The Last Picture Show in Chelsea

As a corollary to my earlier post about not going to the movies anymore, I noticed my old regular cinema on West 23rd Street in Chelsea recently closed. (Sorry for the delay on reporting this: My days of being the chronicler of Eighth Avenue are over, too!) 

Although the movie house has changed hands a number of times over the years -- pretty sure it was a Cineplex Odeon when I arrived in the late '90s -- I have many good memories from there, so am sad to see it go. Perhaps my favorite is when I first started dating my ex (Michael) in 2002. I was meeting his group of friends for the first time and they decided they wanted to see the new "Spider-Man." That is NOT my kind of movie -- what's a Tobey Maguire? -- but at the risk of looking like the high-maintenance bitchy boyfriend they would later discover I actually was, I decided to just go along for the ride.

I don't remember much about the movie other than it was very long and very dumb. But I do recall there was a woman sitting directly behind me whose reactions were so unusual and charming that I wound up getting my entertainment from her.

When the lights finally came up, we all gathered ourselves -- and you should have seen my face when I realized the lady providing my diversion was none other than Debbie Harry! (The Blondie songstress, of course, lived just two blocks away at the London Terrace apartments.) 

To my credit, I left her be. I figured at that point she'd already given me more than the film's money's worth of joy, so I allowed her to fade away and radiate, forever seared in my brain. 

If one of the city's hottest neighborhoods can no longer support a movie theater, clearly I'm not the only one staying in.

Lost in the '90s

If you enjoyed reading my "Heyday of Chelsea's 8th Avenue" post, then you definitely don't want to miss an extensive interview with former FoodBar and G Lounge co-owner Pat Rogers. Visit Tim Murphy's Caftan Chronicles for all the juicy details HERE.

Famed Chelsea Diner The Dish to Close

 

It's with a heavy heart that I add the final nail in the coffin to my post about the death of Chelsea's 8th Avenue, with news that The Dish just announced that it will be closing after nearly 25 years. The delightfully gay diner -- where everyone went for a cruisy hungover breakfast the day after a night at G, Splash or the Roxy -- opened the same year I arrived in the gayborhood. Sad but almost fitting that we both left the 'hood the same year. Read the touching letter from the staff below. 😦😦😦

From my friend Taffy:

FUCK - just read your blog entry about The Dish closing. I ate their so many times, and my favorite memory from there is one Sunday “morning” (probably noon-ish) I was with a friend eating French toast or whatever, and at another booth was Debbie Harry (wearing what kind of looked like a housecoat!) with a younger guy friend. She had a cup of coffee and a half a grapefruit. I was so excited/freaked out at seeing my idol in such a casual setting I couldn’t relax til she’d gone. No, we didn’t intrude on her meal, just silently hyperventilated. God, how I loved Chelsea.

Read: The Heyday of Chelsea's 8th Avenue

Back to the '90s

 

Longtime readers probably know about my nostalgia fetish, particularly when it comes to my neck of the NYC woods. So you can imagine my delight when seeing a bunch of old haunts -- including two angles of my actual street corner(!) -- pop up while watching the entire run of "Seinfeld," which seems to film all of its driving scenes in Chelsea and the surrounding neighborhoods. Above you can see the famed Eighteenth & Eighth restaurant, named after the intersection that the New York Times called "the epicenter of gay life" in New York City back in 1994. Because I've always worked afternoons, I used to love to go there to have oatmeal and coffee and read the paper -- the place to myself -- before going into the office. It's where I took my parents to dinner when they visited me for the first time in the city -- and it's also where I overheard some people talking about their friends finally being about to get their television show on the air -- which turned out to be "Will & Grace"! Next to it you can see my old hardware store and the red awning of my Indian restaurant, all of which are long gone.

Another episode featured this angle of 18th and 8th, where you can see my favorite Cuban-Chinese place, my old laundromat, my old liquor store and Viceroy restaurant, where my brother Bill and I ate while waiting to view the apartment that would become my home for the past 23 years. (All four of the places I mentioned are long gone, although the laundry was gutted and reopened under different management.) 

And I caught a glimpse of 8th Avenue at 17th Street, where the funky gay clothing store Camouflage was rebranded as a high-end shop where Jerry ends up buying an expensive jacket with a pink and white candy-stripe lining. (Note that the awning of the Paradise Muffin Co. is partially visible, later shortened to the Paradise Cafe.)

I also noticed two familiar places on Greenwich Avenue. Here was see the Alex Theater, which was really the Art Greenwich Twin/Cineplex Odeon where my friend Ken and I used to see movies when we first moved to New York. (The "Sex and the City" gang also caught a flick there at the end of one early episode.) The building was demolished and is now the location of a schmancy Equinox gym. (In the distance you can see the Jamaica restaurant Day-O, which perished in 2011.)

And last but not least, just east of there you can see the old Pottery Barn -- which was a quaint little place before becoming a huge chain. (Two doors east was Alphabets, which only very recently closed.) Wikipedia says Pottery Barn was co-founded in 1949 by Paul Secon and his brother Morris in Chelsea (of all places), which is news to me.

