The Weirdest Steak House in Town

On lower Stone Street (not the cool section lined with bars and favored by brokers), under some scaffolding, there is a narrow operation that I've always considered the weirdest steak house in New York. Most steak houses are huge and spacious. This one's a sliver, but fire-engine red. It's also pretty sad and decrepit looking, and bears what I consider an odd name: Nebraska Steakhouse. I guess there are a lot of cows in Nebraska. Or were, historically. But in a town where most steak houses proudly trumpet the names of their founders or owners (Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Ruth's Chris, Keen's), it seems strange to crow about another state.

The menu's the usual array of large cuts of meat, with a chicken and lamb dish thrown in. (Though they do have something called "Mona's Health and Wellness Menu," which included tilapia and turkey meatballs and such.) The prices at—again, as usual—sky high. Judging by the largely positive Internet reviews, it seems the food is appreciated by the customers. Also appreciated, apparently, are the shapely, mainly Russian, female bartenders. At the annual Christmas party, they all dress up like sexy little Santa's helpers. I guess that's one way to keep your male clientele coming back.

The joint's curious personality may have something to do with its owner, one Mona Muresan, who is a Romanian-born body-building champ. She moved to the U.S. in 1992, when she was teenager. She began as a coat check girl and worked her way up the chain of command until she eventually bought the place from its previous owner in 2006. Real Horatio Alger story.

There has been an eating establishment at this address at least since 1930. In 1932, it was the Satin Coffee House, which sounds intriguing.

The Other White Horse Tavern

Everyone knows the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street, the century-old-plus haunt of writers, singers and anarchists, last drinking spot of poet Dylan Thomas, etc. Fewer know of the city's other White Horse Tavern, dive-ish hole in the wall on a nothing side street on the southern tip of Manhattan.

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Dust in the Wind

The wonderful cemetery at lower Manhattan's old Trinity Church was open to the public the other day, so I took took the chance to roam around, looking at the graves of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton and other lesser-known Colonial and Revolutionary War-era souls.

I spotted this gravestone above, its name and dates completely worn away by the elements. Good thing that some thoughtful person had gone to the effort to place a metal plaque at the head of the grave to identify the...oops. Guess that didn't work either.

(If you peer intently, you'll see this is the grave of John Moore, one of the founders of the New York Chamber of Commerce. There are other such plaques around the graveyard, all for C. of C. men.)

The Clock on the Floor

It makes me a little sad when I look down at this old timepiece, inlaid into the sidewalk at the corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane, because the store that put it there, William Barthman Jewelers, no longer inhabit the store nearby. A few years back, they moved to bigger digs a little further north on Broadway. And their grand old home is now filled by this:

At least the clock is still there and wasn't ripped up. I wonder if that was out of respect or laziness.

The Custom House Murals

The old U.S.  Custom House at the foot of Broadway is one of the most beautiful buildings in New York, and, sadly, one of the least visited by locals and tourist. Every time I go in, it's virtually empty. That's a shame. The interior is as triumphant as the exterior.

My favorite aspect of the interior is the grand, oval, rotunda, with it's wonderful skylight and circle of maritime-themed murals by Reginald Marsh. 

For Marsh, "the painting of these murals was the culmination of years of ardent observation of New York’s shipping activities, its longshoremen, dock workers, tugboats, ocean liners, and cargo vessels. Marsh spent years as an illustrator, sketching theatrical scenes of the city, for magazines and newspapers like the New Yorker and New York Daily."

Here are a few of the murals:

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The Past Lives of Century 21

I doubt if many Century 21 shoppers have noticed—gotta keep your focus forward when bargain shopping—but that beloved downtown shopping mecca has set itself up in a collection of really old buildings. One of the south-facing facades (above) cuts off at the waist what looks like an ancient five-story building, while the east-facing facade (below) cannibalizes a lovely cast-iron building whose cornice says it was once the Germania Building.

The upper windows are all blacked out on both buildings, which meet each other at the back corners. I wonder if Century 21 uses those upper floors for storage, or has just left them empty, abandoning them to the rats and pigeons.

The Germania Building is easier to research, since the cornice handily provides the structures past identity, and its date of erection, 1865. 175 Broadway is its formal address. The building's Civil War age makes it quite remarkable, a real oldie for the area. It hasn't survived in very good condition, but it has survived. It was built for the Germania Fire Insurance Company, which was founded in 1859, at a cost of $40,000. Back then, this part of downtown was the city's insurance district. In 1892, the firm moved to a new eight-story, $200,000 building at the southeast corner of William and Cedar Streets.

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Angle Yourself In

I like this double storefront on Nassau Street. It possessed a unique entry system that must have been fairly common at one point, but now is rather rare. Notice how the doors to both stores sit next to each other, but at a diagonal, creating a sort of shared triangular stoop. It's as if the two stores are in communication with one another, a design that is both practical (a customer can't help, while entering one store, but be aware of the other) and stylish, adding depth and variety to what otherwise would have been a flat facade. Notice, too, the fine metalwork above. Individual roller shutters have marred what must have originally been must-more-attractive doorways.



This was once the offices of the Evening Mirror, where E.A. Poe once wrote.

A Good Sign: Weinstein and Holtzman Hardware

On Park Row, opposite City Hall.

A Good Sign: Cloder

Also a confusing sign. Does anyone know anything about what this store was/is?

On Ann Street in downtown Manhattan. Right across from the back entrance of a particularly derelict Blarney Stone.

A Good Sign: Killarney Rose

The Killarney Rose has been holding up its corner of Pearl Street in lower Manhattan for 41 years.

A Good Sign: Thunder Lingerie

I know its a peep show, but it's still a great sign. More in the character of an old Garment District business, than an XXX concern in the Financial District. And get the American flag! Patriotic smut!

The name of the business is curious. If I were in the lingerie game (and it's arguable that that's actually the game these guys are in), I'd go for a more delicate, ladylike name, not "Thunder." Can't beat the "And More," though. There are whole worlds contained within that "And More."