Since I left NYC a few years ago, I've become obsessed with reading The Shutter and Eater NY's ongoing Status Closed list. Many of my faves are still around and of course I always find new places to love, but with the economy and NYC's ever-rising rents, the number of long-time eateries that have bit the dust seems to be on the uptick.
I am a huge foodie--some might say I am a bit of a food snob. :) Mind you, I'm not highfalutin'. I love dives as much, nay more, than I love Michelin stars. What I take umbrage with is the crap served in many restaurants. They do a disservice to the ingredients and the cooking process. So many great local, often inexpensive, usually independently-run places to eat--where hard-working people are putting their soul into their food--yet customers flock to restaurants that are just churning out mediocrity. It boggles my mind. (And no, I'm not against restaurant chains--they have their place (road trip!) and like most things in life, some are better than others.)
SoCal has great restaurants too, but it's harder to get to them just because the area is so much bigger and everything's spread out. Besides, after only a year, I don't have the kind of attachment I do to the countless places I've eaten in NYC. I've built up so many great memories over the years and this is a brief tribute to all those places I've lived and loved. Even when I first started working in NYC right out of college (I still don't know how I survived on my first salary which was $17,000 before taxes!), I scrounged up enough money to eat at the tastiest places I could, finding all of the best bargains and up and comers. Many of the places I've listed below, I literally frequented for decades. RIP--you will be missed. The loss of these all make my heart hurt a little.
1) Florent: 24-hour French diner. Meat-packing district. Clubbers. Transsexuals. 4am frites. Nuff said.
2) Empire Diner: The classic, iconic NYC diner with the EAT sign. Closed after 35 years.
3) Comfort Diner on 45th street: This was the first Comfort Diner in NYC and it opened right across the street from A&E Television Networks. I ate countless late night dinners here after 14-hour work day after 14-hour work day trying to build my little A&E and The History Channel online store into something special.
4) BB Sandwich: The only place I ever liked a steak sandwich.
5) Miracle Bar & Grill: One of those great NYC gourmet bargains--fantastic Southwestern/Mexican food, teeny and cute, inexpensive. Bobby Flay's first job as a chef was here.
6) Zoe: My go-to post-shopping rest stop in Soho for years. California cuisine, great brunch, and wood-fire pizzas.
7) Etats-Unis: French wine bar with great food and strangely, they also had fantastic guacamole and chilaquiles. One of the few places I really liked on the UES.
8) Vong: Jean-Georges Vongerichten's classic. When it opened in 1992, this French-Asian Fusion restaurant was an innovation and I always felt super-special eating fancy businesses lunches here back when I was in my early '20s and totally broke. :)
9) El Rey Del Sol: I will miss being able to lounge in the hidden 14th street backyard garden with a margarita and sun shining on my face.
10) Bright Food Shop: My first NYC apartment was in Chelsea and right from the beginning I loved this crazy Asian/Mexican fusion diner and their moo-shu burritos and awesome corn pancakes. Next door, they had a take-out Mexican gourmet food shop called Kitchen, sadly also now gone.
11) Mi Cocina: Where I had my first molé!
12) Moondance Diner: I still remember going here after dance class one Saturday to meet my boyfriend and his parents for lunch. I felt very "Fame" in my little leotard and leg warmers strolling down 6th Ave. Yes, this is the diner that was in the Spiderman movie. Apparently even that was not enough to save it from the death knell of NYC real estate--the inevitable condo building.
13) El Cid: I really loved the old school tapas and sangria here. It was dark and cave-like and fabulous.
14) Chez Brigitte: The best French hole-in-the-wall ever. There were only 11 countertop seats and the windows were always steamy. This restaurant was in the same West Village location for FIFTY YEARS before they closed recently. When I was broke, this place always kept me going with hearty, made-to-order food like chicken fricassee and rice, and a friendly, but gruff atmosphere.
A few bits of good news though: Pink Tea Cup, the 55-year old West Village soul food restaurant, was saved by fans early this year from what seemed to be sure death (albeit in a different location around the corner from the original spot). Long live their fried chicken & sweet potato pie! Zucco, Le French Diner is still hanging on even though its owner and proprieter died of a heart attack earlier this year. Keep on trucking--you were my favorite new find right before I left NYC and I want you to make it! And Mappamondo, an Italian restaurant I used to go to in the West Village that closed 11 years ago, is back open on 11 Abingdon Square. Hard to believe it's back after such a long time, but that's NYC for ya. Never say die.
Finally, a small personal victory. Thé Adoré, a charming French-Japanese sandwich shop in the West Village that I went to regularly back in the '90s, is still open. I have not been in many years now and had forgotten it until I started writing this blog post. I was worried that it had gone by the wayside, but it's still around and hopefully thriving. As much as I love NYC, it has pushed out a lot of what makes it unique over the years (hey, shoot me, I was living in the East Village back when you actually tried to avoid Tompkins Square Park) and Thé Adoré is one of those places with real character that helps keep NYC my most favorite city in the world. Now get out there and support your local restaurants!