Between the '90s New York porn and the fact that "Seinfeld" reminds me so much of my beloved late brother Bill -- when I crashed with him upon relocating to D.C. on Jan. 30, 1993, the first thing he did after we watched the women's final of the Australian Open was make me watch the first three and a half seasons he'd recorded on his VCR -- I've been on sentimental (albeit wistful) streaming journey.

Question: Why was everyone on “Seinfeld” constantly DRIVING? No one I know in Manhattan owns a car let alone drives around the city. 😩

Where the 'Roids Are

 

Loved seeing this on Nora Burns’s Instagram feed yesterday. Chelsea Gym is one of the many now-closed places I fondly remembered in my Heyday of Chelsea's 8th Avenue post!

As seen in the June 27, 1990, issue of OutWeek.

RIP: Better Bodies

Unhappy Ending?

Another casualty on Chelsea's once-bustling 8th Avenue.

A pal notes:

"Chelsea residents will be **shocked** to learn that The One Men Spa has been shut down for prostitution allegations."

Funny, because a good friend of mine claims they wouldn't even give him a basic rub ‘n’ tug. 

Chain of Fools

Just what Chelsea needs to go with its Chick-fil-A.

UPDATE:

Wait. Did Auntie Anne come out as nonbinary? 

Nailed It

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If I won't go to this stupidly named nail salon, then this stupidly named nail salon will apparently come to me!

Song of the Day: 'Chelsea Morning' by Joni Mitchell

The New York Post has waded into a sensitive topic, writing that "bums are overrunning the West Village and Chelsea, according to terrified residents who are circulating a petition to remedy the crisis since police and lawmakers are unable or unwilling to help." The tabloid writes: "Longtime denizens say the problem has never been worse, with vagrants shooting up drugs and relieving and even pleasuring themselves in full view."

At first blush I described the piece as "slightly hyperbolic, but (sadly) mostly true." (Remember when I saw the sex worker "working" on a client down by my building trash cans and the 16 shuttered storefronts on 8th Avenue?) Ever since much of the gay nightlife scene moved to Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea's once bustling Eighth Avenue has at times become a veritable wasteland of shuttered businesses, derelicts and hookers hanging outside the three seedy businesses that have remained constant: a trio of adult video shops. A fellow Chelsea resident (and friend) pushed back, saying: "Slightly?" 

But after conceding that the part about the element of danger seemed like bullshit -- "one Chelsea woman said she won’t leave her apartment without Mace and a Kevlar vest"(!) -- my boyfriend had to remind me that I was assaulted over on Ninth Avenue just after the Gay Pride Parade in June. (After asking our group if we had any money -- to which I replied, "Sorry, not today" -- some erratic man sucker punched me in the gut with such force that I was concerned several days later that I may be bleeding internally because the pain had lasted so long. All I could think was that if he'd had a pocket knife, I could very well be dead and he'd have been long gone -- it all happened so quickly my friends didn't even realize I'd been punched.) So if I've been victimized -- and frankly I'm rarely on Eighth or west of there, which is what the article is about -- having moved my life east to the much nicer Seventh Avenue -- who am I to say if there are women in the neighborhood who aren't doing what they need to do to feel safe? Might be time for me to check in with NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson. 

New Life on Chelsea's Beleaguered 8th Avenue

When Bareburger closed at 18th and 8th, I assumed it was because of slow business. (The location at 14th and 6th also closed). But what do you know, it's just relocating to where Chuck and Blade was between 19th and 20th. The space is kind of cursed -- it's been nearly a dozen things since I've lived in the neighborhood -- but perhaps I'll give it a second chance now that it has a bigger dining room.

And just next door in the former home of Rocking Horse Cafe there's a Hummus Kitchen moving in. It appears to be a local chain of sorts -- the menu looks promising.

Got a tip? Write to me HERE.

Anti-Gay Chicken Peddler Struts Into Chelsea

So this is an affront of multiple levels: It was bad enough that a chain like Olive Garden was doing business in a city filled with authentic Italian cuisine. But rather than being happy that the Chelsea location finally closed, now we’re being hit with yet another chain -- only this time it’s the most homophobic of them all. Will the locals tell Chick-fil-a to pluck off? Only time will tell.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back on Chelsea’s 8th Avenue

It was four years ago today that I published "The Heyday of Chelsea's 8th Avenue," my most popular post (not featuring naked men) to date. Although it's only been four years, the once-bustling center of queer life in New York City has gone through dozens more changes. Despite spending less time on the avenue -- the mere fact that I now take the subway to work from Sixth instead of 8th has shifted my entire life to Seventh! -- I've posted now and then in the ensuing years. But a recent trip to my pharmacy on 8th was yet another eye-opener, in some good ways and bad.

 Perhaps the most depressing news was the demise of Intermezzo. In 2015, I singled it out as one of the avenue's oldest residents. Although I was never a regular, I was heartened to see that a new drag brunch had the place hopping on weekends, so it was a bit of a shock to see it gone with no fanfare.

