*Everyday Chatter

More Signs of the Yunnipocalypse:
-Fashion Week mavens opt for McDonald's coffee
-Hipster heiress may be fleeing Williamsburg for London
-Obama says so: "The party is now over"
-No new products from Paris Hilton this year

West Village Alliance psyched to triumph over 73 8th Ave nightclub, which has withdrawn its liquor license application:


...And at that address, the Manor club has replaced its Seized by the Landlord signage with FOR RENT. The Manor was described thus: "Over-the-top perks befitting the wealthy bachelor theme--phone lines connected to charter jet companies, Escalades to swiftly deliver VIPs home...bottle service (starting at $1,600)." Also say goodbye to their "24-karat gold-gilded DJ booth":


The Peeler Man memorial: "Rest in Peels." [FP]

Plywood coming off "McNetta Tavern," formerly the Minetta. [Grub]

The Times follows up on the Interstate Foods story--says the owner of Atlas Meats, “I’ll be out in two weeks...What can I do?” he said. “I can’t do nothing.” [NYT]

The battle for StuyTown. [NYM]

New blog in the Slope: Here is Park Slope visits an air disaster of yesteryear.

Smith Street rent wars claim Zaida's House of Beauty. [PMA]

Check out "Old Jews Telling Jokes." [via David Kamp]

A Flutter of Paper

The phrase "a flutter of paper in a mad house" is a line from Kenneth Patchen's poem "The Origin of Baseball," which has nothing to do with what I'm about to say, except that the line came to mind as I stood on the corner of 42nd and 10th Avenue, watching a flurry of book pages fall from the sky. From, I assumed, the rooftop of the highrise overhead.



It reminded me of 9/11, how the papers fell like fat snowflakes, singed at the edges. Watching the book pages flutter down, I smelled smoke and thought of fire, but the odor was only of pretzels burning on a nearby vendor's cart.

I picked up a page and read:



It was a page from a story, I later discovered, entitled "Say Goodbye to Middletown." It was written by a man named Mann, appeared in an anthology of gay short fiction, and was described by an Amazon reviewer as "a story of lost love, sex between men and boys, and eventual redemption."

What was it doing fluttering down over Hell's Kitchen on a sunny, unseasonably warm afternoon? Each page was torn, slashed, as if in a wild display of destructive rage.

I worried, for a moment, that a body would follow, imagining a young man at the end of his rope, tearing and tossing pages from his gay anthology as prelude to his own swan dive. The perils of the closet? A lost love affair?

Thankfully, no body fell. Not while I stood there.

But the pages--they just kept coming.

Elk Hotel

What's going on at the grand old Elk Hotel flophouse on 42nd and 9th Ave?

Grieve virtually visited the place last summer and discovered, via the Times, that "The Elk's miraculous -- some would say unfortunate -- survival stems from a real estate fluke (the building's owner doesn't want to sell)."



The Elk is still standing, but its first-floor businesses have departed. Namely, "Chicken Ribs" and a Dunkin' Donuts. Both have lost their awnings and the windows are covered or gated.

The "For Rent" signs are a good sign for the Elk, but I'm not sure this is the best time for anyone, especially a flophouse, to be looking for retail and restaurants to rent.

*UPDATE: February 13, 2012--the Elk has closed.

*Everyday Chatter

More Signs of the Yunnipocalypse:
-"...bankers who are living on the Upper East Side making $2 or $3 million a year have set up a life for themselves in which they are also at zero at the end of the year"
-Babs Corcoran on the demise of condos: "They're being dumped into the market in droves"
-Condos wobbling like Jenga
-The rich will have to play by new rules

In December I announced the Kim's collection was moving to Sicily, of all places. Now the Times catches up with an in-depth report on the backstory, including that wacky "never-ending festival." [NYT]

There's a big demolition "X" painted on the side of Gregory & Paul's at Coney. [GL]

Alex and Grieve both give their goodbyes to the P&G.

