A tipster writes in to say: "Old Devil Moon is shutting down this week...Last day is probably Wednesday." 12th Street will miss those pancakes and French toast.
photo: NY Mag
Curbed has more info on the sad sale of the Amato Opera House. [Curbed]
Vesuvio seems to be gone, but at least there will be t-shirts to remember it by. [Eater]
The Times takes a look at neighborhood blogs--but I don't see any Manhattan blogs named. Is that because Manhattan no longer has neighborhoods, but rather shopping centers and party areas? [NYT]
You could live above Robin Raj, in the Toll Bros shadow, and party like it's 2007. [EVG]
wonder why Vesuvio couldn't make it as a hipster overpriced coffee/latte joint? Tons of hipster foot traffic....
ReplyDeleteWill Duane Reade still honor my $5 dollars reward coupon?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it bad that another business is going bankrupt? Maybe I'm crazy. Not that Duane Reade is all that great, but they're my one-stop-shop for nail clippers and toilet paper.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not there are examples of Duane Reade being less of an aesthetic disaster than someone that moved in their place. Checkout the new Vitamin Shoppe on the SW corner of 14th and 1st. When DR lived there it had high ceilings, brass chandeliers and a mural with drawings of rural Manhattan. These vitamin guys plugged up every square inch of the place with fake yellow walls and even put a sticker with their logo on top of an old clock (missing its hands) above the door. It's disgusting.
ReplyDeletenow that mom-and-pops are pretty much done, cvs is a much better alternative than duane reade.
ReplyDeleteWhere will the Duane Reade employees work?
ReplyDeleteJ, according to Racked, National Wholesale Liquidators is folding. What's the story?
ReplyDeleteI predict that Duane Reade will survive. I believe I read that their demise was due to bad behavior of the CEO and not because of lagging sales. If that's true they should be able to overcome their problems with the right management in place and a good bankruptcy plan. Without Woolworths, we need Duane Reade, it's really the only place to buy those things that you need constantly like sunflower seeds, dental floss and Russell Stover chocolates.
ReplyDeleteduane reade's not going away. i buy their q-tips and junk, too. what choice is there? but what i hope will happen is that there will be a lot FEWER of them.
ReplyDeletewe can't bring back the many indie pharmacies they helped put out of business, but we can pray for a city without a DR on EVERY OTHER CORNER.
like everything else in the (past) insane economy, a few isn't a problem, but too much is just too much.
When I read stuff like this I feel very sad. Not like I've been to this place before, it's just because when I leave some places and come back a year later or so and everything is being reconstructed, altered, changed. Five years ago I came to Miami, had some good time, then I started working there, started hanging out there and left three years ago. When I came back a year ago everything was different, even people were different.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised that Old Devil Moon is going under. The food has gone downhill over the last few years, and the service also took a nosedive, although there was one really great waitress. The rest seemed like oddballs playing waitress. It was really weird. Still, I am sad to lose this place. Back in its heyday, the food was delicious, and the wait staff was fun and quirky. It feels like the owner just stopped trying.
ReplyDeleteOld Devil Moon's brunch STILL rocks, and their pancakes are the best in NYC, hands down. This is a serious bummer!
ReplyDeleteHaving just moved to the East Village (from Milwaukee) in August, I discovered Old Devil Moon a couple months ago. Really sad to see the place go, frankly, as it was one of the only places in the neighborhood that's memorable. Sure, as the previous commenter wrote, the servers aren't the most professional, but the food (at least the brunch, which was all I had) was spectacular, and interesting. So, if the place has slipped, I'm sorry I missed the heyday, but for now, I'm just sad.
ReplyDeleteSo, if anyone knows where I can get bourbon cakes or catfish and grits, please let me know!
Also, are the hilarious erotic cakes from "masturbakers" gone as well?
I always wondered how Duane Reade ever thrived in the first place. Usually when chain stores become ubiquitous they've managed to draw customers with some sort of aspect that made them preferable to the competition. For Starbucks it's the faux-classy decor and faux-exotic, faux-European coffee blends. For Wal-Mart it's the insanely low prices that a company is able to offer when it runs the competition out of town and pays its non-union employees third world salaries. Other companies do it through more honest and genuine means, such as providing exemplary service or convenient store layout. But I never figured what it was about Duane Reade that made them so successful. Their prices are on par with other drug stores, their service is mediocre at best, their stores don't really follow a uniform pattern when it comes to layout and quite often their aisles are disheveled and poorly maintained. I wouldn't say it's a nightmare to shop there, but it's largely a very monotonous and unremarkable experience which is no better (usually slightly worse) than getting a few essentials at my local drug store (thankfully we still have mom-and-pop operations in my neck of Queens). The only thing Duane Reades are notable for are their ubiquity, which still doesn't explain to me why they're so ubiquitous in the first place. At any rate it's good to hear the leviathan is suffering.
ReplyDeleteWhen Duane Reade started to build its chain they actually offered prices that were a lot lower than the other choices, which were Mom & Pop drugstoresas well as supermarkets. Back in the late '70's they were essentially the only discount drugstore chain around Manhattan, and we were glad to have them. Somewhere, though, they lost their way, and became the bad guys.
ReplyDeleteI went to Old Devil Moons last day, the only waitress working at opening was melancholy.Turns out she was not a waitress at all but a pasty chef from the now defunct Masturbakers.
ReplyDeleteShe was very sweet and gave us a gift as we were leaving- two Old Devil Moon mugs.
amillionrevolutions she said Masturbakes is looking for a new location.