Other times, it literally meant all-you-could-drink, whatever you wanted to drink, on every single night of the week. When AIDS hit, the lines were drawn: You were either straight or gay. It was on the 13th floor of an old city building, and you had to walk up a whole floor from the 12th, which was the last floor served by an elevator. The loft was across the street from Castelli [Gallery]. I never had to show the clothes I was making to a buyer, because they always saw it in the clubs first: at Danceteria, at Roxy, at Kool Lady Blues Friday-night party. LaTanya Richardson Jackson (far right) in Spell #7, 1979. See more ideas about memories, restaurant, howard johnson's. You were constantly on the phone: Did you see this in the paper? On the east side of Lexington, between 78th and 79th, was the best fishmonger Ive ever known: Rosedale. Thankfully, most seemed to only be of the public urination and inconsiderate noise variety, angering wealthy locals. CBs wasnt the best sound; it was such a long and narrow space that if it was crowded you couldnt really see anything, unless you were standing on the side of the stage, and then you just heard the stage sound. He slowed and turned around: Yeah, you too.. 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. 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. It was pitch-dark. I got my first loft in what was called Lower Manhattan before it was renamed the Triangle Below Canal, which was the realtors term that became TriBeCa, in 1967. They had gotten the idea that it was a very good headquarters. If you just wanted to grab a sandwich, youd go to Burger Heaven. Block opened it with a partner, Adam Singer, when he was just 22; he had worked at nearby Brother Jimmys for just two weeks before getting fired and deciding he could run a better bar. And then eventually some surface decoration with tucks and treatment Id take the fabric and just sew in any direction. To me it was all an art project. Thats where I first met [the late street-style photographer] Bill Cunningham, I think. It was the three of us. She and Larry Gagosian had this space, it was a condo loft in a building on West Broadway. That was the start of the end of this era, says Block. A few blocks away was the Ninth Street Bakery. But at midnight, yes, I was often out. I would walk around the neighborhood, go down to 42nd Street and do a lot of movie cruising. [1] I started JAM in 1974 to show the work of African-American artists and other artists of color. Home; . Otherwise neighborhood wasnt as important as finding a space one guy I knew, the photographer Patrick McMullan, lived in the coat-check room of a former hotel. His shoulders dropped and he said, Yeah. We looked at each other again when I opened the door for him; we were each wondering what had just happened. I really had no business buying my loft on West Broadway in those years. And then we had Robert Rauschenberg, a rascal and a great man. 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! It was before he was onstage and all that; he was just starting out. Best Upper East Side bars in NYC. You couldnt do nothing stupid or bad because your friends mother was your mother, too. The ultimate epitome of this wild, boozing-on-the-cheap era, Ski Bar, was located on Second Ave between 94th and 95th. The crass reason, of course, is because since the beginning of time, straight men have wanted to be drinking in the same place women are drinking because, yes, men are pigs. 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. But it had started with a simple idea: What if a bar just let women drink for free? Wed been working on the film for a year in dribs and drabs. Our first goal [as Sonic Youth] was getting a gig at CBGB. At night, if you headed south through long dark blocks to the meatpacking district, there were clubs and leather bars. Talk to the actors as they drifted in about your day, talk about whos auditioning for what. When me and Run would go to each others houses and rap together, we would go into the attic. Poets ruled the evening Tim Dlugos, still a few years from writing his haunting G-9 poem about an AIDS ward, was Bernadette of Lourdes. 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 lived on the quiet end of Hollis, Queens. Very quickly, I realized it had potential to be a book. Id go for two, three, four hours and have a fairly good time. You could feel it turning, the tackiness beginning to creep in. Alanna Heiss, founder of PS1 and the Clocktower Gallery. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 is sometimes used as a marker of the beginning of the end of the art world as it was then known, as if the two were somehow related, as if an election ushered in some new aesthetic permission, a new vulgarity, which is really a kind of negative magical thinking. I was just out of high school. One place I went to a lot was the St. Marks Baths. Things were 50 times as bad in Brooklyn as they were in Manhattan. Then we had Woody Allen. 