And Big Nicks. They have an enormous scotch selection, a large number of snifters, and plenty of Irish and American whiskey as well. So no matter what type of place youre looking for, use this guide the next time you go out on the Upper West Side. Some favorite places included Ruskays and Rouelles. Not all of us move here for a few years. Usually, when we talk about the differences in American life between past and present, there is a moment in which we feel compelled to denounce todays pathologies in comparison with the moral certainties of older times. You can drink one at the L-shaped bar in the corner, or you can grab a little table along the wall. I also like to point it out when kvetchers say the area is too fancy now. Neighbors watched out for each other, and most of the people who lived there stayed for generations, and most of the stores were family-owned businesses. Although the Upper East Side is generally considered the more expensive side, when it comes to renting in 2022, the Upper West Side takes the cake. I also remember that the Upper West Side was a true neighborhood, and I remember the slow and then really fast gentrification of the neighborhood in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. 1. And Silk Road. Bars & Music Mama's Bar. Food City was also where I dreamt of having my first jobs first as bagger, then aspiring to cashier. Once, after I was punched, my wallet stolen, my glasses (!) Arts & Entertainment. For example, claiming that people dont talk with their neighbors seems like little more than an assumption Im actually friends with several people in my building, to say nothing of those I merely talk with now and then. The drug store on 74th and Broadway was Ritob. One thing I have noticed of the UWS, which I find disturbing, is the influx of banks, financial storefront businesses and chain pharmacies on every street corner. Life is rough on everyone. And it was where I chose to live when I moved to Manhattan from Canarsie in 1972. Social workers divided the block into three play sectors, with adults playing volleyball, teenagers playing inside at a youth center, and younger children the east end. Six months later, the Times declared that the problem had been managed: Worst Is Over on West 84th Street. The solution was depopulation and destruction: The Department of Real Estate reported that 709 families had moved or been relocated from buildings due to give way for new schools. Only then it was called slum clearance and urban renewal. If you are a graduate student, you should know how to check municipal records for closing dates of stores. For an interesting look at our neighborhood,check out the Goodbye Girl on netflix. But this is the case in most major cities going through development and change. Located on Columbus b/n 81 and 82, it was beautiful inside (lots of wood), and I recall when it died out, roughly at same time of a branch of Shakespeare & Company on 81st and Bway, once the Barnes and Nobles opened (at 82nd), which of course still remains. Not everyones experience is like mine. Yes there was plenty of crime in the 80s, and the neighborhood has gone through change (for the better). Eventually the projects were built, but by this point the displaced residents of West 84th and others like them had been moved like chess pieces around the New York City board to other neighborhoods, worsening them. The hill going down to the park on West 91st. Bodega 88 Night Clubs Bars Brew Pubs (19) 8.6 Website (212) 799-1602 573 Columbus Ave New York, NY 10024 CLOSED NOW 2. Open in Google Maps. Don't Miss A Drop. An article on the front page of the New York Times on July 6, 1961, reported: Street fighting involving 400 Puerto Ricans and Negroes broke out in a West Side trouble block. Two women began arguing over a man, and a brawl erupted. Coolsingel Street Cam, Rotterdam. Get there early (around 9:00 p.m.) to experience it because it gets a bit crowded near the stage later in the evening. I only have one photo taken on the street in the1970s but I do remember alot of the old stores. At least when talking about fairly genteel nabes as we are here. A least some or all of my family lived on the Upper West Side from the 1930s to the mid 1980s. This map of the Upper West Side shows its location relative to the rest of Manhattan. The streets of my childhood were dirtier, and the people who lived there were poorer but I played on the street all day unsupervised by adults and we were safe. Why should people be made to feel uncomfortable/unwelcome in a neighborhood they created over decades, with their hard work & fortitude? Theres a bar in the middle of the room, some banquette seating, and a few tables - plus floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on 