With PA's departure, there are now seven empty storefronts on this stretch between First Avenue and Avenue A...
(Xoom, the smoothie shop, is moving to a new location in the East Village.)
This block still has a neighborhood feel to it ... where community members come together at St. Stanislaus Church or the Peter Jarema Funeral Home ... and this stretch of Seventh Street has its quirky charms, such as Anthony Pisano's storefront home where he has lived the last 32 years... ... It's the kind of place where a cat named Pretty Boy was considered the Mayor of Seventh Street...
Meanwhile, though, for better or worse, this block has become the Food Capital of NYC with the celebrated likes of Butter Lane, Luke's Lobster and Porchetta, among others.
And there's the new apartment building at 92 Seventh St. — with a three-bedroom going for nearly $6,000. The ground floor will be home to another restaurant.
With all the heralded food, and more likely to come, I worry that this precious stretch of the neighborhood will simply become one big line of people waiting to eat.
23 comments:
all too true. used to be a fantastic bookstore on this block, run by a man named Gani Remorca, and a leather sex shop, and a record store, a little cafe, etc., etc. it was always a quiet block. a neighborhood block.
speaking of people waiting in lines, don't forget this trend is spreading a block west with Van Leeuwen opening up.
"for better or worse, this block has become the Food Capital of NYC"
please, lets not overstate the snacker's strip.
You don't think all these empty stores has anything to do with the UNSUSTAINABLE OVERPRICED HEROIN ECONOMY of Manhattan?
wasn't this the block that had the coffee shop with a stained glass floor that was lit from below very hip)?
and the block that yoko (when she was married to tony cox) did her show "bags" where you answered a long questionnaire on the color yellow before stepping into a burlap bag? and then she cooked you a rice & shrimp lunch/dinner?
A lot of this could have been averted if EVers could learn to eat at home once in awhile. It's easy! Bread in the toaster. Or spaghetti in the water. Or chicken in the Dutch oven with coconut milk, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, hot chilies, and some bay leaves.
@nygrump, please explain the "UNSUSTAINABLE OVERPRICED HEROIN ECONOMY", how does it work?
@KenFKK: IMHO the people flocking to 7th Street are not from the EV; I think the vast majority of them come from outside the neighborhood cos they read some new write-up about the latest 'must-have' cuisine somewhere in the city and descend like lemmings. The geeks waiting on brunch lines come here for the same reason. (BTW your chicken recipe sounds fab.)
Agree with Lisa. We've all seen the pictures of the lemmings waiting for brunch outside of Prune; pasty-faced nothings with stick-straight, unstyled hair and ballet flats. Bleh.
and we know how much the owner of prune cares about the problems she causes for her neighbors on the block -
not at all
I've lived on the next block of 7th St for almost 10 years and have never once eaten at Luke's Lobster, Porchetta or Butter Lane.
That last one though is because I don't like sweets. And I don't really eat pork, unless it's cured (mmm, bacon). I do want to try Luke's but it's always too crowded with sky-high heel girls who are going to totter over any good gust of breeze.
when I refer to a "heroin economy" I am refering to an economy where commodities are priced way beyond their production costs and any reasonable profits - nothing to do with the Bayer Corp developed chemical. However, it is supposed to be accurate to cal Pakistan a heroin economy because so much depends on that illegal trade. I guess I'm just trying to say the rent is too damned high - not every store can sell heroin, or in this area, $10 beers and $15 cocktails. (and when I have to pay $7 for a beer + $1 tip, I round that up to $10 for arguments sake).
@anon 2:07 PM
You know, I understand your feeling; but here's my take...
Places like Luke's, Porchetta, and even Butter Lane (ugh!, the cupcake "thing") Are small, independent, neighborhood centric, establishments. And that, in my opinion, makes them a good thing; as long as the proprietors aren't assholes.
The fact that they may be overrun with cloned trendsters (or whatever segmented population you want to site) should not be a reason for you to feel or be kept from experiencing (ie, having your own positive experience) a great lobster roll, or a great pork sandwich in your own damn neighborhood.
Go get yourself a nice lobster roll, and just blow on those sky-high heel girls till they fall over.
Anon 3:08, I think it's silly to imply that having a "positive experience" in a restaurant is only about the food and has nothing to do with the atmosphere (who are the other people eating there, are they obnoxious or not). The sky-high heel girls ... I was not the one to cite them, I am a different anonymous ... I find them annoying too, not because of what they are wearing but because of how they act. They're often sloppy-drunk, they can't hold their liquor at all, they're often very loud whether they are drunk or not, they're often acting desperate for attention, and if you are another woman, they are often eyeing you up and down in a really aggressive way, especially if you are with a guy. The bottom line, mentally they seem to be stuck in 7th grade, and I do not enjoy going to a restaurant and feeling like I am one of only a few grown-ups in the place. If I go out to a restaurant rather than cooking at home or getting delivery or take-out, all of which are easy enough to do, I want to feel happy about being there.
i am a great fan of lobster rolls even though i can't afford to shell out, like $18, very often.
i was happy when luke's opened. before it became a scene. and i'm glad they are a success.
but
luke's lobster, to me, has no taste whatsoever.
It's also the block where (back in the late 70s/early 80s that sweet old homeless Ukranian Man who wrapped his head in rags kept the sidewalk around Leshko's clean and they fed him.
@ Karen--I remember him too. He was a nice man and he did sweep there.
Greedy landlords and their high rents are doing in this city.
At what point will this all end? This city has too many trendy eateries.
I don't know what the owner of Prune has done to her neighbor's, but I know her dad and his place in Lambertville. And I think she's from good people. I mean how bad could she be from a family of hippies?
I can't speak for the all those places, but I've been to Lukes a few times and have never been pushed around by girls in heels. And most definitely not by drunks, but I'm also eating at lunch or dinner time.
People are very quick to judge and stereotype, which always saddens me.
I live on this block, have for years and years. I'd say Caracas (while tasty) is the biggest offender of people waiting. Not once have I seen management try and move their customers to the side to make way for people. There is ALWAYS a crowd blocking the sidewalk so much so that I just assume I will have to walk on the street to get by that stretch. It's too bad because I do love a good arepa
@melanie nice to know someone from back in the day when all you could get to eat on 7th btween a and b was cabbage soup, keilbasa and latkes is still here...good times!
@ Karen--and of course Ray's!!Magazines and newspapers too. I think the egg cream was 75 cents back then and the breakfast specials at Leshko's for $1.99 and all the coffee refills you wanted.
Just in time, some discounts at some 7th street restaurants... Thru Sunday.
Food Festival
when the only people who can afford to live in NYC are do-nothing bankers (scoundrels) and their lawyers and cohorts--they must be catered too. Bring back the garbage strike, strip clubs, tranny addicts, musicians who practice at 3am, and poor artists, rent controlled and stabilization and you will have a bit of the nyc that made it what it used to be...that ship has sailed. I live in malverne, I can get to midtown in less than 40min, we have an independent movie theatre, great mom and pop shops including italian specialty and a german deli where you can eat off the floor, a bakery that people come from miles away--that puts to shame any cupcake trendy place on the isle of manhattan...do I miss the NYC that I enjoyed? yes-I moved there in 92 and it was incredible, by the time I left--my entire block went from mom and pops to banks and starbucks. I can't believe that long island is more authentic and real than nyc--when I want a dose of what I miss--I go to flushing main st, it reminds me of canal street in the 70s
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