Emerald Inn Interior Not Likely to Go With it to New Location

I recently paid what I expect to be my final visit to the Emerald Inn, the small but sweet Irish pub on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side. Chased out by an astronomical rent hike ($17,500 to $35,000 a month, thank you very much), the 70-year-old bar will close May 1. It will be replaced by a Kate Spade store. The semi-good news is that the Emerald will relocate to a new space on W. 72nd Street.

I have an innate respect and affection for any old, weatherbeaten, New York survivor. But, that said, my main interest in the Emerald—and the reason it will hurt when it's gone—is its status as a location for my second-favorite New York movie, Billy Wilder's "The Apartment." (My favorite is "The Sweet Smell of Success.") When Jack Lemmon's C.C. Baxter learns that the love of his life, elevator operator Fran Kubelik (played by Shirley MacLaine) is the mistress of his unctuous boss, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred McMurray), he retreats to this bar and gets smashed on Christmas Eve, all the while wearing his new bowler hat.

I gave the bar a long look as I sipped at my beer. Something wasn't right. Parts of it looked like the bar in "The Apartment." But the joint wasn't nearly big enough. The scene in the movie shows a long bar, angled on either end, with stools on all three sides. The Emerald's current bar is stubby, and cuts off abruptly at the far end—the end where Baxter and his pick-up of the evening, Margie MacDougall, swilled their drinks. The website Scouting New York, which did an extensive post on the locations seen in "The Apartment" noticed the same thing. So I began asking questions.

The bartender confirmed that, around 1976, the bar had been remodeled and shortened. The Emerald has always served food. But back in the old days, when city regulations weren't so stringent, the cooking was done in a shack out back. When the City put the kibosh on that dicey arrangement, the bar was forced to bring the kitchen inside. Something had to give, so the bar was cut in half.

Not a lot remained of the old Emerald after that redo. There was once a door toward the back of the bar that led into the office building next door. That is gone. The jukebox that Baxter and Margie dance to is long gone as well.  But the wooden top of the bar was preserved and is the same wood that Lemmon leaned his elbows on more than a half century ago.

The bartender said that little of the interior would likely make the move to 72nd Street. The new space is already completely outfitting and doesn't need a bar or booths or anything. Moreover, people have been in asking to buy the furnishing. So there's no chance that the new Emerald will evoke the old Emerald seen in "The Apartment."

The bartender finally said there was one possible bright spot to being forced out. Kate Spade might decided to removed the dropped ceiling and restore the original pressed tin ceiling that lies under it. If so, that will be the only part of the old Emerald that will remain in the handbag shop.

A Perfect Storefront: Elias Shoe Repair & Shine

It's a bit a of given in my universe that shoe repair shops often make for perfect storefronts—because they are compact; because they pack a lot of visual stimuli in their windows and doors; and because they rarely change over the decades (there is little business incentive to refurbish such a humble business.) Elias Shoe Repair is on W. 72nd Street on the Upper West Side.

That Drug Store That's Always Been There

Some City landmark businesses don't get a lot of attention from the press, simply because they're not that flashy and don't draw attention to themselves. One such is Thomas Drugs, which has been quietly keeping the Upper West Side healthy since 1904. Regular reader Upstate Johnny G reminded me of the shop—which I've passes by hundreds of times—and I realized that I, too, have neglected Thomas and never posted a thing about the drug store.

Thomas is at Columbus and 68th Street. And maybe they like their low profile. For I can find out little about them. They have no website. And, as far as I can tell, they shop has never been in the news and the owners never interviewed about anything.

Something funny about the name Thomas—it seems to breed drug store longevity across the nation. A Thomas Drug Store in Thomasville, Georgia, says its the oldest drug store in that state. It was founded in 1881. Another Thomas Drug Store, in Meyersdale, PA, has been there since 1896. There is Thomas Drugs in Cross Plains, TN, which was established in 1930. In contrast to Manhattan's Thomas Drugs, all those drug stores make a big deal of their histories.

Subway Inn Is Not Dead

The horrific news spreading through the metropolis last Friday was that the Subway Inn, grand old dive of Lex and 60th, had given up the fight. The gates were rolled down, the iconic neon turned off, the phone disconnected. Many, including me, were ready to believe the worst. But one reader remained vigilant. She stopped by every night after work, and tonight the Subway was finally reopened. She took the above picture. Trick or treat? I'd say treat!

The 96th Street Subway Station

I don't get off at the 96th Street stop of the Broadway line much. Which is a shame. Because I find the stark, modern, new ceramics of the station quite pleasing to the eye. Really one of the best station design re-dos the MTA had ever done. So stylish, you'd think it was done in the '30s.

New Bar/Old Bar

So, the Amsterdam Ale House. It's a kind of annoying self-conscious Yuppie beer emporium on 76th and Amsterdam on the Upper West Side. At first, and second (and third) glances, I've always thought the owners had slapped on a purposefully quaint patina of oldness. But the last time I passed by, I was struck by the sets of double doors, and the stained glass above them. They looks genuinely old, not fake old.

The building's been around at least a century. That it's been a bar for a while is also true, though I can only accurately trace its life as such to the early 1970s. Apparently there was a J.G. Melon—sister bar to the iconic Upper East Side joint—here for some years. It became the West Side Brewing Company in the 1990s, one of many brewpubs to crop up during that decade. But I'd bet good money that its life as a bar stretches back to at least the 1940s.

Cafe des Artistes to Reopen as Leopard at des Artistes

The Times bring good news that the the Upper West Side landmark restaurant Cafe des Artistes, which shuttered last year among a sea of money and union problems, will reopen on May 2 under the similar name of Leopard at des Artistes.

The new owners, taking over from the Lang family, are Gianfranco and Paula Bolla Sorrentino, who own Il Gattopardo in Midtown. The Sorrentinos have renovated the place, including the nine, 1920s-30s-era Howard Chandler Christy murals that were so intrinsic to give the restaurant its unique charm. "Gattopardo," by the way, means leopard. 

The Visual Feast That Is Big Nick's

A newly arrived immigrant could learn English standing outside Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint on Broadway in the Upper West Side, there's so much to read on the 39-year-old restaurant's facade. Of course, that immigrant would have a vocabulary in which "breakfast," "burger," "pizza," "coffee" and "big" feature prominently.

The collection of signage, however, really is a work of art, the collage of a generation. Paper signs. Plastic signs. Written in pen, marker, paint. Hand-written and professionally printed. Dozens of different fonts and colors. Some nice neon bits, too. It's chaos. It's beautiful.

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Zabar's Lunch Counter: Last Refuge of UWS Kooks

During the reigns of Herren Giuliani and Bloomberg, the Upper West Side has become pretty well sanitized. It's streets have been wallpapered with a mall of bland chain outlets, and its beautiful townhouses and pre-War apartment buildings stuffed with the complacent children of capitalism. Pretty much gone are the liberal, upper-middlebrow, everyday intellectuals and artists that once gave the neighborhood it's character. It's a dull place.

I've found, however, that one can still get a taste of the bygone UWS in, of all places, the Zabar's lunch counter at Broadway and W. 80th. This is a bit surprising, since Zabar's is such a treasured area landmark, and overpriced enough to be safely the province of the wealthy. However, the prices at the lunch counter are quite reasonable. You might even call them dirt cheap. Soups run about $3, and sandwiches $5 or $6.

This permits the patronage of the elderly UWS eccentrics who still cling on desperately to life among the Starbucks and condos. On a recent morning, I stopped in for an early lunch of lobster bisque. For 11 AM, it was packed. Barely a stool was free. This was primarily because the people there were in no hurry to go anywhere. They had no pressing appointments and were not members of the rat race. They were hunched over their newspapers and books (not laptops and Blackberries), making the most of their cup of soup or mug of coffee. The old man behind me in line muttered absently to himself. A lady with a bird's next of graying hair stared intently at her vintage paperback copy of Camus' "The Stranger." She had kicked her shoes off and was lounging in her stocking feet. A large man with a limp lumbered in and systematically made his teetering way through the cafeteria line.

Presiding over the scene was a wiry old man in black sweatpants, a large, leather, black warm-up jacket and a cane. He talked so loudly and was so familiar with the staff, for a while I assumed he held a position of authority at Zabar's. I was so distracted by him, I dropping my can of seltzer and it sprang a small leak. "Get rid of it!" he yelled. "It's going to blow! It's going to blow!" Unnerved, I quickly picked up the can and threw it in the garbage. "Don't throw it away!" he yelled, contradicting himself. "That's still good." He went fishing for the can in the garbage, after which a staffer took the can from him and threw it away a second time.

After a while, the old man began asking for change, and a young manager appeared behind the counter and gave him a baleful look. It became clear he was a regular and was a problem. Yet he wasn't given the bum's rush. After a minute, he craftily found a woman who offered to buy him a soup, thus granting him license as a paying customer to stay for a while. "I'm getting soup," said the man with the cane. "You got chicken soup?" The manager glanced slightly at the list of soups, which included Matzo Ball, but said nothing. "No," said the woman with the Camus, a friend of the generous woman. "Not soup. Get him a sandwich."

