Most of these items are from the summer of 2006, but I was also exploring the city before Christmas 2005. Above is a closeup of a map included in the courtesy booklet from the Hotel Chelsea.
Daioh Sushi at 300 West 23rd Street (Between 8th & 9th Avenues). Closed circa 2011. Superceded by Asuka Sushi Japanese Fusion and Lounge, website link here.
Tout Va Bien French Restaurant, 311 West 51st Street, opened in 1948. Link to website here.
Tout Va Bien matches.
S.P. Gift at 11 Carmine Street, West Village. This place had excellent stationary and cards.
The Slaughtered Lamb Pub (think England, werewolves and such). 182 West 4th Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues). "English Country Ales - Wines & Spirits - Delicious Pub Food." Link to website here.
Eros Cafe. Greek, 190 Seventh Avenue (Between 21st and 22nd Street). Closed in 2010 due to rent increases. As with many places in the area, breakfast was relatively inexpensive.
Friends, internationalists and all fellow travelers: the IFC Center is a heaven, a Mecca, like gold at the end of the rainbow. Greenwich Village. 323 Avenue of the Americas / Sixth Avenue & West 3rd Street. Some of the architectural bits date back to before the American Civil War.
Opened in 2005 and flourishing in 2018. On August 18, 2006, I saw Factotum, with Matt Dillon playing Hank Bukowski (hilarious -- especially if you're a Bukoswki reader).
It's only about a block and a half from Washington Square Park. Walk along "positively 4th Street" (Bob Dylan way) and you can reach the historic Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in about five minutes. Our Lady of Pompeii Shrine Church at 25 Carmine Street is a two minute walk away. You can check out the Village Vanguard (178 Seventh Avenue South, opened in 1935 and competes with Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit for jazz history honors) with a less than ten minute walk.
Hepcats, can you dig?
IFC Center has a website. Here's a link. The Stonewall Inn's link is here. The Village Vanguard's link is here. Our Lady of Pompeii Shrine Church's link is here.
Tavern on the Green at 67th Street and Central Park West has a storied history, starting with the architectural core that dates back to its service as a sheepfold in the 1880s. It's primary run as a restaurant lasted from 1934 until the end of 2009. Good news is, it's since been renovated and re-opened under new management beginning in 2014.
The current president of the USA stuck his greedy paw into the Green zone around 2011, but apparently this came to nothing.
Website for Tavern on the Green can be reached via this link.
I stayed at the ridiculously famous (and infamous) Hotel Chelsea (at 222 West 23rd Street) on two occasions: in 2005 and 2006. Since 2011 or thereabouts, it's been undergoing renovations, but is supposed to re-open "soon." So many of the nearby places then advertised in its little welcome booklet are gone or transformed that now seems as good a time as any to post scans in honor of them all -- in a sort of spectral afterglow salute. The New Venus Restaurant shut down in or after 2013, and has been superseded by the Fork Bar & Grill diner.
At 226 West 23rd Street, El Quijote ("Exquisite Cuisine From the Best of Spain") opened its doors in 1930. As of early April, 2018, it, like the Hotel Chelsea to which it's attached, has been closed for renovations. Hopefully it will re-open soon, later this year (2018).
Matches from El Quijote. Art-ifacts that keep on giving.
Patsy's Pizzeria at this location (318 West 23rd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues) is now shut. It opened in 1933, so it lasted more than seventy years -- a good run. The New Aristocrat Deli Gourmet at 208 West 23rd Street is still open, so far as I can tell.
Malibu Diner at 163 West 23rd Street between Sixth & Seventh Avenues is still open as of this post. Here's a link to their website. It's now open 24 hours a day and still delivers.
