million condo at the newly constructed 211 Elizabeth in 2010. The garden has been here since 1991. It's the place where the Elizabeth Street Gallery keeps its sculptures--antique angels, lions, gargoyles. Locked for many years, it opened to the public some time ago, after the gallery took over the space long occupied by La Rosa & Sons Bakery, back when "Nolita" was still considered Little Italy. Watch the video here, in which Byrne quotes W.B. Yeats: You can weigh in on the issue at the LMD...

On Saturday in Little Italy, #SaveNYC held a rally against the eviction of Adele Sarno and Il Palazzo restaurant. photo: Sandi Bachom. Adele Sarno and #SaveNYC. The Italian-American Museum is trying to evict Sarno , an 85-year-old Italian-American woman who has lived in the building for over 50 years. She's trying to stay. Il Palazzo Ristorante has already been forced to close. As the restaurant told WPIX 11 News , "My heart is ripped out, I have aches in my stomach." And "How will I pay $30,000 a month selling $5 dollar pasta?" photo by Albins Peke Von Mayate. Rallying cry. New Yorkers have rallied to the cause. Lately, the sidewalk outside the museum has been the scene of a number of protests , including one organized by Two Bridges Neighborhood Council. More protests are coming. photo: Ann McDermott. Annabella Sciorra joins the fight. At the #SaveNYC event, about two dozen supporters carried signs and met with Ms. Sarno. Italian-American...

I met Mr. Boogers on a September night in the early 1990s near Avenue A. He was sitting in his van, a rickety contraption with "Mr. Boogers" hand-painted slapdash on the sides and a blow-up sex doll lounging in a chaise strapped to the roof. Boogermobile, 2nd and 8th, early 1990s With the van's side door wide open, Mr. Boogers sat on the edge, inserting batteries into light-up roses and filling Weepy the Wee-Wee dolls with water. He invited me to give him a hand. Being young and seeking adventure, I climbed into the van, onto the one chair not covered with cheap souvenirs, most of them of the adult variety--pens in the shape of penises, novelty cigarette lighters from which sprang plastic penises instead of flames. Boogers instructed me to fill a bag with the "dick lighters" and then put batteries into flashing yo-yos . A homeless man joined us. I think his name was Jim. Boogers told him to fill the "piss dolls." Jim figured out a special method...

If you're looking for a good time in the old New York, you have to go to Forlini's on a night when Angelo Ruggiero is performing in the back room. For one thing, Forlini's is something of a hidden treasure. Cut off from Little Italy by Canal Street, it's tucked away on Baxter, surrounded by Chinatown and unspoiled by tourists. The out-of-towners don't seem to know the place exists. Established in 1943, Forlini's is pure and authentic. New Yorkers eat there. It's a favorite place for judges , lawyers, and other people involved in the justice system, thanks to its location close to the State Supreme Court house. The rooms are filled with diamond-tufted, peach-colored banquettes and booths, the walls hung with an odd and fascinating assortment of massive oil paintings in heavy, gilded frames. The staff -- all family -- greet you with warmth and respect. Don't expect any "fixed-up," "revived" Italian food . Forlini's is o...

Since 1954, the Grand Italian Food Center had served Little Italy--sandwiches, breads, pasta, pastries, olives, cheese. Then it vanished. It lost its lease and shuttered either in late 2010 or early 2011. Now there's a new "Italian Food Center" in its spot. 2011 This new Food Center doesn't look anything like the old Food Center . It's been made to appear old, however, with scrubby bricks and a faux-rusted sign that will likely convince the tourists into believing it's been here since there were actual Italians still living in Little Italy. The level of decor, with windows vaguely reminiscent of the High Line's colored window art , subway tiled walls, and a ceiling hung with those trendy silver bowl lightbulbs, makes me think this is not a rebirth of the Italian Food Center we once knew. But I could be wrong. There's a website . Sort of. I've tried, but I can't find anything out on this one. Any clues?

The Nolita foodies may be encroaching from the north, but the feast still reigns on Mulberry Street. This year, the Grand Procession was led by Italian-American sweetheart Connie Francis. The lady once known as Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero rode in the back of a red Cadillac with a beauty queen. She later signed autographs on the Main Stage, greeting a long line of fans with warmth and patience. I was a big Connie Francis fan as a kid. Previously: Gennaro Class War Nolita vs. the Feast

VANISHING The recent announcements about the coming death by rent hike of Rocco's and Rocky's --along with the closure of Aunt Suzie's in Park Slope--has me wondering if we've been witnessing a mass extinction of the classic "red-sauce joint." Looking back, the answer is obvious. Rocco ravioli The Beatrice Inn closed in 2005 after about 80 years . The new owner promised "Monday Scrabble sessions and Italian-food specials will cater to the old regulars." That didn't happen. It became a celeb hotspot that enraged the neighbors and eventually shuttered. The Minetta Tavern closed in 2008 after 71 years when the rent skyrocketed. Keith McNally took it over, changed the Italian menu to French, fancied it up, and stashed Joe Gould somewhere he may never be found. Gino closed in June 2010 after 65 years. Once a favorite of Frank Sinatra, it's now a cupcake chain store from Beverly Hills. Fedora closed in July 2010 after 58 years . The n...