"See," said the man with the cane. "I'm getting a sandwich. It's OK." The manager gently glared, and didn't move an inch.

A Good Sign: V & T Pizzeria

On Amsterdam and 110th Street, in Morningside Heights.

More Not-Good News About H&H Bagels

Oy. H&H Bagels gives me tsuris.

Last year, the famous Upper West Side bakery was seized by the tax man and the place closed down for a few days. But, now, there's real trouble.

Helmer Toro, the owner of H & H Bagels, has been indicted on tax fraud charges, announced Robert M. Morgenthau, the outgoing Manhattan district attorney. Can it be that bad? It can. He failed to pay almost $370,000 in payroll withholdings to state and federal tax authorities, and shortchanged the authorities on paying unemployment insurance tax. Dude's facing 15 years in prison and $1 million in penalties. According to City Room:

Prosecutors say that Mr. Toro set up a new shell company every year for six consecutive years, closing down the company from the previous year, in order to maintain a low unemployment insurance tax rate. The longer a company has been around and the more employees it has let go, the higher the company’s unemployment insurance rate will be, according to M. Patricia Smith, commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor.

This makes me furious. I know I should give Toro the benefit of the doubt, but it's not my experience that old man Morgenthau acts before getting all his ducks in a row. What right has this greedhead putz to play fast and loose with a landmark business and city treasure so wrapped on with the soul of the Upper West Side? That it should possibly be sacrificed for one man's avarice and underhandedness is contemptible. H&H is undoubtably a cash cow. And he had to cheat the government and his ex-employees to get just that much richer? Employers who try to get around paying unemployment insurance are, in my opinion, the lowest of the low, gutter-crawling scum.

Let's hope that H&H can somehow survive. What matters to Toro I care not at all.

Not Even Restaurants for the Rich Survive New Richie-Rich New York

What hope is there for New York's more modest restaurants and bars when a chi-chi institution like Café des Artistes can't hack it?

The New York Times reported the grim news today that the old-style, Upper West Side slice of elegance decided during its August vacation never to reopen. Reasons given were "steady losses and a union lawsuit" and "tough competition from illustrious restaurants in the neighborhood, including Picholine on West 64th Street, Jean Georges at the Trump International Hotel and Daniel Boulud’s Bar Boulud on Broadway." “It’s a very sad day for us,” said Jenifer Lang, whose husband, George Lang, has owned the restaurant since 1975. “It’s a death in the family.”

One of the most romantic dining spots in the city, it was perhaps best known for its host, George Lang, who bought it in 1975, and the famous murals of dancing nymphs. It always stuck by its guns, serving the same dishes the restaurant had done well by in the past.

It does not appear that the Lang family had much of a choice:

Mrs. Lang, 58, said that the restaurant’s business had been hurt by the economic crash but that its problems ran deeper. Café des Artistes was unionized, and she said the restaurant paid about $250,000 a year to cover its employees’ health and pension benefits, an amount she said the restaurant struggled to cover. Mrs. Lang also said the couple, whose home is half a block from the restaurant, put in $2 million of their own money to keep it running over the last 10 years.

“It makes it difficult to run a restaurant most of the time,” Mrs. Lang said of the union benefits. “When the economy is down, it makes it impossible.”

The final straw, Mrs. Lang said, was a lawsuit recently filed against the restaurant by the union demanding past benefit assessments.

Bill Granfield, president of Local 100 of Unite Here, the union representing the cafe’s 50-odd employees, said the restaurant had fallen behind on its payments for medical insurance and welfare funds, forcing the union to demand payment in court. He also said workers in 2003 took a pay cut and agreed to switch to a cheaper medical plan to ease the restaurant’s financial pressures.

“And here we are six years later, facing what might’ve been inevitable,” said Mr. Granfield. “We think Mr. Lang is a great figure in the restaurant industry, a great person, and it’s a great restaurant. But it feels like time passed it by a while ago.”

There has been a restaurant in the space since 1917. Howard Chandler Christy painted its walls in the ’30s. The murals belong to the Hotel des Artistes. Their fate is unknown. I'm guessing they were never landmarked. Of course they were never landmarked! This is New York!

Drama Over: H&H Bagels Reopens

H&H Bagels, seized by the Feds for non-payment of taxes this morning, was back in business this afternoon.

Seems the tax thing was serious business. H&H owes the USA $100,000 in back taxes and has racked up many tax warrants and leins.

So, what happened? Did they just pull $100,000 out a sack and hand it over the IRS? H&H isn't talking. And the IRS is still wading through paperwork. High drama, folks!

