02 January 2009

Matchbooks of the Lost City: Sloppy Louie's


I only went to Sloppy Louie's once, but was smart enough to grab a matchbook. Sloppy Louie's did business down at the corner of South and Fulton streets, at the South Street Seaport, for nearly 70 years, closing in 1998. The place had atmosphere to beat the band. The waiters were crusty lifers. The restaurant was also famous for being in the building eulogized by Joseph Mitchell in "Up in the Old Hotel."

6 comments:

  1. Sweet's was even better. My parent used to take me there when I was a kid.

    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DE143BF93BA15757C0A96E948260

    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DF1E30F933A0575BC0A96E948260

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  2. I ate at Sloppy Louie's in 1980 and can vouch for your description. A WONDERFUL meal with a friend. A treasured memory. Thanks!

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  3. wow, sorry I missed that jernt!

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  4. I never got around to eating at Sloppy Louie's. I remember gazing at the extraordinary flotsam-jetsam in the window (a shark's jaw bone?), but I thought there was no hurry and that it would be there forever. My mistake.

    If you step into the interior, now serving as a dining room for a Heartland Brewery pub, you can just about visualize what it once was.

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  5. A native New Yorker took me there to eat in 1984. Fantastic. Been recommending it to anyone visiting NYC. Guess I'll have to stop. Too bad!

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  6. My parents, both now deceased, used to park at the Seaport, eat at Sloppy Louie's, then go look at the ships. My mother always ordered strawberry shortcake for dessert because they used "real whipped cream." Of course, she then put Sweet N Low in her coffee.

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