Vanishing New York Backup

After 18 years, the Viceroy restaurant in Chelsea has shuttered . New York once called it "a bit of a vanguard back in 1993...before an explosion of art galleries officially shifted the neighborhood from gay to gay and upscale." Sonny's Grocery in Hell's Kitchen is shuttered by the City after 41 years. [ DNA ] Classic: Paris Is Burning plays at the IFC Center on June 27. [ IFC ] This weekend, " Theater for One " brings you into a black box in Times Square. [ LM ] Intervideo is gone . Who knows what hell will replace it. [ EVG ] Finding the Studebaker signage of the city--and more. [ FNY ] Remembering old Yorkville . [ LC ] A visit to the controversial bodega exhibit . [ BB ]

VANISHED Manhattan keeps losing its diners. Sometime recently, maybe earlier this month, we lost the Tramway Diner. Located in the shadow of the 59th Street Bridge on 2nd Avenue, the Tramway sheltered me not long ago when I was wandering that neighborhood searching for a cheap, comfortable spot for dinner. The Tramway, with its tram-illustrated awning, beckoned, and fulfilled my need for a burger deluxe. Today, the windows are dark and a sign says "All equipment for sale." New York described the spot as featuring "nearly floor-to-ceiling windows with eye-catching views of the airborne cable cars ascending to and descending from Roosevelt Island with hypnotic consistency . Grab a window seat at one of the high-backed leather-and-wood booths and you’ll quickly find yourself glorifying the standard menu’s little enhancements like fresh-squeezed orange juice, burgers that weigh eight ounces, and a handful of sandwiches of the triple decker sort." plazmasas The in...

"Find it here, buy it here, keep us here." The sudden appearance of this sign posted all over St. Mark's Bookshop makes me nervous: If you sit at the chess tables in Tompkins Square Park and you don't play chess, you might get arrested. [ NMNL ] You're also not allowed to wear a skirt while riding your bike. [ RS ] Eataly is killing Little Italy. [ Curbed ] "My father is destroyed," said Claudio the barber 's daughter. "He walked into my house with the landlord's notice last month and said to me: 'I don't believe it. Sixty years and they give me 30 days to get out!' " [ NYDN ] More on this summer's demolition of Mars Bar . [ Crain's ] And say goodbye to Joe's Locksmith . [ EVG ] At the egg rolls and egg creams fest. [ BB ] Looking back at the "High Line District" before there was a High Line . [ BBs ] Photos of Brooklyn back in the summer of '74 . [ BI ] Pics of the city in the summer of '...

Thanks to Karen for calling our attention to the documentary " The Tao of 9 Second Avenue " by Michael I. Schiller. It starts with an image of Mars Bar before it was Mars Bar, but the film is really about the eviction and demolition of the buildings all around it--the rubble that Mars Bar will join later this summer . In the coming demolition, 9 Second Avenue will also fall--it is the last piece of what was, for over a century, a thriving cultural center of the Lower East Side . Mars Bar as a coffee, tea, & spices shop The film tells the story of 7-9 Second Avenue, which was the other side of 291-293 Bowery , and included a chapel on E. 1st St. Built on the site of Gotham Gardens--according to King's, "one of the most popular amusement resorts in the city in the '50s" (that's the 1850s)--the multi-building complex here began as Steuben House (some sources say its name was Volksgarten), later called the Germania Assembly Rooms . In the late ...

I don't know when it happened, but the old newsstand on University near 9th has been replaced with a blank Cemusa box. today The old stand was scruffy and stuffed full of stuff. It had add-on walls and signage. my flickr, 2007 Again, we've lost an individualized piece of New York street architecture. It's happening piece by piece by piece. my flickr, 2008 See also: Union Square Newsstand Jerry's Newsstand & Lots more about Bloomberg's destruction of the old newsstands

After the news broke here last week , thanks to a JVNY reader, that the Fat Black Pussycat sign was painted over, the mainstream media has followed up with lots of choice quotes from the owner of the building who did the painting. He doesn't really say why it was painted now, after 50 years of leaving it alone, after telling the Times in 1999 , "We have no intention of covering it up,'' but he does say a lot about his feelings on landmarking, the Village, and memories of the Pussycat. A selection... After photo from JVNY tipster From the Wall Street Journal : “The Pussycat represented the worst of what the Village was,” said Bob Engelhardt, 84 years old, who has owned the building since the theater closed in 1963. “When you wanted to get drugs, get into fights and get with underage girls the Pussycat was where you went.” “The Village was never about rules,” Engelhardt said. “ Making someone ask for permission before painting a building is the exact opposite of w...

HuffPo followed up on the Fat Black Pussycat story -- the owner of Panchito's says the Pussycat "was a cesspool" and "Ninety percent of what's in the Village isn't" worth preserving. [ HP ] Astor Place demolition to begin July 1--here comes another monster glass tower. [ EVG ] The High Line 2 provides " an airborne front yard for a post-industrial suburb ," says Justin Davidson, where you can spy on wealthy condo inhabitants as they "spend hours cuddling their laptops." [ NYM ] And on the new Meatpacking Whitney : "is the only way to experience contemporary art really in a huge hall that blends the aesthetic of the Soho loft with the dimensions of a hockey rink?" [ NYM ] More anti-thrift : Young people believe that having tons of credit card debt empowers them. [ RS ] $10,000 bottles of wine at new bikini brunches . [ Grub ]