The Bare Burger at 18th and 8th -- home of Damian's beloved bananas foster milkshake -- also closed abruptly. I must confess that I never got over the closing of Better Burger up the way, so always had a bit of a grudge against its younger and cuter replacement. Apparently I wasn't alone. 

I wasn't too surprised to see Chuck & Blade/Buns Bar close. To be honest, the building is cursed. It's been Trois Canards, La Belle Vie, Donatella, Provo Pizza and Heartwood before its latest failed incarnation. And to be honest, the place was run by famous restauranteurs’ children, who somehow didn't even know how to make a milkshake, so what did we expect?

The deli/smoke shop on 18th and 8th bombed ... but the sex shop above it is still in business. (Who buys anything in those???)

And you didn't need to be a psychic to see trouble was brewing here. Ikinari Steak opened two new shops in Chelsea (15th/8th and 19th/7th), both of which quickly closed. While other locations around the city seem to be doing OK, I'm not sure queens of a certain age have caught on to the "standing" phenomenon, for eating or drinking. 

The former home of Wrapido at 15th and 8th is still boarded up years later, with nothing threatening to move in ...

Was sad to see my Ricky's at 17th and 8th close. (The one on 23rd/8th has been gone for a while.) This storefront is another revolving door, but this seemed like the most logical retailer for the neighborhood since Blockbuster Video 20 years ago.

And it's still an empty storefront in the former home of Rocking Horse Cafe, which closed in November after an incredible 30-year run.

The old La Chinita turned 10 Thai places at 18th  is still vacant.

The Haru that was there for 10 minutes is looking sad and lonely at 19th. Sam Chinita and even Nisos seem like a dream to me now.

And the deli between 22nd and 23rd is no more.

On the upside ...

A new Aussie coffee place -- St. Hilda -- opened at 21st/8th, which is my ex-boyfriend's corner. Michael says he hasn't been in yet, but that it appears to be hopping. Need to check it out.

The former American Apparel is now a gigantic bike shop called Trek. Biking is not my thing, but it seems like a perfect fit the Chelsea.

And at 23rd and 8th -- in the former home of S.G.S. Donuts, Breadstix Cafe and then Chelsea Deli & Bakery -- a Mediterranean place called Fle-Fle Grill has finally moved in. (Haven't been -- it's next door to Lions, Tigers and Squares pizza so, you know.) 

And last but perhaps not least, Jungle Bird opened in the former home of El Cid. After a brief renaissance as Sugar & Spice Tapas Restaurant and Sangria Bar, the building underwent a huge renovation and now looks -- as my friend Tim so perfectly put it -- straight out of West Hollywood's Santa Monica Boulevard! Strangely, the outside is completely different yet the inside seems strangely untouched from my view from the sidewalk. (Maybe I'm wrong -- the photos online looks pretty cool.) Jungle Bird bills itself as a "retro cocktail bar," which sounds promising enough! 

Signs of Life on Chelsea's 8th Avenue

Some good news from the evanescent gayborhood. No sooner did the beloved (by others) Rocking Horse Cafe unceremoniously close up shop, Jack's Wife Freda opened in the old home of Mary Ann's at 16th and 8th. Damian and I had brunch there on Sunday and were pretty impressed. The food has a slight Mediterranean flair to it, but not to a fault. 

For instance: The rosewater waffles were fairly straightforward but came with fruit and Greek yogurt.

 Damian had the (Maya's) breakfast bowl, with scrambled eggs, red quinoa, kale, spaghetti squash, grilled tomato and avocado (that he gave to me because it's the ONLY food he doesn't like). They also have fairly traditional eggs Benedict, steak and eggs, and a variety of salads and sandwiches. Dinner leans a little more Mediterranean, with steaks, lamb, fish, Peri-Peri chicken, mussels and so on. 

The dining room is bright and airy ...

And the beardy host/manager type is an added bonus ...

... running around in slim-fit chinos and just being generally adorable.

Across the street is a new location of Ample Hills Creamery. It's the wrong season for ice cream, but we've been to the Gansevoort shop and liked it. Should mention both Jack's and Ample Hills are "chains," but local ones that have their roots in the city. (My beloved Westville started as a single location in the West Village and is now a "chain," too)

And since I'm keeping score, should mention that Sam [sic] Deli & Juice Bar on 8th between 17th and 18th -- which briefly housed the "Splash" sex shop before it moved upstairs and rebranded itself "Rainbow and Triangle" [sic] and now "Sexy Boutique" -- closed a couple of months ago, adding yet another abandoned storefront to the Avenue of Broken Gay Dreams. The place grossed me out because it doubled as a deli and "smoke shop."

And now from east of 8th comes this bombshell: In the old home of Radio Shack on the corner of 23rd and 7th -- just a stone's throw away from Crunch gym -- is a new Taco Bell Cantina! I've never been to one of those so I'm not sure if this is bad news -- that they only have that bullshit menu where everything has cilantro -- or even worse news -- where they have the original menu that I love so much! Damian despises fast food and will divorce me if it's the latter ... we barely survived that time I ordered Arby's.