DVD Depot

VANISHED

Thomas Rinaldi of NY Neon writes in to let us know that DVD Depot, an adult establishment on 8th Avenue and 45th Street, has closed. Its doors and windows have been stickered over with Thor Equities' "Retail Space Available" signage.


Thomas Rinaldi

Last year, as Crain's reported, Thor paid $12 million for the two-story building:

"The building's sale is a sign of the area's changing face from the seedy video shops and fast-food outlets of yesterday to Times Square's newer breed of trendy tenants. The current tenant in the space is DVD Depot, which deals in adult films and has been there for more than a decade. It is on a month-to-month lease and not expected to remain at the site."


Thor's rendering

Thor's rendering of what they'd like to see here is the usual dull storefront, ideal for a suburban shopping mall chain. In fact, Thor names many of those chains as selling points in the listing for the space:

"Across the street from the newly renovated Milford Plaza Hotel, and neighboring popular retailers American Apparel, American Eagle Outfitters, Forever 21, MAC, Oakley, Levi’s, Sunglass Hut, and more, and nearby Shake Shack, Chipotle, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Pinkberry, PieFace, Au Bon Pain, 5 Napkin Burger, Jamba Juice, as well as a multitude of restaurants well known in the Theater District, 725 Eighth Avenue is surrounded by only the most successful national and international retailers."

The newly renovated Milford Plaza--also bought by Thor--now has a glassy shopping arcade on its first floor, called "ROW NYC."


Thomas Rinaldi

As for the Depot, it wasn't a famous old-timer of 8th Avenue, but it held its ground and kept the avenue honest. And it got some good press.

Vice awarded the place three out of five chubbies, and Cruising Gays gave it a solid review: "Clean, newer, safe, attendants not too aggressive. Crowd: Very diverse, suits after work and regular guy types most of the time. Not too many trolls or hustlers."

Marquet Cafe

VANISHED 

A tipster wrote in a few weeks ago to report that Di Fiore Marquet Cafe on East 12th had its last day in business after 22 years.



While there has been no official word from the owner, no goodbye sign on the door, Marquet has remained shuttered and untouched since, the tables all set for customers who will never come again.

An employee has posted on their Facebook page: "Out of business, thanks for your patronage."



I don't know why Marquet closed, only that it's been darkened under scaffolding for quite some time, due to the construction of parking garage turned high-end luxury condo building 17 East 12, where the owners consider 12th and University to be "one of the most sought-after areas of the city," reminiscent of "the historic Gold Coast."

The block is changing. In addition to 17 East 12, the Bowlmor building is going luxury condo, too. The stationery store shut down recently, chains are moving in. And let's not forget the loss of 12th Street Books back in 2008.


Celeste di Fiore, via Homegrown

I never went to Marquet, so I will leave its description to this article from The Examiner's Leann Lavin a few years back:

"...it is owner Celeste Di Fiore who is the real-deal charmer – the Elaine of the downtown, Village cohort. For more than 10 years, she's looked after her customers like a doting, sometimes worrisome, always supportive, can’t-help-herself favorite friend or aunt. The customers are neighborhoodies: from the nearby Forbes magazine staff, the creative artists and patrons of the Salmagundi artist colony; writers and authors; along with students and professors from the Cardoza law school on the corner, or NYU. There are the quiet celebrities: Meryl Streep, Sean Pean and Giada De Laurentiis' mom, to name a few. Like a butterfly, Celeste can be seen alighting at a table to ask about the customer's latest book, or another’s health, or to agree with another about the neighborhood’s lack of a grocery store due to changing real estate."

Park Slope Barber

For my latest essay in Metro NY, a haircut at the Fiumefreddo brothers' barber shop in Park Slope.



On a weekday morning, the Fiumefreddo brothers’ Park Slope Barber shop is quiet and easy. Ella Fitzgerald sings from the speakers, followed by Sarah Vaughan. “Hey,” says the barber, “this one could give Ella a run for her money. Her voice has a lot of, what do you call ‘em? Octabels. Is that the word?” Octaves, decibels, the word doesn’t matter. What matters is the sound—and the feeling. The place provides a honeyed sense of calm and connectedness, of being rooted through time, past to present.

