Eagle Theatre Marquee Torn Down

I walked by the old Eagle Theatre in Jackson Heights, Queens, not two weeks ago. I looked forlornly upon the old building with its beautiful marquee, and reflected on how long it had been since it ceased business as the city's only Indian-language movie house. It closed in May 2009 and never reopened. The only comfort I could draw form the sight was that the marquee was still there, so there was a chance it would live as a cinema again.

Today, a reader sent me this sorrowful picture of the marquee being destroyed. A huge piece of Jackson Height's cultural heritage is gone.

I hear, however, that it will be replace by a South Asian market and food court. Which does not sound bad. And seems right for the area.

Several Awesome Fonts for the Word "Superior"

Superior Sewing Machine has been on W. 25th Street in Manhattan since 1950. Since then, it has been illustrating its awesome grasp of font.

Seriously, the company's storefront spells out the word "Superior" is several slightly different ways (they're all vaguely frilly and cursive)—and they are all great. A pleasure to look at. I don't know which "superior" I like best.

Let's have a little history: "Superior Sewing Machine & Supply LLC is the leading wholesale distributor of industrial sewing and cutting machine replacement parts and supply items to dealers and import/export firms throughout the world." Well, that's something.

The company was founded by Herbert Klapper, the son of a local New York second-hand sewing machine dealer (who thankfully didn't name the company after himself). Today, the company is the main distributor of Brother, Kansai, Mitsubishi, Racing, and Seiko parts.

Borough Park's Old Crown Deli Is Gone

I was walking down 13th Avenue, the main shopping drag of Borough Park, and was shocked to find this gelato joint in the space held for decades by the bedrock glatt kosher Crown Deli. It apparently opened a year ago.

Crown Deli has been an anchor business on the street. It was a classic Jewish deli, with all that entails, and did a big catering business. I often went there after visiting my wife's great-aunt, who lived on 13th Avenue.

The Deli was one of many businesses owned by the wealthy Orthodox Jewish Rubashkin family. You may remember the name. The family ran into a heap a trouble a few years ago when Agriprocessors, the huge Kosher slaughterhouse and meat processing plant they owned in Postville, Iowa, was raided by U.S. government in 2008 for a host of violations. Among the charges: mistreatment of cattle, child labor violations and the use of hundreds of illegal immigrant workers. The company went into bankruptcy and was sold.

I remember walking past Crown during those days and reading a sign in the window to the effect that that Rubashkin family was being persecuted. In 2010, Sholom Rubashkin, the former manager of the meat plant, was sentenced to 27 years in jail.

Crown Deli, at 4909 13th Avenue, was run by Rivka Rabashkin, wife of family patriarch Aaron. Founded in 1960, it had a reputation not as a going concern, but as a sort of soup kitchen, with Rivka feeding for free anybody who was hungry. But it was close several times for health violations in recent years. I can not discover what ultimately did the place in, but have to imagine it was the culmination of the family's many troubles.

The place had a great neon sign, though it was old and never lit up. The metal support is still there, and now holds up the gelato sign.

Harry Chong Laundry Sign Comes Down

Harry Chong, an old-school laundry man, closed up his shop on Dec. 31, 2005, after 60 years in business. But the sign remained, despite the businesses that took up residence there. Until yesterday, when a sharp-eyed reader caught these two men in the act of cultural vandalism. Sad

The Last Bit of S. Klein in New York

"S. Klein" appears in the tile before the door of 68 Clinton Street, now Falai, a falafel joint.

This is perhaps the last scrap of evidence of the once mighty position Klein's department stores once held in the city. The local chain was founded by immigrant Sam Klein before World War I, in a small, second-floor space on Union Square. That location expanded greatly, and for many years, Klein's was famously associated with Union Square. It had a huge sign, two stories tall, that said, grandly, "S. Klein on The Square." The stores' stock and trade was discount good. Housewives knew you went to Klein's for bargains. The shop's logo was a carpenter's square, for some reason.

