The diner's dining room on Second Avenue at East Fifth Street has been closed the past few days (though they were making deliveries) ...
They are expected to be back open today...
Not sure exactly what management had revamped. (New floor? New tables and chairs? New bamboo motif?) Slum Goddess took this photo on Wednesday night...
This will be the second renovation in recent months. Back in September, EVG regular ~evilsugar25 noted the new bar, draft beer and multiple flat-screen TVs… (and mason jars!). "I walked in and my jaw dropped," ~evilsugar25 said.
It's still Moonstruck. Same menus, though there's a "$15 cocktails brunch."
Anyway, we haven't been here in some time. Any regulars want to share their thoughts on the recent changes?
I am on 5th St so I go in every once in a while hoping the place has improved but it never does. Expensive breakfast special included semi-frozen hashbrowns, the crisscross kind that you buy at key food. We were the only ones there but that didn't mean the service was attentive or warm. Ask me again in 2024.
ReplyDeleteBut, does the food still suck?
ReplyDeleteThe changing demographic of the EV means every old eatery thinks they must use mason jars for beverages, replace regular tables and chair which you are able to put your feet on the floor with high tables and high stools, HGTV style walls and decorations, and expensive mixology cocktails. Playing the hipster game is dangerous if you are a "me too" restaurant, trends come and go and playing catch up will only mean spending money on the next trendy item just when it is considered "out".
ReplyDeleteI am mainly thrilled that they spelled "till" correctly on their sign.
ReplyDeleteDon't know what they're thinking. Now it looks like a diner with parodic-hipster touches. It's lipstick on a pig. (Except it was a perfectly fine pig as a pig.)
ReplyDeleteThe fries are good. Mason-jar drinks are stupid.
I've been going there since it was the Cooper Diner back in the late 90s (which I believe opened as a new Cooper Square Restaurant, which was across the street). For a diner, the food is fine. And I was just there Christmas Eve morning - same food. Classic diner food that is reasonably priced. There aren't many comparable places in the EV with a classic diner menu.
ReplyDeleteNot crazy about the renovation. They've done this a few times in recent years - I preferred the old vinyl booths and diner tables. It seems like they're trying to match the vibe of the neighborhood - which is not a good thing. Beer and TVs. Oye.
I've been going here for the last ten years, and was originally turned off when they replaced the wooden chairs and tables with metal ones, which were always cold/hot/sticky, and turned the room into a loud echo chamber. With the last reno in September, they took out the small tables along the window on the 5th St side and replaced them with tall tables and metal chairs. I'm assuming they got the idea from Bare Burger across the street. I stopped going at that point as it was too uncomfortable and unappealing. They also seemed to take away much of the seating (replacing it with a bar), which I don't get - the place was always packed for brunch/lunch on weekends, but now seems to be mostly empty.
ReplyDeleteFood is the same, as is the (very friendly) staff.
Before they moved in from across the street, this space was a Sports Bar in the late 80s. I get the same vibe now when I go in there. The food's the same, but the decor is uncomfortable. I tend to walk over to Odessa nowadays when I crave this food.
ReplyDelete@ anon 1:18
ReplyDeleteI think it was called the Sports Page???
Ha, yes, and do you remember when the Frank space was Gone With The Wings? Their delivery van had a crude painting of Clark Gable that said " Frankly, my dear, I'm just the delivery man. "
DeleteUhmmm Did anyone help evilsugar25 with her jaw? C'mon now... (or his!)
ReplyDeleteMason jars for drinks? Are patrons also expected to eat food from a trough?
ReplyDelete- East Villager
Hi Makeout - thanks, i managed to reel my jaw back into place after a few minutes so i could eat my french toast. (that's specifically what i always get here). i had really, really liked the small, iridescent blue tilework, i was very upset to see them gone! and having lived in the hood for so long, i'm extremely burnt out on all this new-new-new-lux-lux-lux that's been going on (like all of us) and i felt really pissed... because a diner can't just be a freakin' diner anymore? i guess not. i haven't been back since then.
ReplyDeleteI give up.
ReplyDeleteI shall never forget the time I was here when it was in the 90s called the Cooper Diner, eating breakfast at the counter at like 3/4am and HEARING a RIOT both inside and outside the restaurant. Some crazy dude was picking up diner’s plates of food and taking/eating stuff -- it was BEDLAM insanity! A raucous parade of employees and patrons moved into the avenue and all’s I heard was “fight, fight” giddiness from the remaining diners. Cops/sirens, U name it. NOT ONCE did I turn around to see.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:10, that might've been a hallucination. Happened to me once.
DeleteFor those who care, the great Quentin Crisp (author and raconteur, and east village legend), the Cooper Diner was his regular spot for years, and even made it into a few of his books. The last time I saw him was walking by and he was sitting in the window in his fedora and makeup. A few weeks later he died at 90.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I LOVED seeing Quentin Crisp sitting in his seat in the window in the morning! Always with his fedora and a scarf. I saw him waiting for the bus, counting his change, on St. Marks & Third one day and had to stop and say hello. He put out his hand for me to take and was just lovely. I miss him.
ReplyDeleteQuentin Crisp was one of the best people to ever live in the neighborhood—I'm not kidding!
ReplyDeleteI saw him on Late Night with David Letterman once in the early 80s and he mentioned that he was obliged to list his phone number—this was back when people used phone books—and I stored this bit of information until several months later when I found myself in a psych ward in New Haven, Connecticut.
Well, I called him from a pay phone in the hospital and he talked to me; he was very polite and several times over the years I called him just to talk. He was an extremely kind person and the only reason I'm happy he's dead is that toward the end, he kept saying he was ready to die.
His friend Penny Arcade said to him in a show they did, "You're dying to die."
"That's right," said Quentin.