2010 Review

It's the time of year for end-of-year lists and roundups. In 2010, the losses seemed fewer in number, but there were some big ones in there. We lost more of our old newsstands and watched too much of Coney Island collapse or get pushed out (Ruby's and Paul's Daughter and the Shore Hotel...). I'm still in denial about Coney.



Otherwise, at the top of my list of grievances, there's Skyline Books, a great bookshop gone and still mourned. The closure of Gino remains a major heartbreak, as is the demolition and reappropriation of Fedora. I'm not getting over those two. Carmine's at the Seaport was a third Italian joint to go.





While the little bakery Les Desirs was not a place close to my own heart, it was of major importance to many senior citizens in Chelsea. The closure of St. Vincent's Hospital, of course, was a tremendous blow for many Villagers.

The shuttering of Atomic Passion marked another death to vintage and thrift in the East Village, while the fall of the Treasures & Trifles antique shop made more space available to the Jacobsian on Bleecker. At the other end of Bleecker, the Aphrodisia Herb Shop closed this year. And little Alphaville shut down, taking its vintage toys with it.



In bars, we lost Hickey's, and plenty of boozers will miss The Rum House, but Freddy's was the big one, finally crushed by eminent domain. It may yet reopen. Village Paper fell to fire, but reopened on 8th Street. Novac Noury's crazy building was demolished by the city, pushed by the Standard Hotel and the changing Meatpacking District.

There were more, of course. I only listed the ones covered in this blog. With the impending loss of Mars Bar, the Pink Pony, and Max Fish, 2011 is already looking bleak.


For more year-end roundup, check out Lost City's Bring Out Your Dead.

Rakoff on New York

I've been reading David Rakoff's new book, Half Empty, and immensely enjoying what feels like a meeting of the minds. He champions the positive power of negative thinking, in general, and here and there, has something to say about New York City.



In his essay "Isn't It Romantic," he goes after the musical Rent for being bad in many ways. This quote from the essay stood out and I reproduce it here because how often does someone sum it all up so neatly?

"...New York was becoming far too expensive and criminally inhospitable to young people who tried to come here with dreams of making art, and how regrettable that the town's vibrancy and authenticity were being replaced by a culture-free, high-end-retail cluster-fuck of luxury condo buildings whose all-glass walls essentially require a populace that doesn't own bookshelves or, consequently, books.

A metropolis of streets once thriving with local businesses and services now consisting of nothing but Marc Jacobs store after Marc Jacobs store and cupcake purveyors (is there anything more blandly sweet, less evocative of this great city, and more goyish than any other baked good with the possible exception of Eucharist wafers than the cupcake?)."


The St. Mark's Bookshop has copies of Half Empty in stock.

See Also:
Fran on NYC
Sante's Lost City

Donohue's & Subway

Something to do when you need something to do, and you find yourself in the lower reaches of the Upper East Side, or wanting to get away from wherever you are, is to have a meal at Donohue's Steakhouse and then drinks at the nearby Subway Inn.



Grieve has written about Donohue's before, and he's got the history down, so I won't repeat it. Suffice to say, the decor--dark booths, red tablecloths, nautical paintings--are straight out of a certain childhood, back before the term "child-friendly" was invented. It's the sort of place your parents took you because they wanted to go for dinner someplace "nice," someplace grown-up. The sort of place where you had to behave yourself, and God help you if you didn't, because your mother would take you for a dreaded trip to the ladies' room where she'd straighten you out good.



But now you're the grown-up and you can go to Donohue's on your own, order a cocktail and a big plate of food, like meatloaf and mashed potatoes with string beans. Classic. This was comfort food before "comfort food" was a "thing." It was just food.

And there's no need to turn on your cell phone here--the phone in the wooden booth in back works just fine.



Now that you've had your meal and called some friends to join you, head down Lexington to 60th Street and the Subway Inn. New York describes it well, "This hole-in-the-wall has been serving up brewskies since 1937, and it looks as if some of the original patrons haven't left their bar stools since it opened."



Alex has a story about the Subway and its volume. It's still loud. The best part may be the weird green lighting at every table. That, and the Christmas decorations, and the crapped-up booths, the checkerboard floor. The Subway Inn will remind you of other bars that have been lost. Especially, for some reason, the topless dive bars.



You'll get into a long, misty conversation about "Remember the Baby Doll Lounge?" and "God, I miss Billy's Topless," where they also had Christmas decorations, it seemed, year round. And because it is Christmastime, you can't help but recall the night when a Billy's dancer dressed up as Mrs. Claus, took off her top, then licked her nipples and stuck dollar bills to them while she shimmied.

