The other night, I passed by the storefront at 168 Bedford in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and found it occupied by a self-conscious eatery called Peter's Since 1969. Obviously, Peter's hasn't been here since 1969. The name of the place is a reference to the butcher it replaced: Peter Kuper of B&B Meat Market. So is the decor, which retains the meat market's white tile walls and many of the business' accoutrements, like the cutting table that once stood behind the counter.
I tend to like this sort of historically referencing retro decor. It's better than having the entire previous history of the space wiped off the map. But the contrivance is becoming so common, it's beginning to irritate me. It's as if the owners what me to congratulate them for being cool with the fact that their place used to be a blue collar enterprise. They're New Worlders hip to the Old World. Fine. I guess. I just would rather have the butcher back.
You're getting a bit picky here. Sure, it's in the heart of Hipster City. It's probably mediocre in terms of food but you have to give them some credit. I'd rather have the old white tile and the various accoutrements then have the whole place gutted to the point where it looks like some lower Manhattan Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteYes, very possibly.
ReplyDeletewell said, i agree with the original post.
ReplyDeleteand believe me, if "retro" wasn't "in", the owners would have gutted the place out
I heard a talk this week from one of the editors at the Gotham Gazette, and he said that manufacturing now accounted for 3% of the New York City economy. Just 3%! And he said there was no other major city in the world at the moment that had so little manufacturing.
ReplyDeleteSo the point is, if the city feels pretty weird right now, it is. And its fine to get pissed off about things like this.
The city economy is now based on a combination of finance and real estate, the same industries that are destroying the world economy. It surprising that we didn't through arms manufacturing and slavery into the mix.