72nd Street. As Lyford wrote in 1966, a twenty-block site of a multimillion-dollar urban renewal program laying between Eighty-seventh and Ninety-seventh streets and bounded by Central Park on the eastand Amsterdam Avenue on the west was the fulcrum of this massive slum-clearance plan, involving the loss of 6,344 households. Also, there are many Duane Reades and banks, but the claim that almost every mom-and-pop business has been shuttered is simply false. That is the ambiguous power of nostalgia, as the jagged recollection of hitting a tiny child with a bicycle still has the power to catch like a rusted nail four decades later and open a fresh wound. Raised on 104th. From melees to muggings to serial killers to a spiritual revival. I loved visiting the pet dept downstairs there and often dreamt of freeing all the fish and parakeets to Central Park down the block. Fast forward to 2013. Vanguard is one of the best first-date spots on the Upper West Side. A Manhattan townhouse complete with a 33-foot lap pool has hit the market for $17.5 million. On the northern end, it borders W.110th street down south to Columbus Circle at W.59th street. The doormen were alert and ready to menace unwelcome visitors with a baseball bat. I was even blessed to attend LaGuardia high school on 135th & Convent Avenue in its glorious Gothic, castle-like home before it moved to its prison-like building at Lincoln Center. 1980s-1990s: Boy Bar (15 St. Marks Pl.) I lived on the UWS from 1972-1994: 85/WEA, 79/Columbus, 82/Amsterdam, several other addresses. The UWS was terrible then. The Upper West Side of my youth was in no way a fabled or especially notable area. And I briefly lived on 85 street in the early 70s , so I was there a lot. I was also hailed from second story windows in Times Square by topless prostitutes. Huge packs of kids just playing in the park after school or even at lunch (with a letter you could leave 87 or 44 and go get a slice somewhere). never went in but loved that name was there til the 80s. It was a great neighborhoodbut you had to know which blocks you should avoid! The infamous Upper East Side murder has yet to fade from public memory. Neil Simon movie and yes a movie, but does show the charm and grit of the 70s. After fire damage temporarily shut down the place earlier this year, e's Bar is back in business, boasting new banquettes and the . Others would doubtless claim that because the victims were black and Hispanic, there was less interest than there would have been had the victims been white; more likely, there was newsroom concern about stigmatizing thesebeaten-down povertystricken populations. They had several boutiques and I spent a lot of dough there over the years, The folded in the early 90s I think. The Gin Mill is owned by the same people as Jakes Dilemma, which is less than a block away, and it feels very similar. if youre going to criticize Historian, maybe it would be for being snarky. and the Pyramid Club (101 Ave. A) become playgrounds for East Village New Wavers. Was the place called Amsterdam. No one rememers Charevari, they had a couple of stores, Al buen gusto, Merit Farms, Columbia Savings bank, El Farro, Columbia Savings, the lending library and card shop that is now Giacommos, Gristedies, Bartons Candy Store, the movie theater on Bway between 72-73. On the other hand, nowadays, I stay away from the South West corner of W. 71st Street in the late afternoon, as rowdy teenagers hang around the corner in front of MacDonalds and create a nuisance. It was bummy but it was awesome. There was a pastry cafe with tables up in a little loft where the swatch store is now on 72 and Columbus. I went to PS 84 and IS44 (before there were flea markets and before there was a Benetton on every corner). The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. I dont recognize the neighborhood at all. Like the other locations of Vin Sur Vingt around the city, this UWS outpost is a good spot for a quiet drink with one other person or a small group. November 24, 2013 | 1:16 PM - Updated on June 5, 2022 | 11:30 PM, Womens History: Augusta Stetson and the Church at 96th Street and Central Park West, WEST-PARK CHURCH LEADERS WIN VOTE, PLEDGE TO REVITALIZE BUILDING, WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN: COLD SHADOWS, ANCIENT OBELISKS, A MASSIVE MENORAH, & CHRISTOPHER WALKEN, A TRIO OF JUILLIARD PERFORMANCES ON MONDAY (SPONSORED). at least up until the 90s. We also went to the park alone which kids nowadays hardly ever do. If you are interested in answering a few questions email me at: jeannine.j@gmail.com. Zabars was open until midnight. Whether you have opinions on mosaic versus cascade hops or you dont know IBUs from IPAs, check out Gebhards. The circle of progress. If you want to pay college prices for that pitcher of Shock Top, come during Happy Hour (until 8pm every day). But on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, my small city, social pathologies began to run rampant half a century ago, long before they broke into the wider culture. We came to wonder if New York was a place that stunted human possibility instead of expanding it.. the 90s were considered pretty scary back then, but the 70s and 80s were lovely. 