Caffe Vivaldi

VANISHING

A year ago, I made the mistake of getting excited about Jones Street in Greenwich Village. It seemed like a well-kept secret, an untouched one-block oasis of old New York with its two record stores, antique butcher shop, and 30-year-old jazz cafe. I spoke too soon.

Recently, we heard from Stupefaction that its Strider Records will be closing. And now we hear that Caffe Vivaldi is being forced to shutter--Steve Croman is the new landlord and is tripling the rent, according to this petition.



It seems we're in the midst of an epidemic, where landlords are jacking up the rents on old-school Italian joints (Vivaldi by way of Pakistan). First we heard that 30-something Rocky's is being booted so the Balaboosta people can take over, then Eater reported the shameful news that 90-year-old Rocco's rent is being hiked so another group of new foodies can expand their mini empire (with $125 tasting menus), and now Vivaldi.

The Village Voice put Steve Croman on their 10 Worst Landlords List of 2008 and outlined his typical tactics: "badgering phone calls, endless lawsuits, and leaning on already hard-pressed tenants." There's a Stop Croman Coalition of his tenants and a "Croman Realty Sucks" blog--but both seem to be defunct since 2009.


Bloomspot

Caffe Vivaldi is one of those places I've been meaning to get to for a long time. They have live music 7 days a week and no cover charge. Monday is Open Mic Night. They serve things like ravioli. They have been featured in films by Woody Allen and Al Pacino.

Here's how the restaurant's owners describe the place: "Our old wooden chairs have a history and are mostly positioned in approximately the same spot where they were when they first seated the likes of Andy Warhol, Al Pacino, Woody Allen, Bette Midler, John Cusack, Rob Reiner, Joseph Brodsky and many others. We have a fireplace and it is usually lit on cold evenings."


L.D. at Vivaldi in Whatever Works

Against all odds, the Friends of Caffe Vivaldi have started a petition to save the restaurant. They write:

"There is a place in New York, that is 1/3 real and 2/3 magical and it is about to disappear... unless we do something now. For 30 years it has nurtured artists writers, poets, but mostly musicians. It has a new landlord and he wants to triple the rent. We cannot fight him; he is too strong. The only way forward is to appeal to his better side and reason with him not to snuff the life out of this cherished haven of hope and encouragement for young artists. Our aim to urge our landlord not to increase our rent to an amount we can never come up with in 685 sq ft of space. We want to be fair to him and want him to be fair to us: All we are asking is that he charge us the fair market rent."



Croman's 9300 Realty already has the Vivaldi space up for rent on its website. They're asking $19,995 a month.

Buy (Another) Book Weekend!

If you're a reader of this blog, chances are good that you give a shit about the city. You've probably helped fight a lot of battles to save the New York places you love from destruction--and most of the time the fight has been lost. It gets depressing. But this time, we won the fight. This time, I won't be posting about another vanished East Village icon, because St. Mark's Bookshop is staying right where it is.

That is cause for celebration. It means that winning is possible and it's not all for nothing. Victory? I'm not sure what to do with this unfamiliar feeling. I want a party or something. I want to give St. Mark's Bookshop a big kiss. And the best way to give St. Mark's Bookshop a big kiss is to buy some books. You can go in person or buy online.

The last time we had a Buy a Book Weekend, the bookstore's sales went up by 30%. Let's do it again this weekend. From today through Sunday, go buy a book--or more--and give St. Mark's a big, sloppy, wet kiss of "Congratulations." Besides, you deserve it for helping to save this irreplaceable part of the city's vanishing culture. Go treat yourself to something good!

Here are some New York-related suggestions:



The Long-Winded Lady by Maeve Brennan is one of my favorite books of all time. Her "prose snapshots of life in small restaurants, cheap hotels, and crowded streets of Times Square and the Village" are all from the New Yorker's Talk of the Town when it used to actually be about the town. There's only one copy left in stock--who will be the lucky winner?

The Suburbanization of New York is available as a remainder for only $9.98. The title is self-explanatory and it was one of the first books to name the monster that is eating the city.

Another favorite of mine--one I've read and reread--is Saul Bellow's The Victim, a tight, psychological novel in which "a young man is sucked into the mysterious, heat-filled vortex of New York City." Fantastic.



I have not yet read Lucking Out, James Wolcott's memoir of the 1970s city, but it's on my list. A quote: "How lucky I was, arriving in New York just as everything was about to go to hell.”

If all you've read of Richard Yates is the masterpiece Revolutionary Road, go deeper. I've read all his books and, while not equal masterpieces, they're so much more satisfying than a lot of fiction being published today. St. Mark's has Cold Spring Harbor, The Easter Parade, and Young Hearts Crying on their shelves right now.

No New York library is complete without some Frank O'Hara. Start with the Selected Poems. Walking the city will never be the same. Read him along with next-gen New York School poet Eileen Myles--they've got Skies on remainder for just $6.98.



Finally, it's not New York, but St. Mark's just got in The Complete Record Cover Collection by R. Crumb, and the East Village's own Eden and John of the East River String Band made a short film to help promote the book. Check it out here:

*Everyday Chatter

The new snowy mountain billboard at the High Line appears like a continuation of the glassy, glacial condo towers nearby--but what's it all for?


