NYPL: Lunch Hour

There's still time to enjoy Lunch Hour, the NYPL exhibit that celebrates the history of lunching in New York City. Free to all and located at the Main Branch (I refuse to call it by its new name) until February 17, the show is definitely worth the visit.





Filled with vintage menus and photos from places like Delmonico's, Sardi's, and Schrafft's, and an interview with the inventor of the stainless-steel hot dog cart, the show also has a few poetry treasures--a signed copy of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems and a hand-written version of W.H. Auden's "In Schrafft's," which begins:

Having finished the Blue-plate Special
And reached the coffee stage,
Stirring her cup she sat,
A somewhat shapeless figure
Of indeterminate age
In an undistinguished hat.




But the biggest draw of the Lunch Hour show is their restored Horn & Hardart Automat. If you squeeze your eyes, and imagine the scene in black and white, you can almost feel transported through time.

The best part is--you can touch this Automat. You can open its glass and brass windows and reach inside, as if for a slice of honey pie or a fresh donut, or a plate of cholent (everybody around you saying, "What was cholent?"). I slipped a nickel in, just to see what would happen. It rang through the machine and thunked down in the dark hollow of its inside, unwanted.



They've also got a screen showing clips of Automat scenes from Hollywood movies and television--in all of them, an impoverished young woman seeks sustenance. In That Girl, Marlo Thomas makes a poor woman's tomato soup from a bowl of hot water and ketchup. Automat worker Audrey Meadows slips a free chicken potpie to Doris Day in That Touch of Mink. And in 1934's Sadie McKee, Joan Crawford looks hungrily at a fellow diner's abandoned slice of lemon meringue--into which he extinguishes his cigarette.

An older couple next to me picked up the listening device to hear the film's sound, a lush cafeterial clatter. "Dishes and silverware," said the woman to her husband, "That's just what they really sounded like!"

Pushing Back 7-11

As the 7-11 convenience store chain continues its massive push, pressing forward with its clearly stated goal to consume New York City's bodegas with its "Business Conversion Plan," some East Villagers are taking action.


7-11 smashed on St. Mark's

Our friend Liberation reports the scene last night:

"There was a great turnout at the Father’s Heart Ministries to discuss the 7-11 coming to Avenue A and 11th Street. A really diverse crowd of 50 or so people showed up, all of them sick of the chain stores consuming the neighborhood and wanting to do their part to protect the local businesses with roots in the community. The meeting served as a jumping off point to brainstorm ideas and get more people involved. Because the group was diverse so are the skills they bring to table.

In the next few weeks people can expect a new website for the project and action steps people in the community can take to push back against 7-11 and, in the long term, possibly other chain stores looking to set up shop in the East Village. Reporters from the Times, Crains and DNAinfo were all there, so expect articles on the meeting in the next day or so. The general consensus was that people tolerated Starbucks, they tolerated Subway, but a 7-11 in the East Village is the last straw."




Read More:
7-11 Zombification
Chain Stores in the City
7-11 Strikes Again
& Please shop at Gem Spa instead--it's got gravitas

Atlas to UPS

Back in May, the Atlas Barber School was forced out of its Astor Place location due to hiked rent after training barbers and offering cheap haircuts since 1948.



What's taking its place? A UPS store. Another national chain takes the place of a small, historic local business in the East Village.



Around the corner, at 51 Astor Place, the Death Star towers, dark and hulking. Has it already begun sucking the life force from our neighborhood? What will be its ultimate impact?

Barclay-Rex

Reader Everettsville writes in about his recent visit to the Lexington and 51st location of Barclay-Rex, part of the tobacconist business that's been around since 1910:

"They were having a two-for-one sale. Why, I asked? 'Last day in business...today' the guy said. When I asked why, the guy told me, 'the landlord didn't stop at just doubling the rent, he tripled it.' When I sarcastically promised the guys behind the counter that I wouldn't patronize the 7-11 or Fro-Yo joint that would take its place, they corrected me: 'No, it's gonna be a burger joint!'"


Feil Organization

Barclay Rex has two other locations in town--one near Grand Central and another downtown on Broad St. The original was opened on Barclay (hence the first part of the name) in 1910 by Vincent Nastri, a pipe maker from Salerno, Italy, with his dog, a Great Dane called Rex (hence the second part of the name). The business is still run by Vincent Nastri (the Third).

The just-shuttered shop on Lexington opened in 1997 with a prime spot in the gorgeous General Electric Building, formerly the RCA Victor, a marvel of architecture festooned with radio waves that look like lightning bolts zig-zagging down the building's rosy granite face.


my flickr: 2009

The windows of the tobacconist shop, on the rare occasion that I passed by, attracted me with their displays of fedoras and walking sticks--and their view of walls covered with a mural that brought to mind the WPA works that celebrate the city's industry, or Edward Trumbull's murals in the Graybar Passage of Grand Central and in the Chrysler Building.