Klein died in 1942. His family sold the business in 1946, and thereafter it passed through the hands of a few corporations. The Klein stores, of which there were once 19, continued to do well throughout the 1950s. By 1959, however, they began to register regular deficits. And price wars with Ohrbach's and J.W. Mays, two other discounters on Union Square, did the chain harm. The entire outfit shut down for good in 1975.

The Clinton Street shop very likely closed some years before then.

Klein's was immortalized in "Guys and Dolls," when Miss Adelaide sang "At Wanamaker's and Saks and Klein's/A lesson I've been taught/You can't get alterations/On a dress you haven't bought."

Two Nice Cobble Stores Replaced by One Nice Store

I was upset last fall when two lovely, vest-pocket, side-street shops in Cobble Hill—an antique shop and an old dry cleaners—were pushed out at a moment's notice. If they had been replaced by a Dunkin' Donuts or Pinkberry, as I suspected they would be, I could have been hopping mad (as usual). But instead they have been supplanted by Idlewild, a French-Spanish-Italian book store. They also teach those languages. How can you be angry about that?

A Good Sign: Pino & Santo Hair Styles

In Ridgewood, on Fresh Pond Road. Like the prices, too.

Bill's Gay Nineties to Close March 24

As first reported here on Feb. 10, Bill's Gay Nineties, the irreplaceable speakeasy-era bar on E. 54th Street, is closing. It is being pushed out by its landlord, Noel Tynan (who seems to live in Ireland, and therefore understands a great deal about the needs and desires of New Yorkers). Tynan reportedly refused to negotiate with Bill's owner, Barbara Bart Olmsted. The final day on Earth for Bill's will by March 24, confirmed the New York Times.

The article tells us a few interesting facts about the place—which make it all the harder to part with it:

*Greeter Aldo Leone, 88, is a close relative to the famed restaurateur Mama Leone!

*A false brick wall in the basement still opens to a secret room where liquor was kept during Prohibition.

The article said, "There has been talk that John DeLucie, a chef and owner of trendy restaurants like the Lion and Crown, may take over the spot, but details have not been confirmed."

It's happening. Believe me.

There have also been reports that Oldsted is going to take with her not only all the pictures on the walls, but the swinging bars and the bar itself. After they are gone, whatever DeLucie comes up with certainly won't bear any relationship to the old Bill's. 

Zum Stammtisch Opens a Pork Store

Though I guess this happened last summer, I didn't seen it until this week: Zum Stammtisch, the wonderful old German restaurant in Glendale, Queens, has opened a pork store next door.

The butcher shop is located at 69-40 Myrtle Ave. is co-owned by Werner and Hans Lehner, who own  Zum Stammtisch. The store offers a wide variety of quality meats, sausage, cheeses and products imported from Germany. 

On the less happy side, I strolled down a couple blocks to where Zum's competitor, Von Westernhagen's, used to stand to see what its replacement looked like. Edison Place looks clean and decent. But it also looks like a hundred other polished-wood-and-flatscreen upscale bar/eateries, the kind that are pretending to be posh and individual but are really just cookie cutter joints one step up from TGIF's. The interior layout is basically the same, except it doesn't feel like you're walking into someone's living room anymore. And the actual old time bathrooms have now been refashioned as "old time bathrooms." One could scream.

A Little Bit of New York Oldness Inside a Shake Shack

Though they harken back in style and menu to the small-town drive-in diners of the 1950s, New York's string of Shake Shack would seem to be among the most 21st century of New York food institutions. The air of I'm-here-now, self-conscious cool—among the customers and the staff—is too thick.

So I was surprised to find a little reminder of Olde New York inside the Times Square branch. I sat down with my Bird Dog and fries and saw this message burned into the long table: "Handcrafted in Brooklyn, NY, this surface was once part of a bowling late." No wonder the wood glows a bit. The tables are made by the DUMBO company CounterEvolution. There are apparently more bowling-lane tables in the Brooklyn restaurant. Where, I wonder, was the lane? What neighborhood?