Atlas Meats Gone

The demolition of Atlas Meats is complete. Where once stood a historic meatpacking plant, there is now an empty lot, covered with gravel and surrounded by a shiny, new chain-link fence.


today


same view, June 2011

In the fresh emptiness, the battering ram High Line is now visible. Alongside, where Interstate Foods had its sign, there's nothing but a hollow. And so "MePa" is swept even cleaner, as this space awaits another glass tower.


today


same view, 2011

Previous coverage:
Interstate Foods
Atlas Meats & Interstate
Atlas Meats Demo

*Everyday Chatter

A gloriously epic rant against the High Line. [HP]

...as yet another giant tower heads to 28th and 10th. [Curbed]

Djuna Barnes' New York years at the Brooklyn Museum. [PRD]

The scandalized city. [NYM]

"Parents in Park Slope are discussing a ban on ice cream carts in a Prospect Park playground because of the choice they have to make between letting their ravenous progeny wail or opening the gate to a lifetime of obesity and hypertension." [Gothamist]

La Nueva Rampa's chef brings Chino-Latino back to Chelsea with El Paraiso on 14th. [Villager]

Memories of Mary Help of Christians. [GVSHP]

Where does NYC neon go when it dies? Ohio. [NYN]

Judy Garland on Broadway. [NYM]

Manganaro's Gutted

This one hurts.

A tipster sends in this shot and writes, "Well, the gutting of Manganaro’s has begun. I’m sure it will be yet another Thai restaurant."



What more, really, is there to say?

Soy Cafe

VANISHING

After about a decade on Greenwich Avenue at Jane Street, Soy Cafe is closing on April 14 due to rising rent.


click to read Soy's goodbye note

I like Soy Cafe, in part, because they hate cell phones and they have signs like this:



It was also the first (and only) place where I saw the great "More Jane Jacobs, Less Marc Jacobs" postcard on display, which led to the slogan getting on t-shirts.

But the winds of the new New York blow fierce. No matter how hard you fight them, the relentless forces of Marc Jacobs, Inc., and the iPhone zombies just keep coming. And they love a prime corner spot.



P. S. Most mornings, a clock repair man sits on one of the benches outside Soy Cafe. He reads a book in an Eastern European language and waits for the workday to begin next door at Timepieces, the watch and clock shop. He isn't overtly friendly. He doesn't smile or make conversation. He just sits and waits for the moment when the shop opens so he can get to work repairing clocks and watches.

I guess he won't be sitting there anymore--and I wonder if now we should worry about the clock shop, too. They have the same landlord.



P.P.S. I know it looks like a candidate, but Soy Cafe was not the original location of Hopper's Nighthawks diner.

World of Video

VANISHING

After 29 years in Greenwich Village, World of Video will be closing on April 28. They have lost their lease.



A sign in the window, covered with handwritten well wishes and goodbyes, reads: "It is with great sadness we are forced to announce World of Video will be closing its doors forever. We have shared great entertainment, engaged in casual and often personal conversation..."



"Can you believe it," asked a man reading the sign.

"Netflix," I said.

"I rent here and I have Netflix," he said, "so I guess I'm as guilty as the next guy."

"We all are," I conceded.

A woman stopped by with her dog. "Bummer," she said. "Here comes another goddamn Marc Jacobs."

Beatrice Inn Neon

On a recent evening I was walking by the poor, old Beatrice Inn. The falling light was just right, buttery and blushed, so I snapped a photo of the battered neon sign, wondering what would happen to it now that Graydon Carter is (partially) taking over. The next day I got the answer.



When you walk by and find the sign vanished, don't despair. It has been removed by Let There Be Neon and they've been commissioned to restore the sign back to glory. You might remember them from their fantastic work on 42nd Street's PEEP-O-RAMA sign.

Let There Be Neon's Jeff Friedman sent in some photos of the sign, currently at their shop, and answered a few questions about what's to come. Unlike the Fedora sign, which was replaced with a replica, the Beatrice Inn sign will be rehabilitated, rust and all.


Jeff Friedman

What are the new owners asking you to do with the sign?

What they've asked us to do is get it working. What we are going to do is: remove all neon (all broken), gently brush off sign faces, clear coat faces for protection so that existing patina rust is stuck in time and cannot be cleaned by some moron, repair/remake neon as required, replace all housings, transformers and secondary wiring, add new disconnect switch (a good thing), remount neon, reinstall.

In your email, you said "the best news is that the owner agrees not to correct the rust and leave as is." What is it about leaving the rust that you like?

It's patina. It would be a travesty to clean too much or repaint the lettering. It's phony. Rust is good.


Jeff Friedman

So, in the end, we'll have a beautifully rusted sign with new neon?

Yes, beautiful. Some of the neon will be original.


Jeff Friedman

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Graydon Carter plans to open the Beatrice Inn in about five weeks. We'll have more to report once the sign is completely rehabbed and back in place. In the meantime, join Let There Be Neon's Facebook page for more neon news.


See Also:
Peep-O-Rama
New York Neon
Fedora Sign
Jade Mountain Found

*Everyday Chatter

Many tears on the last night of the great Bill's Gay 90s. [DJ]

Lost City unearth's some of Bill's secrets. [LC]

Maybe "Girls" will be good--Emily Nussbaum says so. But will it be an antidote to the ravages of SATC? [NYM]

Columbia's demolition in eminent-domained Manhattanville causes collapse and death. [NYO]

The films of Sara Driver at Anthology: "New York really did have magic then, because it was such an empty city. It was very cheap to live here. You could have a job in a Xerox store and pay your rent and have your food. People didn’t want to be here…and the people who were, really wanted to be here.” [AFA]

RADAR Lab, queer-centric lit at the Strand. [CNY]

Susie Bright recalls the dirty days of the Meatpacking District. [SB]

"Find a new city," said Patti Smith. How about Detroit? [NYM]

Recently, at Astor Place--thank goodness for Mr. Silver: