Some Stuff That's Interesting

There's still nothing happening over at the Domino Plant. [Restless]

The mystery of Brooklyn's forbidding looking Putnam Candy Store. [Gothamist]

Always liked the way the West Village's Tortilla Flats looked. [Greenwich Village Daily Photo]

Amazingly, you can now get Cammareri Brothers prosciutto balls on a cart in Midtown. [Midtown Lunch]

In praise of the plastic bags at J. Baczynsky Meat Market. [EV Grieve]

People have plenty of opinions about the new Minetta Tavern. As well they should. [Eater]

The Brooklyn Paper, which has been independent for 31 years, has been bought by Rupert Murdoch. With the Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Courier-Life chain of Brooklyn papers already in Murdoch's mitts, and now this, New York now has its own Berlusconi. If the Times goes under, this once-great newspaper town is dead meat. [NY Observer]

Matchbooks of the Lost City: The Recently Deceased

Marion's, died on the Bowery this year.


A Florent matchbook from way back when. I mean the late '80s.


The Old Minetta Tavern. Not the one McNally is going to reopen soon.

Minetta, Under Cover

Here's the Minetta Tavern, as it currently looks.

Whatever changes Keith McNally is making under there, I hope they're well-considered.

More News About Minetta Tavern

The trusty Villager prints a long piece on the fate of the grand old Minetta Tavern, now part of the McNally empire. There's much info to be culled from the piece. Most importantly, McNally is going to retain the name. Read on:

Hoping that Joe Gould’s haunt won’t become history

By Gabriel Zucker

Rising rents felled another fabled Village landmark in May, when the Minetta Tavern was bought by Keith McNally, the prolific restaurateur of Pastis, Balthazar and Morandi fame. Minetta Tavern, at the corner of MacDougal St. and Minetta Lane, will become McNally’s fourth restaurant when it reopens in November.

Neither the building’s landlord nor Taka Becovic, the restaurant’s former owner of 13 years, responded to The Villager’s phone calls. But rumors circulated that the rent had risen above $50,000 for the small, 71-year-old restaurant. Regulars said that they had not seen any considerable drop in business prior to the place’s closing, and speculated that, if not for the steep rent increase, Becovic would have stayed in business.

At the Minetta Tavern’s well-attended “last supper,” the bartender announced that Becovic was planning to open a new restaurant with the same staff, and had customers sign an e-mail list to stay informed.

McNally first began thinking about buying the Minetta Tavern last December. Word of his purchase spread when he applied for a liquor license transfer in March. In a move that pleased some preservationists, McNally announced at the start that he intends to preserve as much as he can of the historic eatery.

“I didn’t buy the Minetta Tavern in order to change it,” McNally wrote in an e-mail, though he noted that he would have to renovate the kitchen. “I bought it because it was — and still is — a very beautiful place.”

Minetta Tavern is renowned for its distinctive interior. Murals of Village sights and scenes cover the walls, and the wooden bar is original from 1937. McNally bought not only the restaurant but everything inside of it, down to the paper cutouts that line the bar.

“All the murals will be preserved, as will the bar and almost everything else,” McNally wrote.

In the same vein, when asked whether the restaurant had a name yet, McNally said, “Yes, it has a really good name — The Minetta Tavern.”

Construction seems to have commenced on the restaurant’s interior in recent weeks. But McNally says he is not ridding the restaurant of its lore, but rather reinstating it.

“There are…parts of the Tavern that have been ‘modernized’ over the past 25 years in a manner which I found sufficiently disturbing to make me decide to replace them with something much closer to their original state,” he explained.

News About the Minetta Lane Tavern

Some new news about the historical Minetta Tavern, which is getting a new lease on line and a redesign courtesy of restaurateur Keith McNally. Many have been concerned about how respectful McNally would be of the tavern's timeless interior and old-world architecture.

This early report from Ken Mac of Greenwich Village Daily Picture is rather encouraging:

Spoke to the guy out front doing renovations; they are going to restore the facade to resemble its original design, with bay windows and wood trim detail below. Also, they uncovered two beautiful columns that have apparently been covered since the mid 70s.

They have also removed the old neon from the classic sign, hopefully with the intention of putting new neon in its place.

The photos here are courtesy of Ken.

Some Stuff That's Interesting

CB6 passed the “narrow streets” zoning text amendment in Carroll Gardens despite the howling of the selfish (and hideously dressed) Scotto gang.

The old Tribeca bar Walker's is expanding.

One last look at the Minetta Tavern but its goes through its coming el-chango at the hands of Keith McNally.

A horror on Harrison Street. There is no explaining the workings of the development-happy mind.

Some Stuff That's Interesting

360 Carroll developer is petty and hates love.

Minetta Tavern will close May 6 for its Keith McNally redo.

Plans were revealed for the $75 million Lakeside Center that will replace the Wollman Rink in Prospect Park. As someone notes, kinda looks like an IKEA.

The City will let dead bodies be dug up for any development project. First Washington Square Park. Now the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church.

Activists have temporarily halted the privatization of part of Union Square Park.

Is the building boom over? Oh, God, given the above examples of building, let's hope so.

Three Classic Eateries in the News

Two cherished old Manhattan restaurants and one cherished Brooklyn eatery made news today—bad for two, and potentially good for the other.

Florent, the cherished Meatpacking District late-night haunt that has a scummy, greedy landlord ("Me want 50 grand a month or I murderize you"), has named June 29 as its last day on Earth. I talked to my lawyer and [the restaurant] will stay open for two or three months. I'd like to end on a high note and I think Gay Pride Day would be perfect," Florent Morellet told the New York Post.

The restaurant that will supplant Brooklyn Heights mainstay Armando's has been revealed to be, uh, Spicy Pickle. This is apparently the unfortunate name of a Denver-based sandwich chain with franchises in 14 states. It's website says it's a leader in the "fast-casual" concept of dining, which is sort of like saying one's leader in the "good-bad" food movement.

Meanwhile, restauranteur Keith McNally's purchase of the immortal Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village has been confirmed. He appeared before Community Board 2 to outline his plans (that's him above), according to Eater:

The menu will be French, (shocker), but the interior will remain unchanged.
2) The plan is to have 83 seats, with a capacity of 95, but due to a technicality, only a 75 person capacity was approved as of last night.

There was some minor opposition from neighbors concerned about noise and the possibility of "idling limos," but in the end, the motion passed unanimously, and the license is off to the SLA.

Since he's respecting the interior of the place, I'm fairly content. The food could use a kick in the pants, so let him at it. And there's nothing wrong with drawing a new, fresh crowd to a great, historic address.

Joe Gould's Watching You

Whoever is getting their grubby mitts on the Minetta Tavern better know how to take care of it.

Eater reports that the landmark watering hole—one of the few genuine vestiges of old Greenwich Village left—may be changing hands. The buyer may be Keith McNally, who owns about 100 restaurants in town. Reports Eater:

...there is this interesting item on the upcoming agenda for the CB2 Business Committee: Minetta Lane, LLC at 111-113 MacDougal St. is applying for a liquor license transfer. This by no means confirms any involvement of one Sir McNally, nor does it unconfirm it certainly, but it does look like someone, something, sometime, soon, is happening the 71-year-old West Villager.

The Minetta has been on the corner of Macdougal and Minetta Lane since 1937. It has long been a haunt of writers and artists, the pictures and caricatures of many of whom are on the tavern walls. The place is perhaps best known for its association with Joe Gould, the quintessential Village eccentric and bohemian who was lionized by New York writer Joseph Mitchell. Gould used to cadge drinks off strangers with bits of his writing and his famous "seagull" imitation, and talk endlessly of his open, "An Oral History of Our Time," which he never finished, and probably never began. There's an oil portrait of old Joe on one of the walls.