Cité, the dependable brasserie-like steak place on W. 51st. Street, will shutter this April, a helpful reader tells Lost City. And a trip to the eatery's front desk confirmed the info. No new location. A permanent exit.
Cité isn't exactly a Gotham landmark, but 20 years is 20 years, and, in the New York restaurant biz, is actually more like 80 years. So a salute is in order. For me, Cité will always typify the '80s restaurant scene. It arrived in the middle of that decade and for a while its ads, with the stone Roman God's head, or whatever the hell that thing was, were in every issue of New York and The New Yorker. The place also has a top wine collection. It's part of a restaurant group that included Smith & Wollensky. Date of closure is April 2. There you have it. So go before then if you've got memories there.
Wanted to thank you for the blog and just post another comment in memory of McHale's which two years later some of us are still mourning. But the underlying point is, who will save our city and how will it be done? Have we been sold to the highest bidder?.
ReplyDeleteAs someone active in the travel business I know the lure of New York is it's uncaptured uniqueness - it is a star among the urban elites. The movers and shakers of the city have always possessed a certain amout of charming arrogance, typical of island dwellers. Can they find a little more of that to protect these landmark establishments before we live on an island of condos like any other transportation destination.
Yours,
Joe Clancy
Joe and Karen: thanks. Glad you like the blog. I'm afraid there's little we can do to save the City under a new administration comes in. Bloomberg not only doesn't care that these things are disappearing, but he believes he has done a good thing for the City by handing it over lock, stock and barrel to developers and corporations. Money is always good, right? It has been to Mike. That's the only thing he understands.
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