One New Year's Eve, a few years ago, I stopped to take a few photos, wondering if the art dated back to the 1930s. Turns out, the 36-foot mural in Barclay-Rex was commissioned from artist Mark di Vincenzo in 1997, no doubt to match the vintage of the building and conjure thoughts of the past.

Somehow, I doubt the deep-pocketed burger joint will keep it.


P.S. What if, instead of one those trendy new burger chains (Good Burger, Bare Burger, 5 Napkin Guys Burger, etc.), the great Prime Burger has chosen this spot to make a comeback? That might make it alright. But with a tripled rent, it does seem unlikely.

Reminiscence

Reminiscence is having a closing sale. A tipster writes in to say, "The sale runs until January 30. There's a chance they might be moving locations." Update: Reader Bryn says, "They are moving back to their old hood on 13th and 5th. PHEW!"

Opened by Stewart Richer in 1975, the shop has bounced around town quite a bit, with locations on MacDougal, Avenue B, and Fifth Avenue, finally settling on 23rd Street near the Flatiron.

In the 1970s, it was the place for colorful Army work overalls dyed by Richer--as well as these amazing pants. In the 80s, you could find two-tone creepers with faux-pony on the toes. (The store's wares were regularly featured in New York magazine, where all of these clippings were found.)

Lady Zombie at the Examiner recently visited the store and called it "a proverbial 'diamond in the rough,' in the form of an incredibly cool vintage shop...fully stocked for the shopping pleasure of novelty enthusiasts, performers and seekers of oddities." It's "a secret shopping mecca for Goths and artistic Manhattanites."

Of course, Manhattan, and the city at large, has fewer of such people every day.

Suzie's

VANISHED

Suzie's Chinese restaurant on Bleecker Street has closed after serving the Village for 39 years.



I can't say anything about Suzie's first-hand, but Brooks of Lost City wrote it up for Eater in 2010. In the post, he called it "one of the only notable, sit-down Chinese eateries left in the Village."

Opened in 1973 by Susie Ying and her relatives, the restaurant went through a renovation and change of menu after Ms. Ying's retirement and subsequent death in 2010. After that, business faltered--though NYU students still loved it.

On the school's blog, a student waxes nostalgic for Suzie's, recalling late-night takeout extravaganzas and that "The space was an authentic Chinese restaurant experience, in vein of the classic Seinfeld episode 'The Chinese Restaurant.' Mildly tacky, but relaxed. Comfortable, with a slight flair. Little umbrellas in the drinks, etc."

One commenter replied, "This is like a death for me."

Mxyplyzyk

VANISHED

Opened on Greenwich Avenue in 1992, the designy gift shop Mxyplyzyk has closed.

Reader Tommy Raiko wrote in with a photo, "I walked by and saw the place entirely vacant, with a good-bye sign taped to the windows." In the sign, owner Kevin Brynan writes, "For 20 years we maintained a vision that has set us apart... We sincerely loved being a part of this community and we will miss this corner." There is no explanation for the closure.


photo: Tommy Raiko

I sent an email to Mr. Brynan to ask what happened. He responded:

"After 20 years running an independent store in Manhattan, it just became impossible. With the closing of St. Vincent’s 2 years ago (the largest employer in the West Village), this incredible recession, and tenants being responsible for real estate taxes, I was just forced out. It is quite clear the current city administration prefers chain stores over the 'mom and pops' with their tax abatements. This island is destined to have a very boring retail landscape. All the creative entities are in Brooklyn or Jersey City where I have my second store."


photo: New York Magazine

Kevin Brynan has been doing business in Manhattan for quite awhile. His first store, reported The Jersey City Independent, was "Dot Zero, opened in 1984 on Fifth Avenue at 22nd Street. At the time the neighborhood was unsavory."

The New York Times' description of the scene at Dot Zero in 1991 is too colorful not to quote at length:

"A young Asian couple in Mondrian-patterned sweaters and plastic knapsacks picked over Dot Zero's ultra-selective inventory. This is a store that sells only six magazines, three of them with River Phoenix on the current covers. Dot Zero is very much about yin and yang, and makes an obvious attempt to balance architect toys like Slinkys ($3.25) and Decision Makers ($9.95) with earthier wares like barbecue sauce ($7.50) and banana shampoo ($9.95).

Almost every customer at Dot Zero wears a Swatch. It's that kind of place. One woman in a long camel's hair cape knew only that it was time to rest her mall-weary eyes. With a little chirp of pleasure she seized upon a pair of vibrating Eye Massager goggles by Travel Tech ($17.95). Adjusting the Velcro strap around her bobbed white hair, she flicked a tiny switch at the nose bridge and flew madly about the store, exclaiming, 'Isn't this just the thing!'"


Brynan & Cleary, Jersey City Independent

When Brynan moved to Greenwich and 13th, he named his new shop after a foe of Superman. Last year, with his partner, Bill Cleary, he opened another location of Mxyplyzyk in Jersey City, where the rent is significantly cheaper than on the rapidly changing Greenwich Avenue.