upper east side bars 1980s - Binuli.ge I went over and started chatting with him, and we became completely engrossed in this conversation about jazz. The room I shared with two other students was on the top floor of the building facing the park. Ive always been a pretty good cook, and I could make these very good dinners in this tiny kitchen. Book with OpenTable. There was a place called Columbus, on Columbus Avenue and 69th Street. Beware salivating yuppie swells there for Ladies Night, the magazine wrote (fondly) of Mannys Car Wash, a Chicago-style blues club on East 87th Street. The Mudd Club was one of my favorite spots to go out thats where I was introduced to James Chance and the Contortions and Talking Heads. Ski Bar turned into a Taco Bell and Block moved to Telluride, Colo., where he and Singer opened a similar bar, Poachers Pub. It would be drag queens with punk kids, musicians and artists everyone. It's now a Samsung store. The whole thing finally fell into place in May of that year when I went on Tom Snyders show on NBC. I had no student loans and the housing was still affordable. I tried to write every single day, first thing in the morning, 10 a.m. We recorded at a studio called Greene Street Recording Studio on Greene Street between Houston and Prince. It made me immobile. Maxi Cohen, Area, 1985, Ladies Rooms Around The World, Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio and Chambers Fine Art. I served eggplant parmigiana and a stupendous chocolate cake that everyone always wanted. The Upper West Side has always been a great place to buy food, with terrific places for fish and vegetables. I would write longhand, sit down at the typewriter and type what I had, take those pages across the room to a different chair, sit down and work between the double spaces, do another draft. David McDermott and Peter McGough, artists. We blasted Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson. It was hard. [Wild Style] opened in 1983, [at the Embassy 3] on 47th Street and Broadway. Points of interest include Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, The Whitney Museum, Hunter College, Gracie Mansion and Carl Schurz Park. The Oldest Bars on the Upper East Side East 86th St Association The legendary Tommy Rowles at Bemelman's (photo credit: VictoriaMcGinley.com) The Oldest Bars on the Upper East Side April 08, 2017 Tracking down the oldest bar on the Upper East Side is no easy task! One place I went to a lot was the St. Marks Baths. I was living uptown really the classic uptown, which, because I was young, seemed a little wild to some people with my kids and my mother (also, at that time I was in love with a Brazilian man Id met in Bali). My contemporary, the writer Ed [Edmund] White, had the apartment next door. But something wasnt right. I met Kim [Gordon] through a mutual friend. Sometimes it was just me and my sister walking up to the velvet rope or the bouncers, or it would be a group of us, and they would let us right in. 1982 Having introduced nouvelle cuisine at Ma Maison in Los Angeles, Chef Wolfgang Puck presents "California cuisine" to patrons of his new chic-casual Sunset Strip restaurant, Spago. Columbia Pictures had given me this SX-70 camera at a conference, and I started documenting life in the Fire Island Pines [an area of Long Island known as a haven for gay life], which just seemed very important to me. They could be stimulated by the heterosexual pornography that was on the screen. I was finishing my dissertation and working as the porn critic for the New York Native, so Id go up to the Adonis at 51st and Eighth and different theaters in Times Square. One of his favorite pieces was the Alto Rhapsody of Brahms, sung by Dame Janet Baker. One night I saw Jack Smith do a reading, and I can still remember this line, which kind of sums up that era: The cockroach caravan crosses the rented desert of exotic landlordism.. And then we had Robert Rauschenberg, a rascal and a great man. If I were going out that night, Id go see Garren to fix my hair. Next door to my apartment on East Eighth and Avenue C was the Green Oasis Community Garden, and I got involved with that. How the Original TGI Fridays Helped Create the Singles Bar - InsideHook Where To Drink On The Upper East Side . She had made a video of herself dancing to LL Cool J. And then we said, We gotta do the real hip-hop that were actually doing at the block parties and at the house parties and at the park parties. So we