*Everyday Chatter

Florent to remain open as non-Florent restaurant. What happened to Ralph Lauren? He couldn't afford the $60K a month? [Eater]

And tipster quixoticire tells us that Nicola Paone--a 50-year-old Italian joint in Murray Hill, formerly owned by a troubadour known as the Italian Bing Crosby"--will be closing this weekend. [Crain's]

The Hotel Gansevoort goes ghetto. Even when you take the tenement laundry lines out of New York, people will use ingenuity, turning tiny luxury balconies into public drying racks. Maybe there's hope for the city after all:


July 11: March against the tenement-evicting millionaires of the East Village. [EVG] ...and here's another nice shot of that flyer, against a background of the typical New EVill scene. [NMNL]

Times Square not seedy enough for Hollywood. [City Room] ...just as Malcolm McLaren softcore porns it up. [NYDN]

"The Lower East Side of Manhattan is being SoHo-fied. (Or is it Chelsea-fied?)," and here's a guide to the galleries that are moving in--and will be moving out before you know it, as they pave the way for more high luxury, as they did in now-saturated SoHo and Chelsea. [Times]

12th Street Books

It's been a bad week for Manhattan's bookstores. First we heard the Strand Annex will be shuttering. Then the rumor that Biography Bookshop might be closing turned out to be partly true--they are in their final year. Finally, I discovered that 12th Street Books will be closing this summer.



After a decade on 12th between University and 5th, the bookshop's lease is ending and the neighboring restaurant, Strip House, is expanding into the space.

Strip House is one of those odd upscale chains that manages to keep its chain-identity on the down low--they've got a total of 9 locations, and their owners, the Glazier Group, also own at least 4 other restaurants, including Michael Jordan's Steak House. Their website says, "Our locations reflect our interest in historical environments throughout New York City. Drawn to preserving important cultural landscapes, we interpret their past and blend those details with a modern spirit."



Sadly, in 1999, Strip House replaced 75-year-old Asti, "one of New York's most beloved and treasured restaurants," where the waitstaff sang opera while they served Italian dishes. Said one baritone at the time, "In the last decade, our customers either died, retired or could no longer afford to come regularly." I kicked myself when it closed, having never made a visit. Somehow, I doubt that Strip House has managed to preserve the historical, cultural landscape of Asti.

Of Mr. Glazier, the Strip House website says he has "put a permanent mark on New York City's history and landscape by taking ordinary locations and converting them into spectacular concepts." Correction: Asti was the absolute opposite of ordinary and 12th Street Books is a rarity in a city hellbent on making bookstores disappear.



Luckily, 12th Street has found a new space, but it's nowhere near the Village. I spoke to Macklin, the guy who's often mistaken for the owner, and he told me about their plans to move to 179 Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, where they will change their name to Atlantic Books. He expects they'll be gone in late August. Until then, if you have books to sell, bring them to 12th Street. They'd love to buy them and it's a way to give them support.

For the record, I am really going to miss this bookshop. They often have what I'm looking for and I regularly pass by, stopping in to find books I didn't know I wanted. 12th Street is one of a dying breed of used bookshops--a breed I predict will almost completely vanish from Manhattan in the next 5 years.

• 12th Street Books website
• Books in New York blog

*Everyday Chatter

Strand Annex to close: “We were doing very well with that store, and then they started the construction, which really hurt our sales.” Call it "death by construction," another way in which condos kill. [Urbanite]

Drunkorexia: young women starve themselves all day so they can save up their caloric intake for binge drinking.

Are we losing the fabulous Biography Bookshop to yet more Bleecker high fashion? This will be a horrible blow to the Village. And, yes, Carrie Bradshaw, I'll blame you. [Racked] *Update: I checked in with Biography and they are not leaving anytime soon. However, their days are numbered. About a year from now they'll be gone. They're looking for a new spot, so if you know of an affordable place for a bookshop, drop them a line.

Get the lowdown on last night's lively meeting to save Coney from turning into yet another outdoor shopping mall. [AMNY]

And here's more, more, more on that Coney scoping meeting. [GL]

I love the veggie-slicing man--and here he is in all his orange glory. [GVDP]

Finding Lost Houston

Last week I rented The Night They Raided Minsky's, which just came out on DVD. I don't recommend it, unless you're interested (as I was) in seeing the interior of the Village East prior to its renovation from a live theater to a cinema. The red curtain is there, along with the stage and the balconies.


film still


photo: tony marciante

The Village East did a stint as a burlesque theater around the 1950s and 60s (above and click for boobs here), but it was never a Minsky's. The original Minsky's, represented in the movie, was located farther south at 111-117 East Houston. That's where the Whole Foods/Avalon building stands today. Here it is in 1930:


NYPL image

My research in the NYPL's digital gallery took me away from Minsky's and in another direction, discovering this image of the Sunshine theater, also in 1930:


NYPL image

Zoom in to see Yonah Schimmel's knishery as it was in its early days:



Notice the major construction on Houston. They were digging it up to put in what later became the F train. In doing so, they also widened the street. Who knew that Houston used to be a narrow, two-lane road? Or that an entire world of buildings, homes, and businesses were wiped out in its widening.

