The Moondance Diner—Soho landmark, employer of Jonathan Larson and Spiderman's girlfriend, last free-standing diner in Manhattan—finally closed on July 1, following months of press coverage about its imminent demise.
Condo builders, rejoice! You have triumphed again.
According to Metro, the structure won't be scrapped but shipped to a museum in the Keystone State. So we can visit it. But it doesn't sound like you could get cheese fries in a museum diner.
Manager Billy Genat said something fascinatingly peculiar: "You can see the sun through these windows now, but you won’t be able to see the sun anymore when the condos come. It will look like the triangle of the devil."
Triangle of the Devil. Right now it's called Avenue of the Americas. Think City Hall will approve a street name change?
"Last free-standing diner in Manhattan"?
ReplyDeleteIsn't the Cheyenne still there at 33rd and Ninth?
The Moondance Diner is the oldest extant freestanding diner, dating back to 1933 as the Holland Tunnel Diner. There are very few freestanding diners that are left in Manhattan. And yes, the Cheyenne Diner is thankfully alive & well.
ReplyDeleteA local guy who lived in oho told me about this place; lucky me. But, now it is gone; so sad... always made it a point of eating there every time I visited New York! the food was fantastic! oh... and that hint of cinnamon in the coffee... The Moondance was one of my favorite things in NYC!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI just spoke to a friend who told me his nephew has purchased the Moondance Diner and is moving the whole thing to LaBarge, Wyoming. It will stay on the registry of diners that way, too.
ReplyDeleteI am a local and I ate the most disgusting hamburger in my life there.
ReplyDeleteI almost threw up on the spot.
A diner has to be able to get the staples right.
I won't miss this but I will miss Socrates in tribeca. Now there was a diner that could do good food.
Good news about the Moondance. I work as a business consultant and I am assisting a couple with their business plan, who has purchase the diner and will move it to LaBarge, Wyoming. This little place has not even been Wikied yet. It is near Kemmerer.
ReplyDeleteThey have already purchased the diner and will move it soon. They plan to open it for business, after constructing a larger kitchen area. The menu will be very nice with traditional soda shop/diner offerings.
its acutally being moved to a small town in Wyoming and being opened there, it is not going to be a museum
ReplyDeleteThe Moondance Diner was of those places that gave Soho character. Unfortunately, the fate of the Moondance is what is occurring all over the five boroughs--gentrification and homogenization. A hot real estate market is destroying the diversity and character of our communities. Like a juggernaut, escalating rents, luxury condos and coops, boutique hotels and upscale business establishments are encroaching on our neighborhoods, sucking the vibrancy out of them. Our elected officials, especially the mayor, seem have little will to protect our communities, preserve affordable rents, and implement common sense city planning. The Moondance Diner was of those places that gave Soho character. Unfortunately, the fate of the Moondance is what is occurring all over the five boroughs--gentrification and homogenization. A hot real estate market is destroying the diversity and character of our communities. Like a juggernaut, escalating rents, luxury condos and coops, boutique hotels and upscale business establishments are encroaching on our neighborhoods, sucking the vibrancy out of them. Our elected officials, especially the mayor, seem have little will to protect our communities, preserve affordable rents, and implement common sense city planning.
ReplyDeleteWhat of Moondance will be preserved/moved? I just walked past it and it's half knocked-down. I've got some blurry camera pix to prove it. Maybe just the sign will be moved?
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, the sign from Amsterdam's, a bar/rest on A'dam Ave that was a symbol of gentrification in the early 1980s, is now over a crappy shop on B'way just above Canal, minus the apostrophe and final "s."
We have left one more part of Jonathan Larson behind but Rent will live forever.
ReplyDeleteNo Day But Today.
New owners Cheryl and Vince Pierce said they'll continue repairs and renovations, and hope to open it later this year in LaBarge, a town of about 500 at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the Casper Star-Tribune reported Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThis is about the moondance cafe if you read the yahoo news its in there too
I ate regularly at the Moondance Diner in the autumn of 1989 on my first visit to New York; I was in a whirlwind romance with a fabulous NY girl and I will always remember the great breakfasts there. A visit to Wyoming would seem to be in order....Pip Torrens, London
ReplyDelete