St. Clair, Smith Street's Oldest Tenant, Gone for Good
When the St. Clair diner, at the corner of Smith and Atlantic, underwent a renovation a few years back, the owners uncovered an old metal sign beneath the newer signage. They didn't tear down the old sign, just covered it up with the even newer signage. At the time, I wondered when I'd ever seen the hidden original sign again.
Well, I didn't have to wait long. The new signage has been taken down, and the inside gutted. Signs in the window say the St. Clair is being renovated again. But in three months, I've never seen any work going on inside. The diner is gone for good. The space was bought by Joe Sitt of Thor Equities, the guy who destroyed Coney Island. It's supposed to reopen as a retail outlet.
This is a shame. Though it never looked like much, the St. Clair is one of the oldest businesses in South Brooklyn. It opened 92 years ago. Almost nothing in the immediately area (maybe Staubitz Butchers) comes close. Jonathan Letham, the novelist who grew up nearby, has paid tribute to it. "The St. Clair restaurant has been here forever," he said in a 2003 New York Times article. "It's a very, very typical New York diner. People will say, 'Oh, we don't have a Greek diner.' They don't realize this is here. It's been here so long that it's totally invisible; no one sees it. So then a new Greek diner opens up down the street and it's exactly the same and all the hipsters go there for cheap eggs."
While there's been a diner here since 1920, it seems it was called the St. Clair only since 1967. It was run by the Costa family from that year until 2007, when Spiro Katehis bought it and gave it an overhaul.
Knowing Sitt, I expect this time he will rip down the old sign and toss it in the trash.
Posts
7 comments:
I went to the St Clair in the mid eighties when I lived on Pacific St. It was one of the few places, along with the Red Rose, where I didn't feel self conscious of not being of Italian descent. And I would only pick up pizza at the Red Rose.
I looked up the article about Lathem, memory, gentrification and Boerum Hill. It was great, thanks.
The old St. Clair was my favorite place in the neighborhood after moving to Boerum Hill in 2006. The food came out faster than you could believe, the waitresses were surly old Hungarian women, and every booth had a coat rack. It was perfect. When Spiro bought it - the folks from Carroll Gardens Diner, which is overpriced and bad - and renamed it the "New St. Clair," as if anything was wrong with the old version, and gutted it and jazzed up the menu and the interior and jacked up the prices, I considered it dead then, and have never gone back. It was the first I saw of Bloomberg's NYC scraping away all its charm.
Same deal re the "Chemists" neoni sign on 7th near Greenwich. It's been multiple businesses, but that neon sign is still under the new sign.
Back in the day, early to mid-90s I guess, me and my pack of friends ALWAYS went there on Saturday and Sunday mornings after a loooooong night at the Brooklyn Inn. Betsy, the waitress, didn't even have to ask. She just brought us poor hungover fools our coffee. Food was perfectly priced, the place was just, well, perfect. Hated the redo. Only went there once after that. No Betsy and high prices. Never went back.
Most places in the city seem to go through a zombie phase before they finally close, when there still is an establishment of the same name at the same location as the old loved establishment, but what made the old place attractive just isn't there. Hence the "New" St. Claire.
If LICH closes, as expected, retail might not be the best use for that spot.
Then don't patronize the new business.
Post a Comment