decided to make it all beat no music, just me and Run [Joseph Simmons, another founding member of Run-DMC] doing the real hardcore, just rhyming on this record. The area was really no-mans land. While her friend Sara explained, We dont even like this place. Thankfully, most seemed to only be of the public urination and inconsiderate noise variety, angering wealthy locals. I was living with my aunt and one of my cousins in a shotgun apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I saw Jody Watley on television, and I was like, They dont steal silver, Im going to wear those!. Xerox art was big then, so people would come in to make photocopies and plaster them all over. Denzel had just gotten St. The elevated West Side Highway, meanwhile, was a place you could ski. People used to say, The East Village will be gone when theres a Gap, and then, in the late 80s, one opened on the corner of St. Marks and Second Avenue. The oppressively hot and always jam-packed Ski Bar was so crazy The New York Times compared its atmosphere to that of a beer commercial, and nightly there were sweaty singles dancing and drinking with unbridled enthusiasm. I liked to work out in the late afternoon, because in the morning I wanted to save every iota of energy for my work and the store. Bar owners argued that they should be able to capitalize on the marketplace however they could and that only the State Liquor Authority could outlaw such ladies night deals. The apartment, at 1060 Fifth Avenue, at 87th Street, was like a fantasy apartment huge, with a view of the reservoir. I had this idea I was going to be a writer; if I couldnt, there would be no point to my life. Stephanie Chernikowski/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. CBGB was just up the street, and I performed there with my band or as a solo poet many times. 1. It was a small scene, people like writer Stephen Saban, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel [Basquiat] and Kenny Scharf. I had to be at the theater by 7 oclock so I could start my process and get ready before half-hour call. And then he asked me again: Dap, whats she doing? Iconic Restaurants in NYC That Have Closed - Untapped New York I spent a decade in New York City like that. It was nothing but rejection. I didnt have the scratch to make it livable, but I met this guy named Peter Marino [the architect and designer] in the elevator who was doing a high-end renovation on the top floor and negotiated with him. Still, he found ladies night ultimately quite profitable. It was the tale of two cities back then, and I was in my late 20s, trying to get the message out, running the National Youth Movement out of an office in St. Marys Hospital in Bed-Stuy. The pictures on the wall were all from the Fifties, and a group of us girls would go and get our hair done in crazy bouffants. Their approach was direct and curt, no frills not self-consciously art-directed no frills, but Old Country, 19th-century no frills. It was a real neighborhood place, with people dropping in and hanging out, and a sort of day care center for neighbors who wanted us to watch their kids. Guthrie Inn on the other hand perfectly captures how living on the Upper East Side feels in reality; a bit isolated and quiet at times, a haven from downtown at other times, comfortable yet on the rise, and full of an interesting cast of characters. Those who set the tone you had to have an outfit from me. Wednesdays and Thursdays were Ultimate Ladies Night with free Margaritas all evening, not to mention a gratis taco bar during happy hour. Madison Pub was an indispensable local dive. Id get to the gallery late afternoon. As soon as he opened [his own place] I started working there, alongside Sara Driver [the filmmaker and partner of Jim Jarmusch]. I got up at anywhere from 3 to 5 in the morning and worked as long as I could. I was 16 when we started going to the Roxy, and my guest list was 100 people, and we were kind of like the ornaments on the tree. 1 place sorted by traveler favorites. Then I would go to Macys and go to the $10 rack. And if I missed it, I felt really bad. Afterward, wed go to a club. Across the street from my apartment was the McBurney Y.M.C.A., so that was my gym, and halfway down the block was something called the Squat Theatre, home to an avant-garde Hungarian troupe, and kind of a drug spot. Peter had no small talk at all. It was all very small town-y. Upper East Side Bars - Directory of the Best Bars on the