“Everyone wants a little piece of Coney Island for their backyard,” except, apparently, much of New York City. [NYT]

The Moondance Diner reopens in Wyoming. [NYDN]

Joe "The Peeler Man" Ades memorialized in Union Square. [Gothamist]

At the Bowery's New Museum, where you can watch drugged women sleep, "everything's tuned to exude that empty, shiny atmosphere." [Restless]

A gripe about the city's possible plan to replace Central Park's carriage horses with antique cars. [GripeBox]

Holiday Update

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge is crowded tonight with regulars and well-wishers come to remember Stefan. A sign on the door announces his funeral service on Monday and all are welcome to attend at St. George's Church:



I spoke to a friend of the family who is helping to run the bar and asked their plans. He said, "We have to keep Stefan's spirit alive."

Are they going to change anything? He said, "Of course not. Why would you? Look at the place. It's perfect."

So with great relief I'm pleased to report it sounds like the Holiday will live on with no changes greater than "a spit and polish." For example, they recently retiled the bathrooms.

On the Holiday:
Stefan Lutak, 1920-2009
Holiday Survives
Holiday Closes

*Everyday Chatter

More signs of the Yunnipocalypse:
-The future of NYC? Worse than 1975
-Big designers like Vera Wang and Betsey Johnson save $$$ by skipping Fashion Week
-Even Sarah Jessica Parker "can't imagine going shopping" right now
-"Polls show bipartisan resentment at the lords of finance who expect continued gilded age rewards after ruining the economy of the Western world."
-To all those swinging dicks, we may be entering "The Testicular Age," marked by "Yin qualities like patience, steadfastness, supportiveness, solidity, stability, reliability, and resourcefulness."

-PLUS! Roy Edroso pens an enticing post-yunnipocalyptic Sex & the City sequel

Mercury Lounge building is up for sale. [Curbed]

St. Marks fixture, DJ Lenny M, that guy who sells mixed hip-hop CDs, has been suddently shuttered. [DBTH]

Worried about the battered Cheyenne? Read this comforting note from the folks who adopted the diner: "We have carefully removed the neon signs, delicate glass blocks and some of the stainless as well as the overhang lighting and booths and stools to protect them during the move. EACH piece has been meticulously labeled with pictures as well to ensure its replacement. This is a dream for us and we intend to restore this diner to it's original 1940's glory!!!!"

If you ever hear anyone actually referring to the Bowery as "The Bowery District," please slap them. [Curbed]

Campaigners for Bloomberg live in the lap of luxury. [NYT]

In parts of Williamsburg, it's still the bad, old days. [SL]

Have a seat with Abe Vigoda at Neil's Coffee Shop. [EVG]

"New Yorkers smell a little smell and they’re getting all paranoid." [NYT]

Stefan Lutak: 1920-2009

I am sad to report that Stefan Lutak, long-time proprietor of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, has passed away.

For those who wish to pay their respects to Mr. Lutak, there will be a viewing on Sunday at Peter Jarema from 2:00 - 5:00 and from 7:00 - 9:00--an appropriate choice, as the funeral home is a neighborhood survivor since 1906. (Funeral services are Monday.)


photo sent in by Mike Marvin

Stefan Lutak was born in Ukraine in 1920. During World War II, he fought with the Soviet Army. Remembering Stalingrad he recalled to the NY Press, "The winter was terrible. The ice came from your mouth. We were sleeping in the snow, nothing to eat. Two, three, four days, a whole week with empty stomach. Kitchen? Gone! They killed the horses. Then they killed the cooks. We ate leaves, and in November the leaves were gone."

Stefan arrived by boat in New York City in 1949. He played soccer. With his wife he opened the Holiday on St. Marks Place in 1965. He served drinks to Allen Ginsberg and W.H. Auden. His bar became a favorite all across the city. The New York Times called it one of the best dives in town, "an eloquent rejoinder to a slick, rich, ever-changing city."


Stop in tonight & hoist a few in memory of Stefan

When Stefan took ill recently, the bar was closed for weeks and people were worried about its fate. We got some hope back when the beloved dive opened again. Now, with its captain gone, who knows what will become of the place?

Update here