Yesterday, the Real Deal reported that a 13-story building is coming to 572 11th Avenue. That address is the current home of the grand old Market Diner.
photo: Sideways NYC
One of Manhattan's very last vintage, chrome, stand-alone diners still in business, the Market has been on this site since 1962. It was a favorite of Frank Sinatra and west-side gangsters.
The place closed in 2006 and reopened in late 2008 with a redesign that stayed true to its glorious mid-century roots.
photo: Greenwich Village Daily Photo
A call to the Market Diner yielded no information about any upcoming closure. The Real Deal reports that the new development will include 163 residential units, ground-floor retail, a second-floor gym, lounge, and a rooftop with private terraces.
The Moondance and Cheyenne were picked up and moved to keep them from being destroyed, but something tells me we're not going to be able to put this one on a flatbed truck and send it off to the farm.
1972 photo by Thorney Lieberman
If this is true it's yet another major but unsurprising disappointment in the neu landscape of Neu York. This type of thing is getting boring alrready...
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I found myself at McQuaid's across 11th Avenue the other day... I was surprised that the single-level building that houses McQuaid's was still there... and even more so that Market Diner hadn't yet been turned into some residential tower...
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll try to go before it's gone. I was at a good diner in Middletown, NY recently and reflected that one has to LEAVE MANHATTAN now to go to a diner! How pathetic is that?!
ReplyDeleteJeremiah what can we do about this? Anything?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Come over to SaveNYC and discuss, maybe something can get going. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SaveNYC/
ReplyDeleteUmm, there are still quite a many diners in New York, especially from 34th Street on down.
ReplyDeleteDiners are disapearing all over New York. On Long Island the value of the property makes them prime pickings for banks who are trying to out do each other.
ReplyDeleteWhen listing the Moondance and Cheyenne, don't forget the Munson Diner, moved from Hell's Kitchen to upstate:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munson_Diner
A few shots of this great diner (and a few others that already vanished) taken in the 1990's :
ReplyDeletehttp://galessandrini.blogspot.fr/2012/12/new-york-city-diners-updated-post.html
you may have to leave manhattan to find manhattan. when 40 somethings complain, we know quality of life is dissappearing. if i were you, i would move to a small town upstate if i did not have a 9-5 job. all the filth crime addicts homeless will not lower your rent or bring back diners. if didnt in the late 80s, it wont now.
ReplyDeleteI will morn the passing of market diner as any death of a well liked acquaintance, I remember my first morning living in hells kitchen and waking up at 4am hungry. The waitress was so friendly it really gave a boost to my day. But the constant pattern of renewal in NYC is what makes it what it is, I wouldn't change that.
ReplyDeleteMourn not morn, of course....
ReplyDeleteoh.. its true. i live a block away and have been following its disturbing progress... they were going in full-steam.. started clearing it all out, and BAM! Asbestos signs went up in November, & as to date not a single soul has stepped foot on the property. The construction signs are beginning to fade, the tall wood fence is coming apart on its own & leaving huge gaps to enter the property. I will admit... as a furniture/ lighting / architecture designer & lover this has been killing me to imagine its fate. But hey, when the fence blew down I snagged all the white globes from the iconic street lights. HA! Take that Developer!
ReplyDelete