Crown Heights Signage

Like many fans of the former city, I enjoy vintage signage. Kingston Avenue in Brooklyn's Crown Heights offers a plethora, much of it with a Jewish flavor, untouched by the passage of time.

Crown Cosmetics, above a jewel-tipped crown, sports a subtle Hebraic styling in its typeface.



I like Weinstein's for its letters-in-circles design and its giant key.



My favorite is Crown Bagel. It's not the best looking sign, but it gets points for its use of "AIN'T."

*Everyday Chatter

Forgotten NY goes back to the Meatpacking District, where yet another meatpacker has packed it in. [FNY]

Check out the vintage Meatpacking photos of long-time resident Coco McPherson at Goodbye New York.

It's getting harder and harder to pay the rent--even for the affluent. [NYT]

Alex is going to this WNYC event about preserving the city's neighborhoods--and he wants you to go, too. [FP]

Filming of Angelina Jolie's new movie nowhere near as action-packed as the filming of Nic Cage's new movie. [EVG]

Methodist Condos

Sometimes, too often, I'm walking along the streets to be struck by the shock of something vanished or replaced. "When did that happen?" I find myself asking. It's a question I asked recently when walking by the Washington Square United Methodist Church on West 4th Street to find a chain across its steps and the sign:

NOVARE
Private Residences
No Loitering Please



"Novare" is the new name for this building. It's a luxury condo development. You might not notice if it weren't for that sign.

Sold and shuttered to its congregation in 2005, the 145-year-old church had a long history of social action and justice, dating back to the Vietnam War when it got the moniker "Peace Church." It was the first home to the Harvey Milk School for gay and lesbian youth, and gave shelter and space to the Black Panthers, the Gay Men's Health Crisis, Dykes Against Racism Everywhere, many art and performance groups, and community housing services. It undoubtedly impacted the lives of countless people.

Now it gives shelter to 8 private owners.



As for the church's ousted congregation, they moved over to the NYU Catholic Center for their worship. Of course, NYU just demolished that one.

*Everyday Chatter

The Times visits the virtual Chelsea Hotel, too--maybe we should have a virtual party. Meet you there? [NYT]

At decadent yunnie brunches, what can you do with $90,000 worth of Dom Perignon? Spray it on "the biggest show offs in NYC." [GofG via Curbed]

Avenue B "NIMBYs" win battle against a crowded, noisy bar. [Eater]

Beloved, quirky New York Doll Hospital to close after death of owner, Irving Chais. [NYT]

Irving Chais, by NY_Doll, flickr pool

Landmarking a little street in Williamsburg that Henry Miller called: “The ideal street for a boy, a lover, a maniac, a drunkard, a crook, a lecher, a thug, an astronomer, a musician, a poet, a tailor, a shoemaker, a politician.” Or, you know, a condo. [NYT]

Celebs complain about having to live near meatpacking plants--in the Meatpacking District. [EVG]

"On the Bowery we’ll be a little French," says Boulud of his ill-named DBGB. [TONY]

When calamity separates people from their shoes at the cobbler shop. [NYT]

After Nic Cage movie "ravages Chinatown," it nearly kills people in Times Square. [Gothamist]

Tomb of Delphi

In 2007, the Delphi Restaurant, on the corner of West Broadway and Reade, closed after 37 years. Wrote the New York Sun, "The restaurant is closing because of a clause in its 12-year old lease that would increase the rent to$55,000 a month starting November 1, up from its current $11,000." Said one of Delphi's long-time waitresses, "It's not about what the neighbors or the community wants."

In an area Zagat calls "Bouleyville" for its proliferation of restaurants owned by the same celebu-chef, David Bouley was then planning to open an "upscale Japanese-themed restaurant called Brushstrokes" in the Delphi space. That was two years ago. A liquor license battle ensued, fierce enough for Bouley to call it a "witch hunt." The Delphi waitress may have been right, but Bouley won the fight in March 2008.



Today, the building looks gutted and ready for demolition, marked by a big red X.

Through the end of 2008, the Department of Buildings shows complaints about after-hours work being done against a stop work order and "site conditions endangering workers."



This is a landmark building. The blog Haute Notes wrote extensively on its history, which dates back to 1860: "By the time of the First World War, photos show fine etched-glass entry doors and a sweeping canopy sheltering Vogric's Café. Its Slovenian owner advertised the Knickerbocker beers and ales brewed in Manhattan by Colonel Jacob Ruppert."



Most curious are the seeming ghost signs on the facade, which show a giant hand holding a paint brush and the words: "Brush Up Business with Paint, Paste, Paper, & Push." (Here, "push" means to sell, writes ForgottenNY.)

Frank Jump, in his excellent ghost sign blog, dates the signage to the 1910s. But Haute Notes writes, "the signs don't appear in any of the historic photos, even those from the 1940s."

Was the ghost sign somehow uncovered? Or was it put there later on, maybe for a 1970s movie, and made to look like the 1910s?



As a 2003 Downtown Express put it: "Whenever a trendy new bistro opens up, or a chain spreads its wings and expands into occupied territory, I imagine the neighborhood’s longstanding restaurants must brace themselves for the competition that comes along with gentrification... however, Delphi has held its own for many years, defiantly refusing to be intimidated by the influx of new options for hungry Tribecans."

Gosling Movers

Back to the game of musical chairs being played on 7th Street these days, it’s not just businesses that have been coming and going. People are moving out, too. And today, weirdly enough, actor Ryan Gosling was there to give them a hand.



Word on the street is he's doing research for a new movie called Blue Valentine in which he plays the part of a mover. (His co-star is Michelle Williams.) So he’s traveling around town with Steinway Movers, lugging furniture and boxes in and out of a big red and yellow truck. (Steinway, by the way, has been moving the city since 1926.)



He found a fan in Susan, the lady with the walker who sits outside Howdy-Do most days. She’s been in the neighborhood for 60 years and welcomed Ryan with a bouquet of pink roses.





An apparently warm and affable guy, he posed for pictures with Susan, at her request, asking her, “We didn’t disturb you here, did we?”

When was the last time you heard a visitor to the East Village ask that question of a long-time resident?

See more shots of Mr. Gosling, Susan, & the Steinway guys on my flickr

Big Nick's

Everyone's talking about burgers these days like they're a delicacy. But before there were Wagyu and "Black Label" burgers, before Old Homestead started selling burgers for $81 and people decided it made sense to stand in long lines at Shake Shack, there was Big Nick's on the Upper West Side.



From Sumo burgers to Grecian burgers, pizza burgers to Hawaiian burgers, Nick's got the beef. And they've been "serving Westsiders" since 1962. (Westsiders, writes Nick, are "compulsive noshers, weekend partyfolk, mellow-groovy happyfolk, dedicated loners, lovers after the afterglow.")



"Twice the size, not twice the price," the burgers are thick and juicy and, as New York put it, "The interior of Big Nick's resembles the inside of a 1960s RV: cramped, wood-paneled and smelling of grease. And the 28-page menu looks like what you'd find if you pulled that RV into a highway pit stop in Middle America."

A Middle-American pit stop seems like the right atmosphere in which to consume a burger anyway. As Big Nick's puts it on their website, "Old is the idea of burgers, we keep them in their proper perspective!"