In case you haven't seen it, the 2005 documentary "Bowery Dish," which chronicles the Bowery's transformation from skid row to high-end restaurant row, airs tonight at 10 on Channel 13/WNET.
The director, Kevin R. Frech, is a 20-plus year resident of the East Village. He filmed between 1999-2004, after noticing that more restaurants were popping up on the Bowery. He wanted to document the changes.
The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and later aired on the Sundance Channel.
With the arrival of even bigger bold-face-named restaurateurs such as Keith McNally (Pulino's then Cherche Midi) and Daniel Boulud (DBGB), we asked Frech about what has transpired on the Bowery since the film's release.
Did you ever anticipate that the Bowery would continue to transform to such a degree as it has in 2014? Seems like a sequel is in order!
Yes, I really want to make a sequel — follow some of the camera angles from the original to show what dramatic changes have happened lately. When I set out to make the film, I could see the street was about to undergo radical change, but I was amazed at how fast it happened.
While I knew it would continue after the film was completed, I had no idea how much further it would go. Keith McNally, the New Museum, all of the high-rises and galleries. Meanwhile the flophouses are mostly gone, the Salvation Army is gone, and only the Bowery Mission remains from the rougher days of the old Bowery.