At the St. Mark's press conference, Cooper President Bharucha says, "I'm a lover of books. I just popped in and bought a book. It's the most important thing you can do." [RS]

The Paris Review's "Save St. Mark's" special deal is still available. [PRD]

Check out photographs by Roberta Allen--a portion of the proceeds go to support St. Mark's Books. [SMB]

Yesterday, "As a symbol of solidarity among the Cooper Union Community, student, staff and faculty decided to walk-out, work-out, and act out" to save tuition-free education. [EVG]

Coney Island Bialys and Bagels saved by Muslim businessmen. [Gothamist]

Sheepshead clam bar eyes Coney boardwalk. [ATZ]

St. Mark's Success

Congratulations to St. Mark's Books and to Cooper Union for reaching an agreement that will help keep this bookstore in place in our neighborhood, hopefully for a long time to come.

This morning the New York Times reported that a deal has been reached: "the college agreed to reduce the store’s rent to about $17,500 a month from about $20,000 for one year, and to forgive $7,000 in debt. The school will also provide student help with revising the store’s business plan."



Congratulations and thank you to everyone who supported this cause. To everyone who signed the petition. To everyone who tweeted, linked, and commented on the story. To all the bloggers who passionately posted about it. To all the authors, politicians, and academics who lent their weight to the issue. Thank you to Scott Stringer for mediating the deal and to President Jamshed Bharucha for doing the right thing. Thanks to everyone who bought books during this time--and will keep buying books at St. Mark's.

Now we have to make a pledge to keep it thriving. Buy your books from St. Mark's. Buy them in person or buy them online. Attend their literary events. Encourage them. Support them. Let's never have to fight this battle again.

*Everyday Chatter

We thought the site of Famous Ray's Pizza might be getting another pizza joint--but the new NO FOOD and FOR RENT signs tell us something different. Cell-phone store? Bank? What do you think is coming?


Enjoy a plethora of vintage neon storefront signs. [NYN]

Discover the Secrets of 42nd Street. [DTDB]

Clayton Patterson, Occupy Wall St., and the BMW Guggenheim Lab in the New Yorker. (Subscription only.) [NYr]

Army vets selling hot dogs get arrested and hauled away from the steps of the Met. [CR]

How many chain stores are in 10003? [EVG]

Goldman-Sachs goes against the Lower East Side Credit Union. [BB]

The Village Voice is now accepting your Web Award nominations. Not that I'm hinting, or anything. [RS]

*Everyday Chatter

The Subway Inn's Facebook page says: "Subway Inn is now open for business again as promised! Sorry renovations took so long!" All is well.

Visit the new and improved Forgotten New York for more forgotten stuff every day--and drop them a line if you'd like to advertise there. [FNY]

After 13 years of blooming, Red Hook's King Street community garden has just been murdered. Visit flickr for the story and gory photos. Says reader Chris, "The word on the street is that it will be condos and retail space." [flickr]

Marty says goodbye (or not) to Ruby's bar. [MAD]

Is the Lower East Side just a "musty...bargain basement"? [BB]

Philip Lopate writes about the High Line. [DOG]

Cooper Union so broke they might start charging tuition. [EVG]

Bloomberg skimps on the Halloween treats. Maybe he's broke like Cooper Union is broke. [Gothamist]

A couple shots from Halloween Night--God sends a text and so does a Hell demon:

In the Martian Scaffold

With the scaffolding gone up around 9 Second Avenue and Mars Bar, a miserable sight in blue plywood, we can just glimpse the last Martian mural in bits of color.



There's the sign through the gaps that says we will all be missed. It waits to be turned to rubble and dust. There is no life left here.

Or is there?



Further down, a man has finagled his way through the plywood. Doors open onto his makeshift shop against the dripping walls--wobbly surfaces laden with ancient comic books, monster magazines, cassettes, and video tapes (Desperately Seeking Susan). There are shoes and shirts, packs of underwear, blue jeans, and bags. There are record albums (Abbott & Costello, Who's On First?) and miscellaneous tchotchkes.

An art brut painting of a nude woman, modestly missing her genitals, is tucked back in the corner, away from passing eyes.



It feels like a scene out of the old East Village, and I think: Only this building, in its death throes, could spawn such a thing.

On the table, a TIME magazine declares the death of JFK, Jr., inspiring the peddler to talk about John F. Kennedy Senior, and the "fucking bastards" that killed him, with all the passion of 1963, as if the assassination just happened.

A young man comes in and asks, "What size are those shoes?" The peddler looks at the young man's feet, sizes them up, and answers, "Those shoes are too big for you!" The young man runs away.



Another man comes to offer a stack of records, and while the two are conducting their business, I take a peek down the inside of the scaffolding. It's a miserable corridor, not much to see, just the refuse of a lost world, closed gates on what had been something simple and important.

For a moment I find myself hoping that the developers run out of money, that the project will stall and the scaffolding will turn into a weekend flea market, a thieves' market and hobo squat, a weird slice of our old world. But that's just wishful thinking.



Also read:
Wu Tang at 7 1/2
7 1/2 Sills
9 Second Avenue
The Loss of Mars
Before Mars Bar