You wonder where she is now. Where did all those dancers go? You order another round. The queasy, aquatic green light casts you back in time and keeps you there.

News Building

New York is filled with beautiful lobbies. Most of the lobbies of the city are rooms you'll never enter. If you don't work in the building, if you never make a delivery there or visit for any other reason, the splendor of the lobby will go unseen. So it's good, now and then, to wander into a lobby. I did that recently in the News Building on 42nd Street.



Long the home of the New York Daily News (no more--why do newspapers abandon their splendid monuments?), the building was completed in 1930. Its facade is carved with a bustling urban scene, the skyscraper above it all, like a god in the heavens--exteriors like this often indicate a lobby worth seeing.

Inside, under a black glass dome, a giant glowing globe seems to float in white light. Decked out for the holidays with faux snow-covered fir trees, it creates an unearthly view of Earth.



On its axis, the globe slowly turns, clunking and ticking like a heavy clock. Along the glass steps of the lighted pit that holds it are pieces of painted text from 1960, each one explaining the distances between Earth and the Sun and distant stars. There is a reference to the 1933 World's Fair, its own relevance a distant memory.



Radiating from the globe, compass points and directional lines shoot across the lobby floor, marking the miles from New York to faraway cities, their names written in bronze. Behind the globe, the white marble walls lead to elevator banks, the numbers lit in Art Deco. The built-in newsstand is heralded by a single sign that says CIGARS in creamy light, a survivor from the time when that's why you visited the newsstand. A memorial lists the names of every Daily News employee who served in World War II.



It must have been an incredible feeling, to be a journalist and to walk through this lobby every day. To feel the importance of your work. To feel a part of the world and its movement.

Although, in this scene from Superman, Lois and Clark seem not to notice. Even a lobby like this becomes everyday when you walk through it every day.

*Everyday Chatter

Looking back at The Year of Bedbugs. I bet 2011 will top that. [Racked]

From the bartender at Stoned Crow: "You know, I'm done with Manhattan. I'm convinced that in ten years, Manhattan will be a gated community. You'll have to show your ID or a card to get into places. Less than one month's notice! And no job! I moved to Astoria, to the last stop of the N line to get away from it. But it's happening there. It's starting to happen. They'll just keep pushing and pushing until we're all pushed out. I'm leaving after this. If the Mars Bar can close—and that's an institution! I'm done." [Eater]

Gentrific EV vegetarian joint Counter to close. [Gothamist]

What were the 10 Best NYC Events of the year? [VV]

Give the gift of Mars Bar--while they last. [EVG]

Two stories about the kooky things overburdened rich people do for Christmas. [NYT] and [NYT]

Maritime Hotel's Hiro gets a little bombed with a gun-toting nun:

Nostalgia Bus

Reader Dimitrios Gazis writes in with a report from Nostalgia Bus #9098: "If you had asked me prior to my ride, I would have probably responded with a big 'Meh.' I'm quite surprised at just how satisfying an experience riding that bus across town was. I hope I can catch another one this month."



Here's Dimitrios' full review:

1. Much more comfortable. People with heavy coats could sit next to each other without squirming and squeezing. Since the 1960s, bus designers seem to assume Americans have shrunk, even though we've all packed on 40-50 pounds of beef.

2. The noise and the stench of diesel was comforting--you felt like you were on a bus, not a shuttle with ion drive and inertial dampeners flying to your nearest zero-sensory Moon spa (not that there's anything wrong with that... IN CALIFORNIA).

3. Other folks on the bus seemed to enjoy it, and the heavy, difficult, completely manual doors actually forced people to interact, as we young 'uns held the doors open for the less able, with giggles and "thank yous" all around.

4. I took off my iPod to take it all in, and then I realized--so had everyone else. I have since made it a point to sometimes go about my daily life without headphones, reserving their use for running and the occasional annoying Wisconsin chick sharing her latest yeast infection adventure on the subway.

An EV Grieve reader also caught the bus. If you'd like a ride, click here to find the Nostalgia Bus at its next stop until December 31.

*Everyday Chatter

Kate's Paperie on 13th to close:


Our pal Miss Heather just might be the most ripped-off blogger in town--this time, Fox News takes her wonky balcony scoop to the tube. [NYS]

Cherry Lane Theater up for sale. [Curbed]

Brooks is bringing out the dead of 2010. [LC]

Poems are being removed from the subway, so people can be even stupider and more oblivious. [CR]

Enjoy the pervy collectible figurines of 57th St. [Restless]

EV rents up 46 - 57% since 2000. [EVG]

Walking on Stanton Street. [FNY]