The East Village Is Dead

New Halloween decor outside the East Village dive bar Mars Bar.

What can you say? It's kinda true, kinda not. I still feel the EV has a lot of grit and flavor left. Paint job looks cool, tho.

Lost City: New Orleans Edition: Antoine's Descends

Unlike, perhaps, the rest of the world, I am not happy when a restaurant backs down on its coat and tie dress code. (Witness my response to the "21" Club's capitulation to the madding crowd.)

You'd think the oldest restaurant in the U.S. would hold firm. But, no. ABC reports that formal attire is out the window. "We still don't allow things like ripped jeans and flip-flops," said Yvonne Alciatore Blount, whose family has run Antoine's for five generations. "And many of our diners, especially at dinner, do enjoy dressing up, but we no longer enforce the coat and tie rule."

And civilization marches slowly to the sea.

No Disney Here

An image of Times Square, circa July 4 1976, sent by a reader. "Taxi Driver" era. Where does one go for a "Supersexual Escape" nowadays?

(Picture by Patrick Goff.)

Landmark Worthy

This is a wonderfully curious building. It's at 36 W. 56th Street, between Fifth and Sixth. It looks like a bit of H.H. Richardson Romanesque Gothic (though not built by him, of course), particularly given the red-hued stone. Which I love. Looks rather fortress-like as well. Not sure what to make of those twin, metal, upsidedown pineapples, or if they're original. There's some fancy, carved lettering at the cornice, but I can only make out an "A" with any certainty.

A little internet searching finds that the Historic Districts Council is on the case and is trying to get the building landmarked. They wrote this to the Landmarks Commission:

Built 1881-1882, was designed by Bruce Price, architect of the landmark skyscraper American Surety Building. An architectural figure of international importance, Price is best known for his Shingle style designs in Tuxedo Park, NY, the National Historic Landmark Georgian Court in Lakewood, NJ, several stations and hotels for the Canadian Pacific railway system and several halls at Yale University. The building at 36 West 56th Street was called by Montgomery Schuyler in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine as one of the few successful applications of the Queen Anne style in New York domestic architecture. Although this building is the most altered of the three, with a front ground floor addition, the upper façade is still very much intact and retains most of Price’s façade details.

No mentioned of it's original purpose. Perhaps just a home. A very nice home.

Columbus Circle Pre-Starbucks

A year and a half ago I wrote about a Starbucks on Columbus Circle and the building's history before the coffee giant came along.

Six months later, one Erika Abelman Zim noticed my post and wrote "The was originally an old fashioned pharmacy/ luncheonette (soda fountain stools and all). It was called Columbus Circle Pharmacy. My dad owned it in the 1960's until Starbucks took it over approximately 10 years ago."

The history continues. Today I received a link to a picture of the old luncheonette. Such a wonderful shot. I love the proper woman just exiting the pharmacy, as well as the one lingering in the doorway. You can see a row of fountain stools to the right of the man inside who's just walking toward the door. Look to the right and see the United Cigars shop next door, and a liquor store next to that.

Check out the great new site that the picture came from, Aaron Signs. I wish I was the scion of an old sign company!

Peek-a-Boo!

The recent plywood sheds placed around the BQE Lead Shacks are really doing their job. Didn't take much wind for this hazardous material holder to come out and say "Hi."

The Lead Shack Follies continue! I'm sure they'll be many more entertaining episodes before the last bit of lead is cleared off the overpass bridges.

Two Annoying Habits

Tapping the top of a soda or beer can before opening it, and tapping the end of a cigarette pack before opening it. People do it. It's annoying.

As I understand it, drinkers of canned refreshments think flicking the top of a the can before opening it will prevent a burst of liquid upon opening the vessel; and cigarette smokers who tap the carton are aiming at packing the tobacco tightly next to the filter so as to achieve a slower, smoother, more flavorful smoking experience.

Now, I don't really care to argue the efficacy of these tappings and whether they accomplish anything or not. Many have argued about the habits in the past and the general conclusion seems to be the practices may or may not achieve their ends. I am merely proposing that it is a habit as annoying a clipping your toenails on the subway or talking loudly on your cell phone in a crowded area, and should not be carried out in a public place.

I admit I have a long-held personal bias against these affectations (and I do consider them to be, at least in part, affectations). I first encountered can and pack flickers in college, and I may have developed my negative view of the actions because they were invariably carried out by jerks. Usually men. Jockish, boorish men who belonged to fraternities. They'd tap at their cans and they'd smack at their packs with such obvious, self-satisfied relish, you knew that they thought they were just the bomb for knowing such nifty tricks for making the brew not explode and their cig taste better. It was like a secret skeleton key they were sticking in the lock of a private club every time they hammered away at their oral pleasures. "Yeah, dude! I'm smakin' the pack. Smackin' the pack, dude. Makin' it happen."

I guess I still see the people who tap and flick in this light. They are show-offs, pompous jack-asses. I think they perform their little monkey tricks not out of fear of excessive carbonation or to achieve the perfect puff, but to cull a bit of attention to their innate coolness. Why? Because they always do it like a half-time show, in full view of the general public. Never sitting, always standing. Never do you see them quietly clicking at the soda can top in their cubicle, or giving the pack a few muffled claps while sitting on a park bench. No, it's always in the middle of the sidewalk or in the center of the party. They tap away, loud and clear, 10, 15, 20, a ridiculous amount of times until everyone sees them do it. Then they open their can or take out their perfect cancer stick as we supposedly revel in amazement and wonder how we could one day possibly be as in-the-know as they.

And, you know, there's another way to make sure your can won't erupt. Put it on a table and let it sit still for a couple minutes. Of course, nobody would notice that much, would they?

This Week on Lost City

St. Stephen's Scaffolding Started to Come Down; Strange Modernist Emptiness on W. 56th; Chumley's Got a Liquor License; The Lower East Side Got a Landmark; The Ghosts of Good Coat Fronts; The Carroll Gardens Lead Shack Follies Continue; Love Is In the Air at the Brooklyn Motor Inn.

Uuuuggghh

On Sackett Street in Carroll Gardens.

Is is possible to make the building more personality-free?

Why didn't the developer just tape together a bunch of refrigerator boxes and have done with it?

Where Are We?

Something about Carroll Gardens moniker has always confounded merchants. You never see a Cobble Hills Deli or Parks Slope Hardware, but misspellings of the nabe named after Declaration of Independence signer Charles Carroll are rampant.

For a long time a newsstand on Smith Street was called the Carol Gardens Newsstand, spelled like the first name, not the last name. That has since been corrected by a new awning. The most common misprint is of the above type: Carroll Garden. As if the area was named after a single garden somewhere, instead of the many spacious front yards to be found along many of the deep-set brownstone blocks.


This fish market, long on Court Street, makes the same mistake. But look: they got it right on the awning! Did the awning come after the sign, after a few people had pointed out the error of the sign spelling?


This dry cleaner, meanwhile, gets it right, as does the below podiatrist.


And then there are the folks who the spelling right, but the neighborhood wrong: