Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year's Ray



A late-night/early-morning scene at Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A...



And Ray turns 83 this month...

Photos by Peter Brownscombe

9 comments:

chris flash said...

Meanwhile, crickets could be heard chirping at the EMPTY copy-cat store next door to Ray's.

EVERYONE loves Ray and Ray IS New York!!

mac mcgill said...

...same thing Flash said!

john penley said...

I really miss Ray and the neighborhood and definitely would have wished him a Happy New Year if I wasn't gentrified out of the LES. Feel like a fish outta water.

Anonymous said...

Why trash the store next door? Besides, five minutes later, Ray's will have been empty and the other place would have three people at the counter. What does it prove?

DrBOP said...

He has kept this REALLY close to his vest.....but a couple of hours after these pics SuperRay SAVED THE EARTH!

The EVIL Triple-L (LandLibertyLords) NYC SUCKS (Special Unit Commerce Knights) thought they were going to easily continue their despicable behavior throughout the world on New Year's Day morning.....but UH-UHHHH!

SuperRay zapped 'em with his Nuclear Waste Egg Cream Phaser.....then some Hot Dog Grenades and a good coating from the Condiment Cannon.....and they were TOAST!
AND he did it ALL without waking anyone up, left no garbage and he didn't puke .....A TRUE HERO!
So drop in and thank him for preserving our way of life.....and those aged hot dogs ;^)



Forever young, baby....forever young.

Anonymous said...

I'll have fries with that!!Happy New Year all.
Melanie
East Village Corner

Anonymous said...

Hey Penley - Where'd you end up?

chris flash said...

AnonymASS 7:39: I trash the joint next door to Ray's for a good reason. Before taking the space next door to Ray, the owners sat in a car, watching Ray doing business. They figured they could open a nice shiny place right next door to Ray and put him out of business -- they must've spent more than $100k renovating, including new electric, pipes, fixtures, etc and their rent is very likely a few grand higher than Ray's.

Since then, the new place is EMPTY about 99% of the time. They've got two guys sitting there, day and night, with NO customers, while Ray has a full house. This has irked the owners, leading them to put up a sign outside that partially blocks the view of Ray's on the right. One of them even threatened to KILL Ray one day when he saw Ray outside.

These are not good neighbors and this is not friendly competition. This has been a miserably failed attempt to put an old man out of business and they deserve what they're getting. These assholes did not count on Ray's loyal following and that Ray's is a REAL New York place!!

At some point, their capital will run out and they'll be gone. The landlord will get a space with all new infrastructure and the landlord's broker will get the commission/fee on the new tenant they get when these guys are gone. And Ray, goodness willing, will STILL be there!!

Anonymous said...

yeah ray! happy new year!!! best egg cream in town, served up by a real heartbreaker! xoxxo