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. Creative Time ran Art on the Beach on the landfill that is now Battery Park City back then it was just a huge field of sand. At night, if I was sitting around and wanted to amuse myself, Id walk down to Columbus and say hello. We were just taken with each other. Youd have Chinese opera and then some kind of Russian circus act and then a punk band and then a drag queen. For one assignment, the paper sent me to Washington Heights to photograph what it said was a riot. People like Jean-Michel [Basquiat] would come in, who was somebody you knew from Tier 3 and the Mudd Club; someone your age. As soon as he opened [his own place] I started working there, alongside Sara Driver [the filmmaker and partner of Jim Jarmusch]. Galleries and museums didnt exhibit their work at that time. Tuesday Trivia. At Elaines, for instance, you would find people Elaine was floating. 1. In the mornings, Id walk along 125th Street to the store, which I opened in 82. Like the Womens Christian Temperance Union. Bars would battle to get people in the doors., Then a bar on First Avenue, Far Out Lounge, came up with a gimmick that would change everything, with the ultimate idea to draw in the skirts that bring in the suits.. And the hair. I never saw that before and hed never experienced that. The apartment, at 1060 Fifth Avenue, at 87th Street, was like a fantasy apartment huge, with a view of the reservoir. Id work for 12 hours straight, prepping for my show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery. And when my mother asked me where I was at, I just said, Oh, I was in the attic.. Howard was Lili LaLeen, a German film actress in a vintage Mary McFadden. After three, four months there, we decided to turn our loft into a nightclub. Id paid high school kids to go on Thursday afternoons after school and hand out fliers. An important place to have breakfast was Buffas, on the corner of Lafayette and Prince youd see Jim Jarmusch and Jonathan Demme in the booths there. A chance encounter with David Bowie at a downtown nightclub. A crack den lined with books. Id make sure everything was in place and see what the new orders were. Come be a part of it. The doors would open and things would get going by 10, and by midnight it would be raging. 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. There was a studio near First Avenue in the 50s that used a dance technique that was a modified version of Pilates. The essence of Upper East Side gentility, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle is also the last public space to display the mural work of Ludwig Bemelmans, creator of the iconic children's book character and prolific illustrator of the 1940s and '50s. People would bring me their videos to pop in. They were very basic but super interesting. The gallerys not open so youll have to come back. Since no ones making them, they dont.. I met David Bowie in 1982 at the Continental on West 25th Street, which had just opened. 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. And shoulder pads. We recorded at a studio called Greene Street Recording Studio on Greene Street between Houston and Prince. I would often wake up in the middle of the night as the city slept. The venues didn't matter to me. I didnt want to fit in. Kamalis clothes cleverly combined athletic wear and fabric with high-fashion cuts and silhouettes, perfectly embodying the era. hip-hop open mic nights and more than a few not-entirely-cool bars around the Upper East Side. When our gallery, Gracie Mansion, started, both Gracie and I had other jobs, so we would switch off. It was a total nexus. Many of these bars tried to offer a sort of bridge from cheap college boozing to costly, real-world imbibing. We had great people like Billy Nunn [Radio Raheem in Spike Lees Do the Right Thing], Skeeter [Ellis Williams, who was in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway]. Ave., NYC 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 on 35th and Fifth, and it was a place where the sushi came around on a conveyor belt. 2. I suppose I should have loved New York; things were very good for me. State records are incomplete. I knew people who were dying as early as 79, and three months later their partners were dead, so by 1981 I had a clear picture, even if it hadnt fully sunk in, and it was an incredible life changer. I didnt want anything to be more important than the writing. 16 Timeless French Bistros and Brasseries in NYC - Eater NY 26 places sorted by traveler favorites Clear all filters 1. 