At this time of day, in high summer, with the door open to Seventh Avenue and a sweet breeze lilting in, the shop is a gentle country of old men. Their silver heads, with fringes of hair, are lovingly palmed and petted by the barber before his scissors start.

“How short do you want it today?”
“Same as always.”
“Sarah Vaughan. What a voice.”
“I remember when she died,” says the customer, holding still...

Read the rest at Metro NY

Save Subway Inn

As we recently heard, Subway Inn, the beloved dive bar by Bloomingdale's since 1937, has been given the ax by the building's new owner, World-Wide Real Estate Group. The building is scheduled to be demolished, possibly along with its iconic neon sign, for luxury condos. As of now, they're being forced out by August 20.

But Subway Inn is not going down without a fight. They've started a petition and an Indiegogo campaign to help pay for lawyers.



"Save Subway Inn! For our Neighborhood and our Family," reads the Indiegogo page. "We believe that New York City is about more than rich investors gobbling up small family businesses to make a quick buck thereby destroying the integrity of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. For more than 40 years -- the ENTIRE Salinas family has poured its heart and soul into this neighborhood landmark."

"We call on lawmakers and concerned New Yorkers to STAND UP to these actions, and to stop World-Wide Real Estate from destroying our home by ripping it away from those who helped build this city -- and who would never be able to afford the multi-million dollar condos that they are planning to put in place of a neighborhood treasure."

Please sign the petition, consider a donation, and pass the word. Watch the story of the Subway Inn and Salinas family here:



If you would like to make a plea to the source, the CEO of the World Wide real estate group, the new owner of Subway Inn, is Victor Elmaleh. His corporate contact information is:

World Wide Holdings Corp.
150 East 58th Street
New York, NY 10022
212-500-7217

Chumley's Door

The collapsed and (almost) resurrected Chumley's just got a piece of its old self back. The front door was re-installed just yesterday.


yesterday

The door looks to be the original antique, albeit with a new green paint job.


photo: Paul Rush NYC walks

A peek inside the building revealed that the work is coming along slowly. The fireplace is in place, but otherwise it still looks like a hollow cinderblock, not yet the warm and cluttered old joint that collapsed in 2007.

The guy supervising the work didn't know when it would reopen. These days, the new neighbors are trying to stop Chumley's from coming back, saying they don't want the noise from this historic literary landmark.

Maybe the new Chumley's can "86" all the loudmouths and keep the place as peaceful as it used to be:



P.S. The back door has also been re-installed--you can see it through the wide-open windows of the opulent, high-security townhouse next door.

Daily Beast

Journalist and author Tim Teeman just did an interview with me over at The Daily Beast. In "The End of New York," we talk about chain stores, cellphones, suburbanization, hyper-gentrification, and polar bears.  

Read it here.



P.S. You can buy Tim's book, In Bed with Gore Vidal, at Three Lives bookshop in Greenwich Village.

Hair Box Barber Shop

VANISHED

On Spring Street in SoHo, the Hair Box barber shop has closed.



Signs in the window say: "This has been a barber shop for over 100 years and we are sad to see it go," followed by a frowny face emoticon.

Gone are the crazy Styrofoam heads from the window.



Gothamist called Hair Box "The Best Place for a Shave" in 2006, and The New York Times profiled the place in 2010:

"Many businesses in SoHo have come and gone, but 203 Spring Street has housed a barbershop, through several identities and owners, for over 100 years. It has been the Hair Box since 2001, but two of the shop’s three barbers began working there long before that, including Rocco Milano, 79, who had cut hair there for nearly 40 years before having a stroke in September. (He plans to return once he feels up to it.)

Lingering like the combs submerged in dark blue Barbicide is a cast of neighborhood old-timers who sit inside, watching the weather forecast, or outside in lawn chairs chained to a post, surveying the passing shoppers as if guarding the last section of the old neighborhood."



For now, barbers Irina and Aida will be at Anonymous Hair Salon, over on Sullivan Street. "No worries," they say on their sign, "same price! ;)"

No word about why it closed, but one reader was told "high rent." The owner of the Tasti-D-Lite next door said he will be expanding into the Hair Box space. Goodbye 100-year-old barber shop, hello frozen yogurt.