As you get all pumped up for this weekend's blog-tacular New York Lost conference, here's me and Grieve in conversation with its organizer, Bryan Waterman. [P&W]
Chumley's is rising from the dead--looking for liquor license. [Eater]
Uncovering a once-opulent theater inside an Avenue A bodega. [EVG]
Miss Heather tells it: How the Post poaches from blogs. [SJ]
Broke kids gear up to drink beer and watch circus acts at a Fuck the Recession party.
Jane Hotel says it's just a bunch of well-connected rich people who want them out. Yes, and don't forget the people who started the fire. [NYP]
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Les Desirs
VANISHING
On 9th Avenue near 24th Street, Les Desirs Patisserie has been a bakery since 1962, when it began as a Cake Masters. It's been owned by a baker named Jean Pauget for the past decade, and every day it is filled with senior citizens from the neighborhood, mostly from the Penn South housing cooperative.
Recently, Mr. Pauget got notice from his Penn South landlords that his lease won't be renewed and he will need to vacate the premises by the end of October. There's a petition on the counter for everyone to sign.
Thanks to a tip from local writer Stacy Torres, I visited Les Desirs and found only one seat available in a packed shop, bustling with talk--and song. A table of women, most in their 80s, were singing "It Had to Be You" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." I sat down with Jeannie and Phil, Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea natives who've been coming to this bakery since the 1960s.
"See how comfortable we all are," said Jeannie, "We can sit, talk, argue. This place is where everybody meets to hear what's happening in the neighborhood. This is where you find out who's sick and who's died."
"It gives you a reason to get out of the house," she continued, "If you don't show up here for a few days--can you believe it?--your phone starts ringing! It's your friends calling up to say: Where are you? Are you okay?"
"This is family."
The Les Desirs chorus
The table of singers consists of neighborhood women: Becky, Emily, Marguerite, Rita, and Betty (who recalled her days of singing at Horn & Hardart's automat). They come to the bakery daily to play Name That Tune and see if they can stump each other. Together we sang a 1935 ukulele tune about a Hawaiian girl, and Becky got up to do a slow, sultry hula dance, conjuring the balmy air of the islands.
"In the winter," said Jeannie, "we look for this place even more. A nice, warm place to be together."
She heard that Les Desirs will be replaced by the Sullivan Street Bakery, a company that supplies artisanal "peasant" bread to places like Jean Georges, The Four Seasons, and Gramercy Tavern. They already have a pizzeria on the same strip as Les Desirs, a business financed, in part, by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
I asked the ladies where they will go, once their bakery is gone.
"McDonald's," Betty said, "That's all we can afford around here now."
"McDonald's," echoed Jeannie sadly, "But the atmosphere will be gone."
That's for sure. At Les Desirs, Mr. Pauget lets the senior citizens sit for hours, drinking their coffees and enjoying their pastries. If they forget their money, he tells them to just bring it tomorrow. At the end of the day, if someone needs it, he gives away his leftovers. And, of course, he lets them fill the place with song.
None of that is going to happen at McDonald's.
You can help save Les Desirs:
On 9th Avenue near 24th Street, Les Desirs Patisserie has been a bakery since 1962, when it began as a Cake Masters. It's been owned by a baker named Jean Pauget for the past decade, and every day it is filled with senior citizens from the neighborhood, mostly from the Penn South housing cooperative.
Recently, Mr. Pauget got notice from his Penn South landlords that his lease won't be renewed and he will need to vacate the premises by the end of October. There's a petition on the counter for everyone to sign.
Thanks to a tip from local writer Stacy Torres, I visited Les Desirs and found only one seat available in a packed shop, bustling with talk--and song. A table of women, most in their 80s, were singing "It Had to Be You" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." I sat down with Jeannie and Phil, Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea natives who've been coming to this bakery since the 1960s.
"See how comfortable we all are," said Jeannie, "We can sit, talk, argue. This place is where everybody meets to hear what's happening in the neighborhood. This is where you find out who's sick and who's died."
"It gives you a reason to get out of the house," she continued, "If you don't show up here for a few days--can you believe it?--your phone starts ringing! It's your friends calling up to say: Where are you? Are you okay?"
"This is family."
The Les Desirs chorus
The table of singers consists of neighborhood women: Becky, Emily, Marguerite, Rita, and Betty (who recalled her days of singing at Horn & Hardart's automat). They come to the bakery daily to play Name That Tune and see if they can stump each other. Together we sang a 1935 ukulele tune about a Hawaiian girl, and Becky got up to do a slow, sultry hula dance, conjuring the balmy air of the islands.
