Bastille Day 1992 at Florent

In honor of Bastille Day, Karen Lillis has uploaded a set of black-and-white photos (like the one above) from a Bastille Day event at Florent from 1992.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Remembering Richard Leck: "He liked the anything-goes quality, the creativity and the street life"

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

An item about "Ugly Betty," an EV gallery owner and trash (Page Six)

Private fashion event to take over West Fourth Street ball courts (Washington Square Park)

Highlights from Miss Heather's trip through the EV and Chinatown (New York Shitty)

Hot dog in the early 1990s (Little Stories and Maybe Poems from Now and Then)

More on the possible move of Ludlow Guitars (BoweryBoogie)

Trash?: Thoughts on the new New York Dolls record (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

Getting to know Crazy Joe Gallo (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A slam the landlord party (Blah Blog Blah)

Q-and-A with author and EV Grieve reader/frequent commenter Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk (Amanda Young)

Words to the wise on the street (Flaming Pablum)

Going underground: A tour of the world's oldest subway tunnel (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)

Going underground?!

MUSICAL INTERLUDE



At Joe's (The Village Voice)

Fake cabs (NYC Taxi Photo)

Update on Ray of Ray's Candy Store (Scoopy's Notebook, The Villager, third item)

Also from Scoopy: Florent Morellet's new restaurant plans (fourth item)

Speaking of Florent's! Perfect time to run this photo that Karate Boogaloo passed along by photographer Gary Breckheimer:



Another NYC nude here (NSFW)

"Every year since I've arrived there have been people crying that it was not like it was before"

That's Florent Morellet, owner of the soon-to-close Florent, in a Q-and-A in today's Post.

An excerpt:

Some people blame "Sex and the City" for the gentrification of the area.

I totally disagree. These are societal changes. We love to simplify things as humans and put labels on things. So the 18th century in France was Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and a couple of writers. You put some people in charge of some periods. They say I made the meat market. I could have died from the whooping cough at age 5 - which I almost did - and I don't think it would have made a difference in the [area]. Some people put [the gentrification] on Pastis, some people put it on Jeffrey opening, other people put it on the Gansevoort Hotel. It's all of us. Every year since I've arrived there have been people crying that it was not like it was before.

But has it changed for the better?

Let me tell you, in the early '90s, the neighborhood really was so scary with the crack epidemic. The people who feel nostalgic were not coming then. That was the year we actually lost money. I think people don't remember. We had to leave the restaurant in groups of three because almost all of us got mugged. Memory is a beautiful thing and it's totally influenced by emotions - mine as much as anyone's.