Lamp Shop Revealed

When a framing shop shuttered on 2nd Ave. and 52nd St., workers tore down the awning and uncovered a ghost sign, complete with an old telephone exchange--PL3--which I'm assuming stood for "PLaza." Thanks to reader Sean for sending in this photo of Louis Mattia's lamp shop.



For decades this shop was beloved by designers, decorators, and people who just loved lamps. Liberace shopped here for antique lighting fixtures.

In 1990 Mr. Mattia told the New York Times, ''I love lamps. I'm crazy about them.''

Not only did he repair them, he also made custom lamps out of things like "a bunch of plastic grapes, fire extinguishers and even human skulls." He also made them out of musical instruments, as New York magazine featured in 1977:


New York, 1977

In addition, Mr. Mattia was renowned for his seemingly infinite collection of sconces. The man was passionate for sconces.


New York, 1989

Mr. Mattia passed away in 2004. His Times obit says he was "Known from 1960 to 1995 for his antique light fixtures at his Second Ave. store." Thirty-five years.

He left one piece of advice, also via the Times: "Never pull a plug out of a socket by the cord. 'Always pull it out by the plug itself.'"

*Everyday Chatter

New York's ample Apple acolytes express their sadness about the death of CEO Steve Jobs. [Racked]

"I don't think the world Mr. Jobs has helped create is much better than the one he found." [Restless]

That world would be our current Autistic Age.



"Here is what New York is about. Sociopaths getting really rich while everyone else just sits on their asses and lets it happen." [TO]



Chico decorates Ray's Candy with an homage to Bob Arihood in airbrush. [EVG]

The Villager's obit to Arihood. [Villager]

The Chelsea Hotel is looking really, really bad inside. [Curbed]

Patti Smith stealing books in the New Yorker magazine. [NYr]

Poor old Chumley's is actually starting to take shape. [LC]

Cornell and the Flower Stall Part 2. [HNY]

NYPD white-shirt goes wild with swinging nightstick at last night's Occupy Wall St. march. [NYM]

Manatus

Don't worry. It's not vanishing. But I thought I'd better get a bite here soon, as luxury encroaches on this block of Bleecker.



The place is quietly busy at lunchtime. Men in couples come in, older men wearing t-shirts for leather bars in Fort Lauderdale. They are greeted as regulars. One man sits alone at the bar and orders nothing but a glass of water. The waitress knows him. She chats with him. They talk about the heavy rains and how scary it is to have yet another major birthday.

He says, "You were born exactly one month after the death of Marilyn Monroe."

"But I was in Greece at the time," she says.

"Doesn't matter. That was a global event."

They talk about Jack Kennedy, the handsome womanizer, and then the waitress goes to take care of a table. The man continues to talk, though no one is there. His voice is low, his tone cordial and conversational. I can't hear what he's saying to himself but I imagine it's about Marilyn and Jack and that day in 1962. His lips continue moving.

I think: These are the men lost to the new Fedora, not the same men, but similar. Here, they have a home. No matter what. And then the atmosphere changes.



A well-heeled French couple sit at the sidewalk tables, plunk down their Bleecker shopping bags, and order cappuccinos. They've brought their own bags of pastries and begin to eat. The manager sends a waitress out to tell them they can't eat another business' food at the restaurant.

The man protests, "We were here earlier. I asked if you have croissants and you said no. I asked where we could find a bakery nearby and you said nothing. So I found a bakery myself. We're just going to sit here and eat our croissants and then we will go. Why didn't you tell me where to find a bakery?"

The waitress entreats them to leave and take their croissants with them. When she explains the policy again, the Frenchman shouts, "I don't give a damn! We will just finish this and go."



There is no budging them. They have come to Bleecker to shop for luxury goods, to get what they came for, and they will get it.

*Everyday Chatter

At last night's memorial for Bob Arihood--memories, mosaics, and LES Jewels' penis. [EVG] [BB] [MAD] [Gothamist]

Remembering Cornell of the Flower Stall. [HNY]

Susan Orlean on dog run etiquette. [NYr]

Jerry Rio tours the junk stores of 1990s Canal Street and Times Square. [COS]

Governor's Island--Manhattan's ghost town. [NK]

Goorin Brothers hipster hat-shop revealed on Bleecker Street:


10/12: Live cheaply with Broke-Ass Stuart--a book party with books sold by Bluestockings. [BAS]

Open House NY is open for reservations. [OHNY]

NYC students getting ready to walk out for Occupy Wall St. [RS]

Occupy Wall St. pickups on Craigslist. [NYO]

And who are the sexiest occupiers? [SB]

Dubrow's Cafeteria

Marcia Bricker Halperin is a veteran street photographer who, years ago, captured the wonders of New York City's Dubrow's Cafeteria. Established in 1929, there were a few locations in the city, and the last one closed in 1985. I asked the photographer some questions, and she answered.


All photos by Marcia Bricker Halperin

How did you first discover Dubrow's?

As an art student in 1970s New York City I discovered photography and got the notion to become a "street photographer." One day in February 1975, while taking pictures of the store windows on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, my fingers froze solid onto my Pentax SLR. That's when I headed through the revolving doors into Dubrow's Cafeteria. I took a ticket from the man at the door and found myself looking out at a tableau of amazing faces between the coffee urns and steam tables teeming with choices and the muraled walls under high ceilings with modernist, space-age lighting. Huge windows and mirrors helped to reflect light onto the people.



How did you get passionate about preserving this lost part of New York City?