"In the winter," said Jeannie, "we look for this place even more. A nice, warm place to be together."
She heard that Les Desirs will be replaced by the Sullivan Street Bakery, a company that supplies artisanal "peasant" bread to places like Jean Georges, The Four Seasons, and Gramercy Tavern. They already have a pizzeria on the same strip as Les Desirs, a business financed, in part, by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
I asked the ladies where they will go, once their bakery is gone.
"McDonald's," Betty said, "That's all we can afford around here now."
"McDonald's," echoed Jeannie sadly, "But the atmosphere will be gone."
That's for sure. At Les Desirs, Mr. Pauget lets the senior citizens sit for hours, drinking their coffees and enjoying their pastries. If they forget their money, he tells them to just bring it tomorrow. At the end of the day, if someone needs it, he gives away his leftovers. And, of course, he lets them fill the place with song.
None of that is going to happen at McDonald's.
You can help save Les Desirs:
- Stop into the bakery and sign the petition asking for a new lease
- Call Penn South's management office to complain: 212-675-3200
- Contact the Sullivan St. Bakery and let them know what is in jeopardy
- Pass the word!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
*Everyday Chatter
Blackbook looks at "vendrification," where trendy foodie carts threaten to drive away what they deem "expendable" old-school street vendors. [via Gothamist]
Armando's reopened last night after vanishing last year--sadly, the lobster neon sign is most likely lost forever. Did the portrait of Marilyn return? [BP]
More bad cell phone behavior--if only this Wolverine had claws. [Gothamist]
"It wasn’t so long ago when, thanks to 'Sex and the City,' a quartet of over-accessorized Manhattanites stood metonymically for New York City..." But now, it's all about Brooklyn, so... "Grab your Bugaboo stroller, throw a New Yorker into your WNYC tote bag and let’s take the F." [NYT]
Armando's reopened last night after vanishing last year--sadly, the lobster neon sign is most likely lost forever. Did the portrait of Marilyn return? [BP]
More bad cell phone behavior--if only this Wolverine had claws. [Gothamist]
"It wasn’t so long ago when, thanks to 'Sex and the City,' a quartet of over-accessorized Manhattanites stood metonymically for New York City..." But now, it's all about Brooklyn, so... "Grab your Bugaboo stroller, throw a New Yorker into your WNYC tote bag and let’s take the F." [NYT]
Monday, September 28, 2009
*Everyday Chatter
10/2: The Coney Island Film Festival kicks off. Click here for a full schedule.
Tonight: The city vanishes at Dixon Place. [CR]
"And so goes the Battle of Jane Street--a skirmish that pits the beautiful, the rich and the chronically drunk against ordinary fools." --Andrea Peyser [via Curbed]
With a seltzerman off his feet, Brooklynites suffer through a seltzer drought. Bonus: Video inside Gomberg Seltzer Works. [NYT]
Punk lives...at Kmart. [FP]
Bowery and 1st, before and after. [EVG]
Slogan of a Mott Street boutique:
Melanie visits the Clayton Patterson show on Rivington--you should too. [EVC]
Jim Carroll, at the end of his life. [NYT]
Cindy Adams on fashion in the LES. [BB]
Coney's Cyclone Man is a hall-of-famer. [ATZ]
Tonight: The city vanishes at Dixon Place. [CR]
"And so goes the Battle of Jane Street--a skirmish that pits the beautiful, the rich and the chronically drunk against ordinary fools." --Andrea Peyser [via Curbed]
With a seltzerman off his feet, Brooklynites suffer through a seltzer drought. Bonus: Video inside Gomberg Seltzer Works. [NYT]
Punk lives...at Kmart. [FP]
Bowery and 1st, before and after. [EVG]
Slogan of a Mott Street boutique:
Melanie visits the Clayton Patterson show on Rivington--you should too. [EVC]
Jim Carroll, at the end of his life. [NYT]
Cindy Adams on fashion in the LES. [BB]
Coney's Cyclone Man is a hall-of-famer. [ATZ]
Friday, September 25, 2009
*Everyday Chatter
See "the last of the wild, free, outlaw, utopian, visionary spirit of the Lower East Side" at an exhibit of Clayton Patterson's photography. [NYT]
Celebrate the Bowery Mission's anniversary with free Bowery-related events every Thursday in October. Click for full schedule.
