Eat Your Heart Out, Robert Downey Jr.

Don't fret! Call Ironman!

Home-spun marketing at its Brooklyn best.

Look Who's Renovated

Back in February 2007, I posted a shot of this dilapidated Columbia Street Brooklyn building, which I kinda loved in all its decrepitude, and deemed it "Not Yet Renovated in Brooklyn." (see below)

Look at my baby now! Standing up straight, stripped of its coat of moss-green paint and wearing a new baby-blue storefront. I wouldn't have recognized it. I encountered the owner on the street a few weeks back. She's a member of the family that always owned it, and has now rescued it from filth and the deranged squatters that lived there. She was able to retain the first-floor corner, but lost the storefront bay windows. Said she intends to turn it into a cafe, but is looking for investors. Aren't we all, aren't we all.

No Chumley's For May

Here it is my sad duty to report that the latest touted reopening date for Chumley's—May—is not to be. Not unless they draft a few superheroes on to the construction crew between now and the end of the month.

Steve Shlopak, the owner of the famed bar, back in February told Lost City itself that the place would open for business again in this Merry Month. Of course, he's made promises before. Work does continue on the building. There's a new piece of scaffolding in the inner courtyard that wasn't there when I last looked. But this saloon is nowhere close to being ready to accept customers. And I don't see how it will ever open with just a few guys puttering around inside from time to time. A near wreck like 86 Bedford Street needs an army of workers buzzing around it 24 hours a day to have a hope in hell of rising up from the ashes.

April 5, 2008, passed with barely any recognition that the City has been without Chumley's for one whole year. Does anyone care out there? Is there no one with money and a mind who will step up to the task of saving this landmark? I hear there's a guy who lives on the Upper East Side and works in City Hall who's fairly well off and has a lot of influence. I hear he gives aways millions of dollars a year to worthy causes Maybe he's be a good guy for the job.

Details: The Brooklyn Inn

I sometime feel people don't appreciate the City's unique and timeworn places because they don't take the time to look around and fully take them in. Toward that end, here are a few shots of The Brooklyn Inn in Boerum Hill.

The Strangest Building in the East Village

The strangest building in the East Village, in my opinion, is 62 E. 4th Street, a five-story structure built in 1889. It's a mystery what the architect was after (though it's apparent he was proud of his creation given the prominent dating smack dab in the certer of the building). There's all sort of Italianate grandeur in the shapes and lines. But it's all thrown off by the bizarre, frontal, cylindrical metal fire escape, enclosed by a tubular metal grill. Most buildings of the time employed the usual zig-zagging metal staircase, with a ladder leading from the second floor to the ground. The top floor included a boarded-up space of what looks like a door. But to where? There's no balcony. And what was the intention of the column-framed loggia on the fourth floor?

The bottom two floors are used by a dance company and theatre company. The top three floors are not in use, and haven't been for more than 40 years. Can't imagine what the building functioned as when it was first built. Though a helpful reader below says it was called the Astor Ballroom back in the 1940s and was the location of his parents wedding.

UPDATE: Boy, what I thought was just a casual post about an odd building is certainly provoking a lot of interest. This just in from the probing Gothamist. 64 E. 4th has a late '60s past that included gay cinema, Andy Warhol and Jim Carroll. Fascinating, and it just adds to my contention that this is indeed the oddest building in the East Village.

Still very curious about its original purpose.

Endangered Sign Alert

Sometimes it's not enough to single out and honor the City's great signage. Sometimes you have to go that extra yard to protect that signage by calling its owner on the carpet for abuse.

The owners of Moishe's Bake Shop on Second Avenue have a great sign. Stark yellow cursive lettering on a brown metal background, it stands out a mile. But for some time now the owners of the shop have neglected the sign in a horrendous fashion. Graffiti is allowed to sit at the top of the sign. The "E" in "Bake" is maimed. And the little flourish under "Moishe's" that says "Second Avenue" is hanging by a thread, pointing due south.

How, as a self-respected shopkeeper, do you look up at that sign as you open your doors in the morning and not feel to impulse to make things right? How much energy could it take? I myself could fix the "Second Avenue" problem in five minutes if someone gave me permission and a ladder. Fixing the "E" just required a call to the sign people.

I'm calling you out Moishe, and Moishe's descendents! You are shaming the name of your fine shop. Do the right thing.

Touch of Class Removed From Waldorf

Why do the new bosses of New York City want this to a be a classless town, one bereft of civilization and sophistication?

The New York Times has reported that the new owners of the Waldorf=Astoria have pink-slipped Daryl Sherman, the lady pianist and chanteuse who for 14 years has tinkled Cole Porter's ivories in the hotel's lobby. Her final performance will be on Sunday. It was a cost-cutting measure by the Blackstone Group, who know own the venerable institution and apparently think they've picked up a Comfort Inn or something.

Sherman has had the honor all these years to play the piano that once belonged to longtime Waldorf tenant Cole Porter. I stopped not two months ago to listen to her deliver a couple songs, hardly imagining the chance would be my last. Now, I suppose, the wonderful instrument will sit around like a giant coffee table. I mean, how much money could the owner possible be picking up by this cut? Is it worth the considerable eradication of atmosphere, tradition and grace? Fuckers probably have never heard of Sherman or heard her play. Or know who Cole Porter is.

Lost City Asks "Who Goes to Pergola des Artistes

Of all the restaurants I've investigated for my running "Who Goes There?" feature on Eater.com, Pergola des Artistes, in Times Square, has proved to be the biggest discovery, food-wise. This bistro is not coasting on just atmosphere. The food, while not genius stuff, is good, a selection of well-turned-out classics. There was nothing I had to choke down. No perfunctory iceberg lettuce salad, no basket of stale roles, no free appetizers so bad you wish the term "on the house" didn't exist.

This sort of revelation is exactly what I had hoped for when I began this series.

The Biggest Damn Crane in Town

Or maybe it just seems that way.

But look at that sucker, cantilevered out over the park, totally lording it over Cooper Square! It looks absolutely gigantic, ready to pick up tiny Cooper Union and fling it over its shoulder into the East River. The metal monster complete dominates the square. It slices the sky in two. What's more, this picture is deceptive; the crane is far more imposing and enormous in person.

Think the DOB's inspected it lately?

All Gone, Folks!

Tuesday, I reported on the unceremonious dismantling of the old Kiev Restaurant sign on Second Avenue—the last architectural remnant of the great old diner of loving memory. Some new renters of the space were busy taking it down.

On Thursday it was completely gone. No trace the sign or restaurant ever existed. Shed a tear, friends. The new eatery is to be called "Song." It was serve "Asian cuisine." (Gee. Every kind? Mongolian?) I snapped a shot of the interior—none too inspiring. I guess they deserve a chance at success like anybody else. Sorry, but the lack of respect they showed the Kiev sign just hit me the wrong way.