UES The original flier for Kellys show at the Pyramid Club in 1981. In the Early 80s, It Made All the Difference, Oral History: Remembering New Yorks Fiorucci Store, New Yorkers and Their 80s Routines Block by Block, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/t-magazine/80s-nyc-map.html, Ann Magnuson, actress and performance artist. Then you checked to see if there was anything in the theater papers for auditions. We would go till 4 a.m. Hell, we would go past 4 a.m. They were spinning on their heads, the cops said. When me and Run would go to each others houses and rap together, we would go into the attic. Michael Gira, the frontman of the band Swans, was on the [first] cover. In the summer of 1992, New York Magazine published a photo of the Slalom Shots alongside a brief blurb and, according to Block, That more or less started the anarchy in the neighborhood.. They were supposed to be 17 or 18. Broadway 96 [Club Broadway] was more geared to black and Latino youth and that was definitely a wilder place. And thats why Block thinks youll never again see an era like the early 1990s on the Upper East Side. All the music [in the atelier on 125th Street] came from the VCR. Part of how they paid us was they had to strip some wood the house had five fireplaces, and the foyer was original, and all wood. You simply traveled to where things were happening. Miller, Edited by Kate Guadagnino and Thessaly La Force. 25 East 61st street is the rear extension of 673 Madison Avenue, an Italianate brownstone built in 1871 by architect John G. Prague as part of a project for the developer John McCool which included a row of 5 brownstones on Madison Avenue, and 17 houses on 61st street. At that time, Chelsea was unexplored territory. So we were really supporting ourselves! Honestly, my mind was empty, but I wanted to be consumed by that emptiness. Soon there was an all-out war being waged for putting butts on barstools, and in these days before the internet, the bars would advertise their increasingly outrageous specials in the Village Voice and free local fliers sloppily stacked at the entrance to ATM banks, while hoping for write-ups in New York Magazines weekly goings-on section. 77 Restaurant memories 1970-90 ideas - Pinterest The quiet and space afforded clarity. When he got sick, we were in a downward spiral for a year and a half. Spanning the late 1980s through the late 1990s, . They are not obliged to talk to anyone. I would go to school, come home, clean the house, babysit my second and third cousins, hang out on the stoop, wait for my aunt to come home, have dinner with her and wait until she fell asleep then I broke out. I would then either go to work or go to an opening because Macys closed at 8:45 or something, so you had to move on. By 1968, 85 bars called the neighborhood home, like Gleason's, slightly further uptown near Yorkville, and similarly decorated to Friday's, with Tiffany lamps and the ornate wooden bar that had graced the Schaefer Beer pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. There were all these conspiracy theories. Sam was doing Ragtime, and then he did A Soldiers Play on Broadway. Carver came by, down from Syracuse on some publishing business. We would sit at this coffee table and listen to records for an hour. We cant put the money out for something this queer. Then [writer and editor] Bob Colacello saw the project and said, Andy Warhol has a three-book deal with Houghton Mifflin. What New York Was Like in the Early '80s Hour by Hour And, of course, so did the men. My favorite was the Mine Shaft, a very performative kind of sex bar on Little West 12th Street that had a kind of punk, anti-disco vibe. Le Relais, on Madison and 63rd, was more everyone my age and everyone from Europe. It was still a sort of wild west that far uptown, and the facility was quickly dubbed Dormandie Court for the raucous, college-like atmosphere it had created and then fostered. Remembering the Lost Gay Bars of NYC - PAPER My primary motive back then was to put on a show, and anything that slowed me down from that had to be curtailed. Team Infatuation August 19, 2022. It was social, the Upper East Side ladies. Peter lived on the absolute margins he never had anything. Top Gay Clubs & Bars in Upper East Side (New York City) - Tripadvisor And why I got out.. Todd didnt like the idea that I was doing a fanzine. People thought I was a little crazy. They would shy away with confused expressions, whispering to