The High Line is accused of using wood from endangered Amazonian rainforests. [Gothamist]
The new Poets House opens today--visit tomorrow for a big poets bash from 3-5 pm. [NYT]
Is another Bowery hotel dead in the water? [BB]
Enjoy "An exhaustive rumination" about New York City's changing decades and "megatoilet nostalgia." [FP]
On Bloomberg's dieting issues: "The mayor is essentially turning his own self-loathing on the rest of the city. He's asking us to pay for his gustatory transgressions." [HP]
Enjoy a meal at Sammy's Roumanian. [Eater]
Celebrate the Bowery Mission's anniversary with free Bowery-related events every Thursday in October. Click for full schedule.
The High Line is accused of using wood from endangered Amazonian rainforests. [Gothamist]
The new Poets House opens today--visit tomorrow for a big poets bash from 3-5 pm. [NYT]
Is another Bowery hotel dead in the water? [BB]
Enjoy "An exhaustive rumination" about New York City's changing decades and "megatoilet nostalgia." [FP]
On Bloomberg's dieting issues: "The mayor is essentially turning his own self-loathing on the rest of the city. He's asking us to pay for his gustatory transgressions." [HP]
Enjoy a meal at Sammy's Roumanian. [Eater]
Gentrify, Gentrify
The newest issue of N+1 has an article about super-gentrification called "Gentrify, Gentrify." I don't know who wrote it, because it doesn't say who wrote it. It's short, and I wish there was more to it, but it's worth checking out. Here are a few stand-out quotes for your consideration:
"In place of [Jane] Jacobs's supersubtle network of human contacts, we would get demographically homogenized cities that celebrated absolute simplicity as hominess. (Witness the proliferation of restaurants with single, 'folksy' names: Egg, Can, The Farm, Home, Spoon, and--of course--Simple.)"
"...not even the metropolis dreamed of by the most Panglossian of gentrifiers could consist exclusively of bike-riding, cupcake-eating financial analysts. Gentrification had no jobs to offer--only Jane Jacobs-style 'neighborhoods.' The new IKEA-hoods that the corporations and their celebrity architects proposed were dystopias, to be sure..."
photo by Lori Nix
"Sex & the City, the greatest paean to credit card debt ever produced, gave us four professional, 'third-wave' women who consumed men and products with equal abandon... Now, in 2009, the city of Sex & the City is gone. Darkly silhouetted condominium towers--nobody home--haunt the skylines. The designer shoe stores are shuttered. Rents have plummeted. Gentrification, seemingly inexorable, has suffered an enormous setback."
But has it really? And how much of a setback is needed to save the remains of the city?
"In place of [Jane] Jacobs's supersubtle network of human contacts, we would get demographically homogenized cities that celebrated absolute simplicity as hominess. (Witness the proliferation of restaurants with single, 'folksy' names: Egg, Can, The Farm, Home, Spoon, and--of course--Simple.)"
"...not even the metropolis dreamed of by the most Panglossian of gentrifiers could consist exclusively of bike-riding, cupcake-eating financial analysts. Gentrification had no jobs to offer--only Jane Jacobs-style 'neighborhoods.' The new IKEA-hoods that the corporations and their celebrity architects proposed were dystopias, to be sure..."
photo by Lori Nix
"Sex & the City, the greatest paean to credit card debt ever produced, gave us four professional, 'third-wave' women who consumed men and products with equal abandon... Now, in 2009, the city of Sex & the City is gone. Darkly silhouetted condominium towers--nobody home--haunt the skylines. The designer shoe stores are shuttered. Rents have plummeted. Gentrification, seemingly inexorable, has suffered an enormous setback."
But has it really? And how much of a setback is needed to save the remains of the city?
- You can find N+1 issue 8 at St. Marks Books
- How SATC Killed NYC
- Cupcake Trash
- Frozen New York
Thursday, September 24, 2009
*Everyday Chatter
With old-school Guss' Pickles leaving Manhattan, where can we go for that walk-along, sidewalk pickle-barrel experience? At 6th Ave and Carmine, from Wed-Fri, you can find Horman's Best Pickles. It's not old-school, but it is pickles, and they smell good:
Arihood debates quitting Neither More Nor Less. Send Bob some love! [Scoopy]
Young artist on the Bowery pokes fun at old punks who've been kicked off the Bowery. Or something. [EVG]
Get ready for Open House NY. [Gothamist]
Enjoy a Forgotten Tour of Ridgewood, 10/3. [FNY]
In Williamsburg, don't step on the crack or... [NYS]
Arihood debates quitting Neither More Nor Less. Send Bob some love! [Scoopy]
Young artist on the Bowery pokes fun at old punks who've been kicked off the Bowery. Or something. [EVG]
Get ready for Open House NY. [Gothamist]
Enjoy a Forgotten Tour of Ridgewood, 10/3. [FNY]
In Williamsburg, don't step on the crack or... [NYS]
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