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. And yet, over the years, bars continued to try to offer ladies night deals (whether discounted or completely free drinks) and various factions had tried to stop them. Harrys Hula Hut had bamboo walls, palm trees, and Nerf basketball available, plus all-you-can-drink beer. (By the time we filmed Desperately Seeking Susan in 84, New York was already beginning to become more gentrified.) That is, until 2008 when Bennigan's went bankrupt. He had always been like a surrogate father to me, and when his manager quit midway through the tour, he called me to come and just make sure people werent ripping him off at the venues every night. 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. What are some legendary restaurants in New York City in the 70s - Quora $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. Write a Review! During the day, Id get my paints at Canal Hardware or Pearl Paint. Yorkville, Manhattan photos from the 1980s - Alamedainfo I was straight-edge, so if I snuck out, I was all right, because I wasnt hungover the next day like the other kids. Brandy's Piano Bar. I was kind of tomboyish, but also pretty poor. But, most women slugging free beers at Brother Jimmys or complimentary Champagne at Jungle Jims or on-the-house Slalom Shots at Ski Bar arguably enjoyed these ladies night deals. Taylor Mead had a running tab at multiple bars. Two editors at Simon & Schuster thought it was terrific, but they said, You have to produce this yourself, and we can possibly get you a distribution deal. Hear Eric Goode remember when he found out about AIDS: I enrolled at the Parsons School of Design in 1982. [The clothes] were really like one-plus-one, big squares with holes, basically. And Dynasty. Ive never gotten over Dynasty. And then people started dying. Thats what I did. We said we were artists, and artists make art. I would be coming back around 4, 4:30, 5 oclock sometimes 6. In the lot there are three vehicles. I didnt know what I was doing. 15 of the Best Upper East Side Bars to Visit Now - Time Out New York Sometimes it could just be too blasting. I served eggplant parmigiana and a stupendous chocolate cake that everyone always wanted. He said, Dap, whats she doing? I said, Shes gasping for air now! And I go attend to her. For a while I lived on the Upper West Side, on the parlor floor of a brownstone on 71st Street between Amsterdam and Columbus. The early 80s were sort of the beginning of serious gentrification. It was hard. But this was every week. The front window was a queer Mount Rushmore, with the heavyweights looking out onto the street: Rene Ricard, Bill Rice, Peter Hujar, Paul Thek. Certainly at night, few people were there, and few were there on the weekends. 380 Lafayette St, New York . All of the cabbies would line up there to get eggs and bacon late at night. The silence, as they say, was deafening. 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. I couldnt believe he knew the same stuff I listened to as a kid in Greenwich Village. Wed eat. Flemings Reunion Party - MurphGuide: NYC Bar Guide 1442 1st Avenue, New York, NY . If I threw a party, by midnight there was probably an especially good mix of people there. We blacked out the skylights and windows and painted most of it gold very Warholian. In the mornings, usually around 11 a.m., Id go to one of the coffee shops around the corner on Avenue A. Odessa was one, and Leshkos was the other. But those deals enticed 22-year-olds to get out of their apartments. Wed say, Theyre not up in the morning, so dont go to them or They have kids, so maybe theyre up because the kids wake up. Wed visit people in the morning, early. They were more McDermotts friends, because my friends were working in fashion and they were like, Oh, get a job, bitch! There was a place called Columbus, on Columbus Avenue and 69th Street. Guide. Remembering the Lost Gay Bars of NYC - PAPER Bemelman's Bar at The Carlyle 128 Bars & Clubs Upper East Side Open now By M3088GQmarie Yes, the service is excellent, the atmosphere is lovely old fashioned, the music is good and the drinks are superb. This was the scene at 2 a.m. on a Friday night in the spring of 1983 when my lover (as we called ourselves then), the film director Howard Brookner, and I threw the first of our preposterous Ladies Parties. I was preparing that summer to start my first semester at St. Johns University. 