Here's another shot of Houston in 1929, just a year prior to the demolition. There's the Sunshine on the left and on the right you can see an optometrist, a lamp store, and what looks like an umbrella shop. The low-rise buildings stretch all the way to Sixth:


photo: brooklynpix

5,000 residents were evicted and 1,795 apartments were demolished. Wrote the Times, ''Some workers have been living in the flats for a score or more of years and bow to the inevitable march of progress.''

New York has been changing since its inception. That's obvious. Blocks and buildings rise and fall. Seventy years ago, half of Houston Street vanished from the city--and the city survived. But today the rate of change has become excessive. Block after block after block, New York is devoured. We don't get one Avalon building, we get three. We don't get one Marc Jacobs store, we get half a dozen. Such is the inevitable march of progress today.

*Everyday Chatter

I can't quite figure out this new blog, NIMBY Brooklyn, but I am pretty sure it's making fun of bloggers like myself and others. It's kind of funny and kind of sad. I mean, are they pro Red Lobster or what? [via GL]

In the VNY "Steal This" tradition (bicycle, stroller, laptop), I submit the following scene of stealable baggage left on the sidewalk outside the Orpheum theater on 2nd Ave, where Stomp has been "hypnotizing" tourists for years. Maybe that explains the unattended luggage:


Writer David Kamp, coiner of "Vongerichtified," found himself here and further adds to the meaning of the word, saying, "A Vongerichten restaurant is like a plasma TV that’s been wired into the wall of a Victorian townhouse: a flashy add-on that’s cool in its way but messes with the overall vibe. And is obsolete within five years." [DK]

What would Jesus do? He apparently would not care to visit the gentrified (Vongerichtified) Lower East Side. [EVG]

June 28: Take a guided tour of the destruction of Washington Square Park. [WSP]

The Domino Sugar sign has been saved--see the brand-new renderings here. [BStoner]

Stroller Sports

As we all know, the Stroller Wars have been raging in Park Slope. Recently, EV Idiot worried the East Village would similarly be "mobbed by the stroller mafia." With more strollers in town comes more bad stroller behavior and more anger from the child-free. Here's a sampling:

• George Carlin (RIP) on our child-obsessed culture. [TBTI]
• Anti-stroller signage. [Gothamist]
• Moms and bars. [NY Times]
• The original Stroller Manifesto. [Heideblerg]
• Line-cutting, on-demand flat fixes. [Curbed]

• And one In Defense of Parenthood [Observer]

If the grudge match between the Stroller Mafia & the Angry Child-Free is going to continue, and it is, then we should at least have team uniforms. It might help us all have a sense of humor about this issue:






Where'd I find these T's?

• How We Roll
• Stroller Brigade
• I Hate Your Kids
• Back That Shit Up

*Everyday Chatter

Brand-new Carroll Gardens residents hail the drugstores, Subways, and clothing stores that gentrification has brought to their nabe. Yes it is a satire--and a funny one that's scary because it feels so very, very, very real. [Gothamist]

Go deep inside 47 East 3rd, where the writer is also a tenant: "My neighbors and I know that if evicted we cannot afford to remain in the East Village, suddenly full of trendy boutiques and luxury housing. I stubbornly believe the neighborhood will be a less vibrant place with all of us gone." [Gothamist]

If you missed Folsom Street East, check out links to pictures here. [JMG]

I have noticed an increase in crusties lately. Maybe it's just summer, or maybe it's an indication of the improved health of the East Village. Kind of like finding sea turtles in the East River. Kind of. Anyway, enjoy a night with the gutter punks of the EV. [NYMag] via [Curbed]

Listen to the saviors of Coney Island on Brian Lehrer today:



Central Park too? "The struggle for Central Park is, in its essence, like any other New York neighborhood conflict, with the same kinds of seething antagonisms and the same immutable stereotypes. There are the old-timers (I was here first!), the colonizers (The park is ours!), and the new-money arrivistes (Who do you think you are?)." [NYMag]

Take a walk down tired old Nassau and Fulton Streets. [EVG]

Take a look at the misery that was New York, prior to the misery that is New York. Somewhere in between the two, we had a pretty amazing city. [FP]

Say goodbye to the wise men of Cafe Figaro. [GVDP]