Before Jekyll & Hyde
The Jekyll & Hyde Club on Sixth Avenue is dead and gone. Thank God. Hate-hate-HATED that tacky, touristy pile of bricks. An eyesore of Las Vegas proportions.
But a reader sent me the below picture as a reminder of what used to be there. I had no idea. I know in its own way, the facade of The Magic Pan is as ugly as the Jekyll & Hyde Club. But there's something about that chain that charms me. Nothing quite says New York in the 1970s like The Magic Pan.
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13 comments:
You know, in San Francisco crepe restaurants are still rather popular, but here in NY they're few and far between. I wonder where The Magic Pan fits into all that.
Brookster,
Turns out there is one outpost of Eerie Entertainment left....The Slaughtered Lamb Pub in the Village....turns out it has a werewolf theme...which, given the proliferation of movies celebrating vampires and werewolves, should be making money hand over fist....in fact, if there isn't a vampire-themed pub open yet I expect one any day!
http://www.slaughteredlambpub.com/
Looks like I misspoke...there's still a J & H too! Aside from the silliness of the theme their bottled beer menu looks pretty good...of course I can probably find as good a selection without all the monster claptrap somewhere else......
I remember the 'Magic Pan' in Manhasset on Northern Blvd.
You know, what is interesting about this discussion is that if you think about it, The Magic Pan is more or less the same sort of thing we would decry if it came in nowadays. It was (as I found out by reading Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Pan ) a national, not a local chain. As you can see from the photo, it's pretty nondescript. It's really not 1970s NYC, it's 1970s anywhere.
Absolutely, Mitch. The irony is not lost on me.
What happened? Why did this location close? I can't find anything anywhere.
"The Jekyll & Hyde Club on Sixth Avenue is dead and gone. Thank God." - Im not sure the couple of hundred people out of work by the closing of that location would agree with you, Brooks.
Oh sweet heaven, Fosterdeux. Yes, people worked there. People work at Walmart, too. and McDonald's. Must I wish all these soul-killing places well because they employ people? Maybe all those people who worked at Jekyll & Hyde now have better jobs, and enjoy their lives more.
OMG- on my first trip to NY, to audition for SUNY Purchase, I ate there with my parents. I never realized exactly where it was. By the time I moved here after grad school, it was gone.
Crepes seem to be making a small comeback, but as small shops run by Russian immigrants for some reason. There's one on 15th, just east of 8th - ironically around the corner from where the more upscale Rue Des Crepes used to be.
Crepes, along with Coq au Vin, Brie, and Beef Bourginon are the the dishes I most associate with the Gourmet revolution of the 70s.
Jekyll and Hyde treated their employees quite poorly, so I'm sure the predominance of them are better off. Fosterdeux fired me once upon a time actually, he's an employee.
On my very first trip to NYC in 1981, after high school graduation, we ate at the this restaurant. When I came back to live here in 1989, I could not find it anymore, and I wondered where it was. I just knew it was near West 57th Street!
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