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. Boozy, drug-fueled parties that lasted until dawn. I would get back home [from school] at a decent hour, four in the afternoon. Bronwyn Thomas, she was like happy feet on her toes. CBGB was just up the street, and I performed there with my band or as a solo poet many times. Sometimes you would cry, but most of the time you were just stunned, like it wasnt real. Zipped into a distressed red velvet number, I was the wacky blonde June Buntt, who liked to say the second T is silent. I was married to the astronaut Brad Buntt, who liked to say hed been in space for years now. The writer Dennis Cooper, in blue jean coveralls, was Mavis Purvis, a lesbian farmer living on a rural commune with her girlfriend. I tried to focus on my art. Ski Bar would issue custom-made lift tickets good for eight drinks apiece. When Flashdance came out in 1983, Paramount put me up in the Carlyle Hotel to do promotion. Points of interest include Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, The Whitney Museum, Hunter College, Gracie Mansion and Carl Schurz Park. I worked part-time for gallerist Annina Nosei. Upper East Side Aug. 11, 1972 It was a case of mistaken identity, revenge for the sensational rubout of Joey Gallo at Umberto's four months earlier, only this one led to two innocent meat. I remember being in someones loft it might have been [artist] Brian Hunts with a group of friends, watching the inauguration on a little black-and-white television. Jumbo-sized martini glasses smeared with ruby lipstick. Ann Magnuson, actress and performance artist. I was living with my aunt and one of my cousins in a shotgun apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We never served any food, but we always had a couple cases of beer and a basic bar. One time a girl a teenager, maybe 15, 16 came in with her dad. There were very few places to work out back then. I was 19. There would be all of the amazing designer clothes that nobody wanted, that were too weird. Hey, I said. Live Psychic on East 84th offered free drinks and $10 tarot card readings from, yes, live psychics on a platform to the left of the dance floor, while single ladies shimmied to songs like Right Said Freds Im Too Sexy. While American Trash, a biker-themed bar, had literal garbage on the walls and ceiling. Mexican chain, which while not the inventor of the slush/frozen margarita, was legendary for them, especially their "Ridiculous", which was the size of a smal. It's just happening. The conversation was very interesting. Id go with Andy Warhol, or to dinner and then to Studio 54 afterwards. Sep 13, 2019 - Restaurants that I ate at as a child..most no longer exist. I met Kim [Gordon] through a mutual friend. But something wasnt right. One day, I was walking uptown to an appointment just before noon, and coming toward me was Robert Duvall. Were shooting one of the final scenes in Smithereens where the main character, Paul, talks to a hooker in his graffiti-covered van the film was very influenced by the graffiti art and punk scene of that time, particularly on the Lower East Side. People thought I was a little crazy. Caribbean Restaurants Restaurants. Lobster Newburg as it looks today. I would drink quite a lot of wine. Women would crowd around oil drums turned into tables and, while standing on sawdust floors, pound cheap beer and well liquor. 1. There were lines around the block the theater starting bumping it up to a second and third screening. Guerrilla art activities took place all over. The. Have a good day. His hands were in his pockets now. Answer (1 of 6): While not classy in haute cuisine, these long-gone restaurants were very popular in the 70s and 80s too: * The Caramba! There are a lot of places to eat eggs and pancakes in the middle of the day on the Upper East Side. But truthfully, I hated it. Hip-hop artist Prince Whipper Whip of the hip-hop group Grand Wizard Theodore & the Fantastic Five at the Sparkle in the Bronx. The apartment was big, but the hall was in very bad repair, or at least looked it. The writer Gay Taleses social calendar for October 1983. Whats she doing now? She was like [hyperventilating]. Where To Drink On The Upper East Side - The Infatuation If it was a Thursday, Id be rushing to get all my work done, because that was the night I went dancing. The room I shared with two other students was on the top floor of the building facing the park. Her upstairs neighbor was artist Dan Graham, who I knew through the artist-poet Vito Acconci. He would maybe drink half a glass of wine. Iconic Restaurants in NYC That Have Closed - Untapped New York 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. 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. And Im not a corporate client, so please give me a break. 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. 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). I asked the kids to demonstrate what theyd been doing. To me, the 1980s were incredibly liberating. I had glasses, so I put these flip-up sunglass visors on them. Hey, lets go get drunk at a bar.. Sam [Samuel L. Jackson] and I bought a brownstone in Harlem around 1981. Open in Google Maps. She knew I was in dire straits; [by 1979] my landlord was getting squirrelly. Some of them were lying about their age and I knew it, but I didnt care. This scrappy 16mm movie that people werent sure if it was a story movie or a documentary, everybody looked at it and said, I know that guy! They werent public figures; they were locally known graffiti artists, break-dancers, hip-hop M.C.s or D.J.s. Did you come to