their friends. Clear all filters. By ajordahl123. He needed someone he trusted. When Canadian-born club impresario Peter Gatien came to New York City in the early '80s, after. Photograph courtesy of Charlie Ahearn, whose groundbreaking hip-hop feature film Wild Style (1983) featured Grandmaster Flash, Lee Quiones and Fab 5 Freddy, among others. So in April we held the Rites of Spring Fertility Bacchanal. It cut down a great number of the people who were out there doing it, but at the same time, the ones who were left were much more intense about it. My first photo lab was called Hy Photo. They were very basic but super interesting. The only place that designated who you were was the Upper East Side. So I call LL up and I let her speak to him for a few minutes. Lobster Newburg as it looks today. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz. Even by the early 1990s, the Upper East Side remained haunted by what had happened there in 1986, when the infamous Preppy Killer, Robert Chambers, had pounded tequila and beer chasers at. One of my responses was to just keep working. It was a kind of a monks cell. Best Upper East Side bars in NYC. Thelonious Monk or Nina Simone or Gloria Lynne would stop by to visit them, so I grew up around these real bebop superstars. In the mornings, Id walk along 125th Street to the store, which I opened in 82. And the food at Genroku was really cheap, which was the operative word. We were outside the Mine Shaft [a raunchy 1970s/'80s gay sex club on Washington Street]. It wasnt a rich peoples restaurant; it was a restaurant for people Elaine happened to like. The first club I did with Shawn Hausman, The Club With No Name, was on 25th Street. draw in the skirts that bring in the suits. In the 1980s, the restaurant began to decline, as it switched up menu items in favor of more chicken and fish. The manager, Dorian Mecir, had a heart of gold. As told to Kate Guadagnino,Elizabeth Gumport,Merrell Hambleton and Erin Sheehy. But I had a new Mercedes-Benz, and Id leave it in front of the store when I was in Harlem so people knew they could reach me. It's just happening. He would maybe drink half a glass of wine. How you doin this morning?, He was young, dressed in jeans, and clearly shocked. Adolph would regale us with stories. I didnt want anything to be more important than the writing. I tried to focus on my art. And the hair. Hip-hop artist Prince Whipper Whip of the hip-hop group Grand Wizard Theodore & the Fantastic Five at the Sparkle in the Bronx. It didnt have a name. I was like, Oh cool, youre doing art too? Bands would put up fliers all over SoHo; there were wheat-paste fliers everywhere. I would just sit there. Pierre Francillon and Richard Alvarez, both artists and friends of fashion designer Andre Walker, in 1983 at the Middle Collegiate Church, where Walker held a fashion show. I made sure there was a hot tub in there. When I was working at Newsweek, I often got out of work at two or three in the morning, and I would walk home up Madison Avenue often in stilettos from 49th to 74th and Lex. I didnt smoke or drink, and when you dont do those things, you need an outlet. This morning was no different than any other. I was sneaking out. Upstairs, the formally attired crowd (jackets required, gentlemen) dines on classic fare including the 21 Caesar Salad, Creamy Chicken Hash, and the ever-popular 21 Burger, which has been on the . I had just moved the gallery to Franklin Street in TriBeCa from West 57th Street. There were very few artists there. Carnegie Deli Carnegie Deli. The front window was a queer Mount Rushmore, with the heavyweights looking out onto the street: Rene Ricard, Bill Rice, Peter Hujar, Paul Thek. My parents were heroin addicts, beatniks. The bakery, located in the front and open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., is great for an excellent croissant and coffee break. These are the moments, large and small, recounted by 36 writers, artists, fashion designers, musicians and more who lived in New York City in the early 80s. It was kind of a raffish crossroads. The sidewalks along St. Marks over to Astor Place were just as lively they were a sort of souk where you could buy back what the junkies had stolen from your apartment. One is the van that were filming in thats our set but also a place to stay warm in between shots one is a car for running errands and then theres a truck, guarded by two Doberman pinschers, with all of our lighting and camera equipment. 1983 The Food Marketing Institute reports that 2/3 of all fish consumed in the U.S. is eaten in restaurants. Giuliani sending his goons around to raid things. 2. Mos), a Tex-Mex slash surfer-themed bar with a totemistic statue of Geronimo the Apache Surfer hanging by the entrance and countless big screen TVs. The apartment was big, but the hall was in very bad repair, or at least looked it. Now nothings open after 11. It was all exposed wood and brick, and it had a tiny fireplace, a futon, my books, a sink and a stove. There were very few places to work out back then. Could you just call LL so she could just say hi? Everybody knew I knew all the rappers and everything. Youd press your lips to the bottom and Slalom Girls would pour a combo Jaeger/tequila shot that would shush down the slope and into your face. It is demeaning to women to be treated this way, claimed Long Island man Richard Savino in 1984. Indeed, many of his customers would come from Normandie Court a block away. I slept when I was exhausted and awoke when I was refreshed. Gracie Terrace, New York, NY (212) 535-3140 (212) 535-3140. 1. 15 of the Best Upper East Side Bars to Visit Now - Time Out New York JAM gallery founder Linda Goode Bryant, circa 1981-82. The conversation was very interesting. I never saw that before and hed never experienced that. This kind of activity is highly socially ordered: You dont barge in on other people, thats all part of it. What if they just let all women drink for free? In a letter about her trip, she wrote, When pages needed to be retyped, Jimmy did the retyping. If you remember Flemings, this event is for you: Saturday, December 4 Fleming's Reunion Party I was part of the backpacker renaissance; you brought a backpack, so youd have a change of clothes. The apartment had this old refrigerator that didnt have room for much, so in the winter Id keep everything out on the fire escape. 68. Belgian, Crepes, Wine Bar, Coffee Shop Menu Available. Caribbean Restaurants Restaurants. Id work for 12 hours straight, prepping for my show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery. They were sort of an island unto themselves, and then you went across the park and you had the Pyramid Club and everything else was bars until you got to the Mudd Club way downtown. He had intended whatever conversation we were having to go in another direction. Wed go to bed among the broken glass, booze and old cigarettes. When I first moved to the city, there was a garbage strike. And shoulder pads. On NYCs Upper East Side, Ladies Night Ruled the 90s Until It Didnt | VinePair, https://vinepair.com/articles/ladies-night-wars-nyc/, wbs_cat Spirit, ladies\' night, laws, manhattan, women, Domaine Champalou Vouvray 2019, Loire Valley, France | VinePair, https://vinepair.com/good-wine-reviews/domaine-champalou-vouvray-2019-loire-valley-france/, wbs_cat Wine, wbs_type Vouvray, wbs_brand Domaine Champalou, chenin blanc, good wine, Vouvray. Here are our favorites. Owner Sean Fleming's band was among the many popular bands that would perform there. See more ideas about memories, restaurant, howard johnson's. Best 30 80s Night Clubs in New York City, NY with Reviews - Yellow Pages I lived at the Olympic Tower, and Halston was downstairs.. Then our leading lady, Susan Berman, broke her leg, and we had to wait for her to get out of the cast. Brandy's Piano Bar. Occasionally, a costumed employee they dubbed Jgerman would appear from the back wielding bottles of the potent German digestif in his hands, which he then free-poured into ladies mouths as the crowd chanted his theme song: Jgerman, Jgerman, if you cant drink it, no one can!, It was like feeding baby birds, recalls Capobianco. Guide. Bronwyn Thomas, she was like happy feet on her toes. If they didnt give us any food, wed go off to the next person. Today the Upper West Side is considered one of the richest, cleanest, and most expensive places to live in New York City. I had reached 30 and was having to face how hard it was going to be. There were still hookers, male and female, on the street, and vendors selling potted plants and gigantic stuffed animals under the rubble of the West Side Highway at all hours of the night. Then we hit the clubs: Sound Factory, the Roxy, the Fun House. But truthfully, I hated it. I also had a tiny place on 12th Street between Greenwich and Washington the top back room of a falling-apart townhouse that the owner was renting out. They were all drunk and wasted and they were happy. Our 10 Best NYC Restaurants of the Last Two Centuries He was like the Jimmy Fallon or Trevor Noah of that era. In a way, its ironic Ski Bar continues to have such a strong presence on social media as Block figures social media is the very reason why you dont see these types of bars and binge-a-rific drinking deals any more. 16 Best Upper East Side Restaurants - Eater NY Everyone writes that I was his tour manager, but thats not what it was. It all depended on who was playing. Being at the Carlyle was amazing, but I was still an undergrad at Yale at the time, and the whole thing felt unreal, as though I was living two lives. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He was in his preppy stage in those days, wearing button-downs, which really is hard to imagine now. It was sort of 11 to 7. You can walk down the. I was staying in Garys loft on East Fifth Street between Bowery and Second, on summer break from the writing program at Syracuse, where Id been studying with Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. It was run by very old Jewish folks. $5 all-you-can-drink that was my bar menu., 2014 - 2023 VinePair Inc. Made In NYC, Bartenders: Now's Your Chance To Experience Barbados. I got a loft at Clinton and Stanton, which was far from fashionable. And then off wed go! The Penrosenamed for a neighborhood in Cork, Ireland, where two of the owners grew upbrings a bit of the indie-chic East Village to Gossip . East 80s, NY Restaurant Guide. I worked in my office at home, an eight-room walk-up on the Upper West Side. Cramped beer and shot joints with names like the Blue Moon, Czar Bar, and Richters were all vying for the attention of this influx of recently graduated young adults who wanted to go out, but had little money to do so. I couldnt, but I did turn around and walk with him for some blocks to the restaurant. James Brown and Ali because of them, I basically became a made guy. The all-you-can-drink deals just dont happen these days, because the rents are so high, says Block. What are some legendary restaurants in New York City in the 70s - Quora Taylor Mead had a running tab at multiple bars. High-end lounges and clubs were beginning to pop up downtown, especially around the flourishing Meatpacking District, and if plenty of ladies would continue to drink for free at places like Lot 61, Moomba, Spy Bar, and Marquee, it was the male customers who were usually paying for the overpriced bottles of Grey Goose and Patrn. Afternoon workouts. I moved to Leonard Street and stayed there until five or six years ago when I was made to leave my rented loft. Very quickly, I realized it had potential to be a book. Others would drop by out of curiosity and wonder what was on my mind. I was living on Eldridge Street between Hester and Grand. By the end of the relationship, I was living there. It seems we could start later than this. It made the general public aware that people were dying in Brooklyn, in Harlem, in the Bronx. Mozart. Youd establish dialogue with great artists like Lawrence Weiner. He was very aware I was using a lot of paper that wasnt being accounted for, so we came to an agreement that I had to pay. Everyone I knew hated Reagan and couldnt wait for him to get out of office. As told to Caroline Bankoff,Heather Corcoran,Nancy Hass and M.H. State records are incomplete. Ive gotta go to something, Bob will call you. I took the elevator down to the street and I saw a phone booth and the first thought that came to my mind was, Do not call any of your friends and tell them Andy Warhol is doing your book because I dont think thats for real. And sure enough, he didnt. It was packed every night; it won the Pulitzer Prize that year. Or I would throw a party. When I first moved to Manhattan I was eager to get back to the Bronx as often as possible, so I would go to the Pathmark on 207th Street and pack bags to try to make change. It was right next to the Chelsea Hotel, where I was living. Youd walk in there and all the actors would be sitting around, it was almost like a club, and youd see all these people: Danny Aiello, Warren Beatty. At Elaines, for instance, you would find people Elaine was floating. These parties inevitably blur together in my mind, but I remember that night because a week later, Abbott stabbed and killed a waiter at the Binibon cafe, a few doors down the block. I would go to this rotary sushi place called Genroku. Nine oclock was the earliest you could go.