New York Bakery is not a bakery. It's a hidden little gem on West 29th Street where the owner, Harrison, and his wife serve a quietly celebrated mix of Mexican and Korean food. It's been there for 12 years, up a narrow set of rusty stairs in the Wholesale District.
It won't be there much longer, as tipster Jared wrote in.
I went by for lunch. Harrison told me that developers are working on permits to tear down the building and put up something bigger.
He figures he's got another month or two before he has to go.
When he first opened shop, the Korean immigrant sold Korean food. But no one was buying. He noticed that many of the workers in the neighborhood were Hispanic. A Mexican woman started cooking for him and business got better. Gothamist recently called the tacos "glorious."
Now, with its ethnic mash-up, New York Bakery attracts devoted fans from all over the city.
Harrison told me, "My customers will be crying" when they hear about the closing.
He's not sure where he'll go next or if he'll even be able to relocate.
The rents in the neighborhood have climbed too high as developers rush to demolish everything in sight, replacing the useful little buildings with shiny new towers for a new population.
Sad to see such an interesting-sounding little eatery go.
ReplyDeleteHowever, one point - many of these "useful little buildings" as you call them are quickly deteriorating and becoming structurally unsafe. The late 19th-early 20th century building code didn't really allow for construction that would last as long as the pyramids. I ought to know, I lived in a building just like this one for more than 20 years; the entire 4 story building sagged in the middle, so extremely than some apartments had a 10-15 degree tilt to their floors.
This building, from your photos, looks like it may very well have been in danger of a similar fate quite soon (if not already).
@Scout: you know, there's a way that landlords can keep that stuff from happening. It's called maintenance.
ReplyDeleteDon't bother trying to talk sense to "scout". He's a lost cause.
ReplyDeleteWhen and where does it end? This was such a delicious little restaurant, with food a 100 times more tasty and interesting that the steadily proliferating Chipotles and other mass chains.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know, the billionaires don't eat there, this restaurant isn't pouring money into De Blasio's and Cuomo's and City Hall's coffers, and it clearly doesn't own the building, so I guess that means they have to be erased from the landscape of New York. And no, @Scout, there's no "sagging" floor there.
We are witnessing the social and cultural ecology of this city being erased before our eyes.
#SAVENYC from "NEW YORK"™!
How does one leave a message or ask a question to this site?
ReplyDeleteNothing this society does anymore has any of our best interests in mind.
ReplyDelete