Horrors! H&H Bagels Taken Down by the Tax Man

Sweet Mother of God, how can these things happen?!

Eater reports that the Tax Man has laid a knock-out punch on iconic Upper West Side institution H&H Bagels!!

At 10:15 am an official was posting a 'property seized for lack of payment of taxes' sign...bagels were piled high inside, employees inside, but store was closed by officials." A call to the main office confirms that not just one but both locations (the second is on West 46th St.) were shut down and they have "no idea" when they'll open again, but they're hoping to have it all smoothed out by this afternoon.

The "this afternoon" stuff is encouraging. Sort of. But how do things get to this point? Is H&H really that sloppy with its business dealings? Or, more likely, is the IRS desperate for cash in these hard times? Oh, there's going to be hell to pay if the Upper West Siders can't get their bagels on Sunday morning!

A Sign or Two

A helpful reader recently alerted me to a large painted sign that, with the destruction of a building, was revealed at the southeast corner of 76th and Broadway. I hurried up there with my camera to see what I could see. The tipster, as it turns out, was right and wasn't right. The leveling of the building had indeed given all traipsing up and down upper Broadway a good gander at a long-ago sign for Livingston Rad Automobile Radiators.

However, that sign hadn't been completely hidden from the public all this time. If you strolled down 75th Street, you could get a peek at it, just above an old former carriage house, along with its brother in hand-painted signage: an ad for the something-or-other Square Motors Corp. Nice pair.

Lost City's Guide to the Upper West Side

If you want to understand the toll the last 16 years of short-sighted City Hall governance has taken on the City's soul, the quickest way is to take a dispiriting stroll down upper Broadway, anywhere between Columbus Circle and 96th Street. The central vein of the Upper West Side—a neighborhood that was long a bastion of New York's penchant for independent thinking and expression—has been almost completely denuded of local, individualized businesses. On some blocks, it's impossible to find a single storefront that isn't an outpost of some corporate entity. It could be Dayton or Scottsdale, for all the personality. As with SoHo, without the unique architecture, the area would be completely undistinguished.

The Upper West Side is a large chunk of land, and, quite frankly, what you get in living history for walking all those blocks doesn't quite compensate for your aching dogs. But, for those who are really curious, here's some of what's left:

MURRAY'S STURGEON SHOP: We'll start way the hell up north, on Broadway near 90th Street, with one of the region's mercantile gems. This narrow store has been here serving up fish and meats and soup since 1946 under several different owners. The current owner, Ira Goller, has been there since 1990.



BARNEY GREENGRASS: "The Sturgeon King." To a certain extent, culinary life on the UWS has always centered on the finding and consuming of very good smoked fish. At Amsterdam and 86th Street, you get some of the best. Barney Greengrass (what a name!) has been luring them inside in droves for a century with its classic version of the Jewish "Appetizing" store. There's an accompanying restaurant, whose few tables are crammed together and routinely occupied.


WEST PARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Next door to Barney is this slice of red sandstone. The UWS has a lot of great churches. I'm including this one, however, because through some mystery it has never been landmarked. The 1890 building is a rare example of Richardsonian Revival, a robust style I dearly love. The church is currently closed and things don't look good for it.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Go over to Columbus and walk off all the food from Murray's and Barney's on the way down to 81st Street, where the huge Museum of Natural History takes up a few blocks. Take it in. It's kinda impressive. If you decide to go in, don't forget to go to the Hall of Ocean Life and stand under the model of the Blue Whale. Nothing quite places you in New York as does standing under that whale.

DUBLIN HOUSE: Turn west on 79th Street and head to Broadway. You can't miss the Dublin House. It's got a big neon harp outside. A great old watering hole as old an any business in the area.

ZABAR'S: OK, now you're within the UWS's heart of hearts—the tight ten blocks or so where the neighborhood still looks and acts the most like itself. Landmarks, both of the architectural and cultural kind, are thick on the ground from 81st to 71st, starting with the business that perhaps epitomizes La Vie Upper West Side more than any other: Zabar's. Crowded, cluttered, full of itself, beloved, hated, overproud and justifiable so. However you slice it, it's an experience.

WESTSIDER RARE & USED BOOKS: A narrow, hard-to-navigate, used book store across Broadway from Zabar's. A quintessentially New Yorky space and business. It's easy to lose a couple hours in here.


H&H BAGELS: Head south a block and enter the boiled-dough shrine that is H&H Bagels, as praiseworthy for its fat, circular bread products as for its spare, unshowy (save the weird chandeliers, above) decor.

