Once Sardi's had a beautiful bank of wooden phone booths on the second floor. They worked and everything. Then, a year or so ago, the phones were yanked out and the booths stood empty, a victim of the bastards at Verizon, which had started fining restaurants and bars for retaining their phone booth phones. (The tragedy was repeated across town in the months to come.) But at least the booths still stood.
No longer. Sardi's phone booths are no more. The owners told me they were forced to remove them when the Fire Department complained they need more room to access the floor in case of a fire. (No doubt the department leveed a hefty fine on Sardi's and thus met some goddam Bloombergian quote.) Below, how the wall used to look.
Smells mighty fishy.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Public Library (main branch) building on 5th Avenue still has a bank of their working phone booths with the light that goes on when you close the door and the electric fan. They are in the lower level of the library and if you enter through the 42nd street entrance and hang a left after the security checkpoint - they are right there!
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