From a tipster today:
Cafe Le Figaro on Bleecker is closed. "As of today," it's gone, she writes, "I have it on very good authority [a resident in the building] that the building's owners have leased the back space (on MacDougal) to a bank (of course) and they're looking for a new restaurant in front." This will be the second time in history
Figaro has shuttered (1969-1975). Maybe we'll get a Blimpie's again.
*Update:
Eater just confirmed with a snapshot of owners' "geart [sic] feeling of bereft."
stoneyjackson's flickr
The "fallen masters of the universe" on Wall Street are drinking more, tipping less, and generally bummed out. Awww. [
NYO]
They're selling their multi-million-dollar condos using sidewalk chalkboards, too. Right next to "rabbits for sale: good eatin"? [
Gothamist]
WTF!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLe Figaro was the one of the few places I've discovered when I was living at the Hunter Dorm -- Brookdale -- back in the early to mid '90's and my fellow dorm dwellers and I frequented it often since it was inexpensive and you can just order coffee, sit by the sidewalk area and do our readings/homeworks, and the wait staff would just leave you be without pushing you to purchase more.
Not even a warning? At least Florent and Minetta's gave us one. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.
Damn yunnies!
I think I'm gonna stop reading your blog -- this is just too depressing.
I will sorely miss Figaro's--hung out there as a teenager--sipped coffee and ate hamburgers and life was filled with dreams about the future---
ReplyDelete--I met Charles Aznevour there--
I hung out with my best friend Ronnie there--a Hippie in bell bottom pants--Oh The Memories!!!!!
THE CITY. THE CITY. THE CITY.
ReplyDeleteTHE CITY. THE CITY. THE CITY.
THE CITY. THE CITY. THE CITY.
THE CITY. THE CITY. THE CITY.
THE CITY. THE CITY. THE CITY.
It really is unfortunate that this SATC movie may indeed end up being the final nail in the coffin.
As I am typing this MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of out of state broads are packing up their suitcases and headed straight for the BIG APPLE.
Didn't even catch the pubic hair thing. I don't know if you're saying that in jest, but I fully support your lobby for the return of pubic hair. I am a twenty-three-year-old female who heartily agrees! I believe the landing strip (or full on bald eagle) represents the strong desire for a sanitized life and rejects all that adult womanhood is meant to be! Bet the yunnies couldn't handle full on bush.
ReplyDeleteIn 1980, when I was 18, I got the job that enabled me to leave home and get my own apartment on 3rd Street and Ave C. It was bussing tables at Le Figaro cafe. I worked there for a year or so, before picking up bartending gigs in clubs or east village bars.
ReplyDeleteThere were still hippies/beatniks hanging out there back then - relics of the 60's and early 70's. I was one of the new breed of "punks", but I listened carefully to those people. Almost everything they predicted happening to this city has happened. Even if they didn't know about cell phones or laptops, what they knew about cultural trends was right on the money.
Sh*t! This realy sucks - all the places of my carefree younger days are being sucked up one by one ;-(
ReplyDeleteSan Remo, Le Figaro what next - The Reggio?
If Caffé Reggio closes the Village will officially be dead. It's on life support now but the loss of Reggio will be the true end.
ReplyDeleteI've commented somewhere else in this blog that I'll be devastated should Jules Bistro closes.
ReplyDeleteBut I take it back, I'd actually like that place to close now, since they cater now to the yunnies and yuppies. Went there last week, and that was the first time I ever felt unwelcome (I guess because I wasn't wearing khakis nor my female friend wasn't wearing black, nor a mini skirt, nor a high heeled shoes). The service was rushed and the wait staff and the bussers were condescending if not patronizing. I've been coming to that place for at 11 ears now, at lest once a month for either lunch, brunch, dinner or just a drink at the bar. I guess that'll be last time I'll go tot that place. Au Revoir Jules Bistro. Surely hope that a condo takes over your spot.
Even though I have a cold, and even though I try to stay away from dairy when I have a cold, I think that today I'll go to Caffe Dante and have a gelato and a double espresso while I still can.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was the inspiration for a coffee house in early issues of X-Men.
ReplyDeletefrom: http://www.thexaxis.com/minis/firstclass6.htm
>>For those readers who might not be familiar with this backwater of X-Men continuity, the Coffee-a-Go-Go was the X-Men's favourite hangout in the mid-sixties. It was a beatnik coffee shop in Greenwich Village, where the teenage X-Men would sit around in their awful checked suits, and listen to avant garde jazz. To experience the Coffee-a-Go-Go at its demented finest, just look at X-Men #14, where just one panel manages to include the lines "Those tender sentiments do wonders for my libido!" and "Cool it, chick - you're melting my bongos!"<<
And in this link you can scroll down to some cafe action between our heroes and some bikers.
http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/05/x-men-32-marvel-comics-1967.html
Shame to see Le Figaro close but all this lamenting about the destruction of New York is way overblown. For those that even have minimal knowledge of the city's urban history, they will take comfort in knowing that this city constantly reinvents itself. The same people whining about the loss of familiar landmarks and too many banks are the sons and daughters of those who whined about too many vaudeville houses, bars, too tall skyscrapers, too many immigrants, etc. NYC is a city of change. If you don't like it, move to Paris or Florence where change is prohibited.
ReplyDelete