The 1970 Taxi Driver & Hackman's Guide lists 3 pages of NYC cafeterias. By the time I was actively photographing I was only able to catch a few besides the 2 Dubrow's--the Governor on Broadway, the Paradise Cafeteria on 23rd Street, the Belmore, the Garden, and the last Horn & Hardart's on 42nd and 57th. I was very lucky to become part of a CETA-funded artist's project as a photographer on the documentary team--a program very much like the WPA for artists. During that time I photographed the changes to the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Coney Island, the south Bronx, and continued photographing cafeterias.



Dubrow's is often called the "last cafeteria." In one of the articles on the Dubrow's Blog it's described as a place to "kibitz and nosh and argue the fate of the world." What is the value of kibitzing, noshing, and arguing our fate? What allowed it to happen at a place like Dubrow's and where do you think it happens today?

There's a theory about communities called "Third Places." After your home and your workplace comes the need for some social institution. The Irish had bars, the Italians had social clubs, but Jews had cafeterias in New York. They came to eat, but just as importantly to talk. Of course cyberspace is like a "third place" now. The demise of cafeterias was tied to the rise in affluence. People opted for waiter service and felt it was beneath them to carry their own tray. Cafeteria chains prevailed much longer in the South and Midwest where it wasn't until the last decade that many have closed, but they lacked the opulence of the big city ones.

The closest you can come to the feel of an old cafeteria today is at Katz's Deli. The ticket machine, the long counter on one wall, the frenetic feel with people carrying trays laden with Jewish-style foods in search of an empty table. The sound is reminiscent of old cafeterias too--cutlery rattling and lots of conversation. But I don't think you would scour the tables for a familiar face or a comfortable table to share and strike up a conversation with a stranger. By contrast, the dozens of coffee joints around my neighborhood are tomb-like since almost everyone is on their laptop.



What are your personal recollections of time spent in Dubrow's?

I would give away the discard versions of the black-and-white prints I was making in my darkroom. Word got around that I gave out portraits and I was getting invites to join people at their tables. And the managers tolerated me taking photos of patrons and the staff as well.

I met some amazing people during those days--people I ordinarily would never have had a conversation with over a cup of coffee--taxi drivers, "Cappy" the handicapper, widows, the men from the 10 a.m. "over-80 club," a balloon seller, an ex-prize fighter. I do remember that during the day if someone wasn't nursing a Danish and a 25-cent cup of coffee for hours the old joke was “mind my seat, I have to go home to eat.”



Have you thought doing a Dubrow's book from all your work, something like the Scrafft's book?

I have a pretty large collection including my negatives, archival photographs, articles, interviews, ephemera like trays, spoons, postcards and matchbooks, audio and actual film footage shot in cafeterias including Dubrow's. I think I have more than enough material to make a documentary film about this now extinct institution. I made a short documentary blending my photographs and film footage of Hasidim enjoying the now-defunct Astroland in Coney Island. I'm hoping to be able to find support to realize the cafeteria project.

*Everyday Chatter

Following the knit-bombing tea cozy craze? Some guy is covering bus shelters on 14th with doilies:





Talking about the Bowery and "authentrification" with Grieve and Boogie. [TR]

An obit for Bob Arihood--and a vigil tonight. [EVG]

More on the pinching of Hinsch's. [FNY]

An ode to Hinsch's neon. [NYN]

"Gone are the days when the words 'East Village' automatically conjured images of back alley drug deals and weathered performers trudging down St. Marks Place with their instruments strapped to their backs, as if heading off to some bohemian coal mine. Today, the East Village more likely brings to mind three things: college students, Starbucks and soaring rent costs." [MF]

Fewer GAPs for NYC. [Racked]

Books are getting movie-style billboards in Times Square. [RS]

Does anyone have a picture of the James Rizzi mural that used to be on Sullivan Street? [GVSHP]

Famous Ray's Pizza

Reader John DeFore wrote in yesterday to let us know that another Ray's Pizza has vanished from New York City. Fork in the Road announced the closure. Panic ensued, as this shuttering follows the loss of the very first Ray's on Prince Street.

But all may not be exactly as it seems.



Until yesterday afternoon, a sign on the door said that the pizza shop, a beloved fixture on 11th St. and 6th Ave., had closed due to a rent increase. That sign is now gone and there is another notice in the window--a Department of Buildings 2012 illuminated sign permit which states that the wording on the sign will be: PRIMA PIZZA.



Notice also that only pieces of the shop's existing signage have been removed--namely, the RAY'S parts. Only "Famous Ray's" has been torn from the facade and cut from the awning, leaving behind PIZZA and OF GREENWICH VILLAGE (plus two oddly unmolested apostrophes, one on 6th and one on 11th).

Rather than a rent-related closure, this appears to be the result of another skirmish in the ongoing war over the name Ray's. Gothamist had this story in June: "a group called USA Famous Original Ray's Licensing Corp. trademarked the name in 1991 and wants a slice of the action coming out of the The Famous Ray's on Sixth Avenue and 11th Street."

It appears they won.


Village Voice close-up

So Ray's of 6th and 11th won't be Ray's anymore. But it might be becoming Prima Pizza, which is actually the same company.

A quick search for Prima Pizza Corp, with the address of 465 6th Avenue (at 11th), reveals it's been in business here since 1988 under the name Ray's (though the company president is named Manjindr). So this Ray's was a Prima in disguise all along. There's another Prima Pizza in Queens and another in Bayonne and another in Passaic. Is it all the same company--or will we soon see the battle for Prima?

Whichever way this is going, I still can't fathom what they plan to do with those apostrophes. Not to mention the The's.