see the show? Id walk to Cooper Union, where I was teaching. I dont even know if it was named AIDS at that point. It was kind of a raffish crossroads. At that time, Chelsea was unexplored territory. The old downtown art scene was floundering, while some people, like Robert Mapplethorpe, had risen. Back uptown, Mortimers restaurant was a huge place for me. Everyone was very excited. It was frequented by many celebrities, especially actors and authors. Al Sharpton (right) backstage at Madison Square Garden on June 11, 1974. No ID check, nothing. When I first moved to the city, there was a garbage strike. Silently. I tried to write every single day, first thing in the morning, 10 a.m. These 1980s Restaurants Didn't Stand the Test of Time - Eat This Not That Everyone I knew hated Reagan and couldnt wait for him to get out of office. There were others: the Venus, and down in the 14th Street area, the Variety Photoplays, a Spanish one called The Jefferson, The Metropol [Metropolitan]. If you remember Flemings, this event is for you: Saturday, December 4 Fleming's Reunion Party Top 10 Bars & Clubs in Upper East Side (New York City) - Tripadvisor JAM gallery founder Linda Goode Bryant, circa 1981-82. Still, he found ladies night ultimately quite profitable. Chloe 81 Night Clubs Dance Clubs Bars 6.7 Website Amenities: (212) 677-0067 The whole neighborhood was a lower-middle class suburban area. 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 . While her friend Sara explained, We dont even like this place. I lived at the Olympic Tower, and Halston was downstairs.. He had intended whatever conversation we were having to go in another direction. That was Sucker M.C.s., I was still living at home. You can walk down the. I couldnt work in color because I couldnt afford to make color prints. And I got in trouble because I didnt get home until like 1 or 2 in the morning. Some of them were open 24 hours a day, or they were closed maybe four hours a day for cleaning. It had the best hamburgers and gin martinis. We could each get a full breakfast scrambled eggs, hash browns, whole wheat toast with an endless cup of coffee for $5 with tip. Open in Google Maps. I lived at the Olympic Tower, and Halston was downstairs. Youd establish dialogue with great artists like Lawrence Weiner. Her father said, Dap, my daughter, shes driving me crazy. 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. I tended to feel particularly safe in the theaters. You simply traveled to where things were happening. Like Geronimos Bamba Bay Cafe (a.k.a. I had a loft downtown on Walker Street, one of the first buildings that went on loft strike. They would shy away with confused expressions, whispering to their friends. Todd didnt like the idea that I was doing a fanzine. You could work, then not work for a while, get by. It was all happening at the same time; there was a lot of yin and yang. Thats why I started wearing silver hoop earrings. 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. In 1981, I had just gotten back from six months on the road with James Brown. Within 18 months, several more "singles bars" were opened on 1st Avenue. We did a deep dive into the most avant-garde, atonal jazz. People would drop change in your hands, turn their heads when you tried to kiss them. Here are our favorites. Rare images of NYC nightclubs from the 1980s and '90s - AmNewYork At 11 to 12, Id had a nine-hour day. The first single we ever made [was in 1983]: Sucker M.C.s was the B-side of Its Like That. Its Like That was a record that was talking about all of the things that was going on in communities, society and also the world. Best upper east side bars 80\\\'s in New York, NY. There is no limit to it. Gracie Terrace, New York, NY (212) 535-3140 (212) 535-3140. We were then escorted to a quiet table in the rear by the smiling proprietress herself, Ms. Elaine Kaufman, and joined by her good friend, the gregarious publicist Bobby Zarem, a city slicker born in Savannah, Georgia, who told Mr. Carter: Your brother Billy once called me a Yankee because Savannah is north of Plains. Norman Mailer wasnt there that night. When we went out it was to perform. Thats where youd run into people, share breakfast. That was the best place to get fresh bread and rugelach and sweets. I think that free drinks for women is discriminatory and a bad idea, wrote Cynthia Heimel, a feminist columnist, in the November 1991 issue of Playboy. They paid me like a tenth of what they paid me to do the acting, and it became my whole life. At one end of my block was J.G. There was always someone between apartments or someone coming to town who needed somewhere to stay. I moved to Leonard Street and stayed there until five or six years ago when I was made to leave my rented loft. I loved to walk down Clinton to Delancey I called it Rue de Rves because it was filled with bridal shops with garishly colored dresses.