[Click photo to go big]
This photo has been making the rounds in recent weeks... and several readers have forwarded me a copy via the Dirty Old 1970's New York City page on Facebook.
The photo by Manel Armengol faces east on Saint Mark's Place at Third Avenue, circa 1978.
And a fairly half-assed attempt to make a now-then comparison...
St.Mark's Place, Post-Bro 'N' Ho / Pre-Workday, 2016
ReplyDelete'Looks beat. Ray's Pizza Bagel Cafe pizza sucks now and has sucked for years. Mamoun's is the only place to get decent eats on that block but why go there when you can go to the original one on MacDougal Street between Bleecker and W.3rd Sts. closer to W.3rd? I'm amazed Papaya King is still there (on SMP) as I thought hotdogs were too lowbrow for the 2010 on crop of East Pillagers.
Mark burger is also good. The ramen shops are a good deal if you split with someone (and there's more than enough). Boka wings are some of the best I've ever had. 2 bros and Rays are nothing to write home about but convenient if you live there. Anyone who treks to the 'original' Mamouns is a moron when the Arab location is great and not in the middle of fratbarcentral. But hey what do I know o have only lived on the block for eight years and loved every minute of it.
ReplyDeleteThisiskdo don't you know you are supposed to deride everything about the neighborhood today and only talk about how much better it was when you arrived and were part of neighborhood change yourself?! If this blog wasn't so good I wouldn't bother to come here just to hate read the commenters who constantly wax nostalgic about the neighborhood's wild days out of one side of their mouth and then whine about a liquor license out of the other. -- a Residnt since 2002
Delete2002? Lololololol....the voice of experience. Go get 'em, kid!
Delete"St Martins Place just isn't the same since Japadog closed" said a Taylor Swift fan dressed up as a leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day.
ReplyDeleteThe EV Lives. St. Mark's Place is Alive. In fact I just saw Elvis walking down the block with Janis comparing notes with Joey Ramone.
ReplyDeleteWhat you mean half-assed? You are too modest bubby. It's a very fine now-and-then photo. Who could do betta?
ReplyDeleteThe East Village is much better today than it was in the 70s. The ferals who say otherwise should just be ignored.
ReplyDelete6:31 AM are you serious? How about Udon West, Kenka, Oh Taisho? All three of those places are authentic and amazing Japanese food.
ReplyDelete@John M - to invalidate someone because they haven't been here long enough - according to you - is an attitude that continually pisses me off about this neighborhood. I've been here 20 years, but that's apparently not long enough to warrant any kind of respect or acceptance from people with this mindset that the best time in all of history was 1979. When is long enough? When someone lives, works, creates, gets involved with community activities, activism, gardens, etc, does it matter how many years they've been here? We weren't all born at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI am always reading here about the 'community' and 'neighborhood' yet the same people who wax nostalgic about these things are not at all welcoming or inclusive of anyone younger than them. If you want this to be a real neighborhood where people get along, you need to start supporting and conversing with EVERYONE here, not just a select few that you deem worthy.
Hey "thisiskdo" first off I'm not the moron, you're the moron to think St.Mark's Place isn't "fratbratkidscentral." when it is and more than GV. I expect GV to have tons of college kids acting like idiots. 'Thing is they by and large aren't. I have walked down MacDougal Street between Bleecker and W.3rd Sts. where the og and best Mamoun's is at all times of the night and I have NEVER seen the bad behavior I have seen on St.Mark's Place or Stanton Street.
ReplyDeleteIronically the further you go AWAY from NYU the worse the college kid behaviro gets. Seriously, go to Ben's Pizzeria at 3am and you will rarely see someone act like a dickhead in there, the guys who run it won't allow it, Ben's is a respected GV institution.
Btw that stretch of MacDougal still has Cafe Reggio and Cafe Wha? WTF does St.Mark's between 2nd and 3rd have besides cheap crappy eats save Mamoun's?
Congratulations on being a St.Mark's Placeholder since 2009 the golden age of the street LOL.
Its nice to see that my side of the argument is narrowly edging out yours. The idea that cheap falafel is better 10 blocks away when its all coming from the same commissary kitchen shows just how delicate your palate is. And love your choice of words in 'bad behavior.' Because when heroin and prostitues were freely available and a single woman wouldn't be caught dead on this block as little as 10 years ago the behavior must have been far more urbane and suitable to your sensitive self.
DeleteYeah I'm dead serious 2:28pm. St.Mark's Place between 2nd and 3rd Avenues is a culture and food desert.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wants to check out this strip, start at the southeast corner of St.Mark's and 3rd Avenue in front of Ray's, ignore Ray's as the pizza is so bad now I wouldn't feed it to a starving stray dog, walk down the south side of St.Mark's to 2nd Avenue then cross over to the north side of the street and walk back to 3rd Ave. I guarantee you won't find one thing of cultural or gastronomic signifigance save a Mamoun's Falafel (you can get a better version of at the og spot) and a Gem Spa eggcream.
I mean if you like comics, ramen noodles, and Japanese food hey, it's the bees knees I guess. Oh yeah re: the best burger in the area is Cozy Soup 'N' Burger around since 1972 (so that good) at Broadway and Astor Place.
Your side of the argument isn't narrowly edging out or edging out anything. It's nice and funny to see you telling everyone the falafels at Mamoun's St.Mark's Place are made somewhere else thus the og location has the freshest thus best Mamoun's falafels since they get those falafels first, thanks! What's even funnier is you think there's more going on on St.Mark's and the immediate area around it than MacDougal and the immediate area around it when there isn't, not by a longshot.
ReplyDeletePlenty of single women were on St.Mark's between 2nd and 3rd Aves. in 2006 are you serious? LOL @ you thinking they didn't come near this stretch of St.Mark's back then, the bad old days of 2006. I have seen single women parade up and down this stretch since the '80s so get a clue, Clueless. Heroin and prostitutes have been on and around St.Mark's for years. Why look for prostitutes when you have Tinder? LOL @ you thinking SMP/the EV doesn't have a drug culture anymore.
Greenwich Village has more record stores, live music venues, non-hipster/yuppie/bro/ho bars, and overall energy than East Village, there is no contest. It's also safer, cleaner, and nicer with far more old buildings than the EV. Deal with it. Even the landlords by and large are better as last I checked no one blew up their building or shut down gas lines to drive tenants out over there. Here are at least TEN pre-1990 businesses still operating in GV which never had to move: Ben's Pizzeria, Cafe Wha?, John's Pizzeria, Village Cigars, Waverly Restaurant, Rebel Rebel, Cafe Reggio, Riviera Cafe, Village Vanguard, Greenwich House. I defy you to name me ten pre-1990 businesses still around in the EV like that. Trash & Vaudeville would've ended if they didn't find a new location. St.Mark's Place between 2nd and 3rd Aves. has exactly ONE like that: Gem Spa.
Oh btw there are plenty of areas to get comic books, ramen noodles and Japanese food besides St.Mark's Place.
ReplyDeleteAlso you need to get out more because the most deplorable behavior below 14th Street takes place on St.Mark's Place and Stanton Street (read Bowery Boogie for the nonsense on and around the latter.)
Hey there was a pizza shop owned by the Mazolla family everyone use to hang out there back in the 1970s I believe it was between st marks and 1st anyone know of this establishment
ReplyDelete