THE APTHORP: At 79th is the Anthorp, one of those places where every New Yorker, at one time in their lives, dreams of living. Built on land acquired by William Waldorf Astor in 1879, and filling a full city block, it has an enormous, dreamy inner courtyard that evokes Europe, and the feel of a Renaissance palace. It should. It was modeled on the Pitti Palace.

FAIRWAY: Further down Broadway, around 75th. The food miracles keep coming. This is the original, the hopelessly crowded, the infuriating, the spendiferous Fairway. "Unlike Any Other Market." And they're right. It is. It's like a Middle-Eastern bazaar, in its multitude of products and its boisterous, rude, heterogeneous clientele—only with a roof.

CITARELLA: Never my fishy cup of tea (a little too hoity-toity, and too pricey), but generations of New Yorkers have sworn by it. It's 97 years old, for Christ's sake. I give it its due.

THE BEACON THEATRE: At 74th Street on the east side of Broadway, a 1929 Art Deco gem, recently restored.

FISCHER BROTHERS AND LESLIE: Turn right at 72nd. Half a block in, on the south side, is the family-owned butcher Fischer Brothers and Leslie. Hideously expensive, but they know what they're doing, meat-wise, and they keep the Glatt Kosher flame burning on the UWS.

72nd STREET SUBWAY KIOSK: As you turn around and re-cross Broadway, look at and admire the landmarked subway kiosk at the 72nd Street stop. If every subway station had a kiosk like this, what a place New York would be! It's 105 years old. One of only a few remaining in the City.

THE DORILTON: Glance down Broadway to 71st Street. That big red-and-white buster on the left is the Dorilton, built in 1902.

TIP TOP SHOES: Keep going east and head to this largish, 69-year-old rarity: an enduring family-owned shoe store! Lots of New York personality. (Maybe too much; charm, the sales clerks sometimes lack.) And the name and sign are to swoon from.

THE DAKOTA: Keep going east until you hit the park. Here is the Dakota. If you've never heard of it, there's something wrong with you. Built in 1880, it was so named because its then-surroundings were as empty and desolate as the Badlands. It has another of those great inner courtyards you only find in large apartment buildings on the UWS. All famous Upper West Siders who haven't lived at the Apthorp has lived at the Dakota.

EMERALD INN: Double back to Columbus and walk down to 70th. Nothing so special, except that it's been around for 70 years or so. Recently, it was threatened with extinction. Drink up; you're almost done walking.

TAVERN ON THE GREEN: In Central Park, near 67th, it the sprawling, be-mirrored, over-chandeliered, ever-cheesy Tavern on the Green. But it's one of a kind. And when you're eating your Eggs Benedict in the Crystal Room on a Sunday morning and the equestrians gallop up outside the glass wall to rest their horses, it can be kind of magical.

CAFE DES ARTISTES: On 67th near the park, it is 92 years old and a byword for romantic dining. Known for its murals. The kind of New York landmark that wouldn't change if you held a nice to its throat.

Some Stuff That's Interesting

The Day-O restaurant, long vacant on W. 12th, has finally been repossessed. [Eater]

Some guys from Austin bought the interior of the old Cedar Tavern. Why does New York keep shipping its treasure out of town? [Grub Street]

The owners of P&G Bar and Grill did quite follow procedure when removing their iconic neon sign. [City Room]

The mystery of the long-closed Two Boots restaurant on Avenue A dissected. [EV Grieve]

Neat pictures of the decaying (and landmarked) Samuel R. Smith Infirmary building on Staten Island. [Kingston Lounge]

The Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop celebrated. [The World According to Bitchcakes]

Very Wrong

Curbed reports that the beautiful, 116-year-old, Upper West Side West-Park Presbyterian Church at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street—never landmarked, which is just wrong—is thisclose to be demolished—which is very wrong.

Preservation group Landmark West! has issued this urgent e-mail:

Neighbors of the red-sandstone historic gem anchoring the northeast corner of West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue have recently observed workers removing pieces of West-Park's interior. More than one worker confirmed that the building is being readied for demolition.

Jesus. Didn't we learn anything from the Green Church? How could you even think of destroying that church after a single glance at its majesty?

P & G Cafe Sign Takes a Ride

Reader Daniel Roberts sends along this mournful, but amazing picture of the P&G Cafe neon sign being carted away to its new home in a storage facility.

P & G Cafe: De-Signed

A watchful reader sent me these sad pictures of the Upper West Side's classic tavern, the P & G Cafe, which closed on Jan. 31. It has been shorn of it fabulous neon sign, as you can see.

Nothing left to do but wait until it reopens (hopefully, with sign) at its new location.