85th St.; 212- 877-0961. 5) There was a little magazine stand on the west side of street around Columbus and 83 or 84 was it called Johnnys? The area continues to be among the nations most integrated. so i guess we are 3 black kettles since i am being pretty snarky, too. The whole theater got kicked out of Lowes 84th on opening night for Friday The 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan, it was so rowdy, but Id been seeing movies there since it was the Lowes 83rd st, twin. The Upper West Side is New York City's definitive neighborhood: a polyglot collection of fine architecture, bustling street life, diverse cultures and strong civic activism. We were absolutely terrified. A couple of additions (please forgive any repetitions from other comments I havent read every single one.). I remember Marcys deli on Broadway, the barbershop next door with its old -fashioned spinning stripe pole. Working there I was held up at gun point at the 85th street location and the 99th street location. The rental apartment upstairs from my mother, with the same layout was recently listed for $9900.00 a month. Email me if youd like to answer some more questions about life on the UWS. Also, bagels at H & H! I think it and she was gone by 1975 or 76. The Dead Poet is really just a solid neighborhood bar. Attended PS 9 and JHS 44. RESERVE A TABLE. Email me if you want to answer some. Outdoors at Noz Market. I well remember the Woolworths on Amsterdam, but am at a loss to recall just when it was demolished. Despite an off-and-on economy, the 1980s was a decade in which Americans ate out more often than ever before. Its a good spot to day drink with a big group, but theres no table service - youll be notified by a buzzer when your order is ready at the counter. Long gone is the divine Eclair Bakery on W. 72nd St. and the Royale. I remember as a kids being able to walk and take buses alone and feeling very independent. Dinner on the Upper East Side with a former president of the United States. Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint at Broadway and 77th Street. I dont agree with the statement that no one went above 72nd if they could help it. We were giving up so much of our city, Myron Magnet has written in a beautiful essay on Saul Bellows great 1970 novel of Upper West Side (and Western civilizational) decline, Mr. Sammlers Planet, and how it spoke to his experience as a neighborhood resident. But it was also due to middle-class flight, to people who chose to live free of the menace. Tiny place, sweet lady from down south. This was my dads favorite hangout, as they were a rival of Rizzolis in art books and such. I am also looking for people who have recently moved here and what prompted their decision to move to the neighborhood. This article is so one-side. MacAliers Pub was across the avenue. (There werent many rich people on the Upper West Side then, a situation much altered today.) A neighborhood in which people think nothing of tossing their garbage out the window is a neighborhood both literally and spiritually diseased. Last Spring, a year ago this month, I watched as a staple of the neighborhood closed, Food City. In the photo, the corner shop on 73rd was an upholstery shop, and aside from the (not so good) pizza shop, I cant remember any other store on that side of the street as being memorable. Several times a year the 79th Block Association shut down the street and organized a street fair. I remember Fowad with its racks on the corner of 96th st and a Mexican restaurant across the street with Spanish tile decorating its exterior. Police flooded the area. I would recommend the author talk to some parents at the local schools to get a sense for the community now. Hi Life Bar & Grill. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United States and the fifth most populous state capital. Imagine such a thing today. I dont think the email in the article works. A fine and forgotten 1975 book by Barbara Gelb called On the Track of Murderit reads like a nonfiction version of Ed McBains glorious 49-year series of police procedurals about the 87thPrecinct, a lightly disguised version of the real-life 24th Precinct on the Upper West Sidetells the story of the homicide squad formed to catch Charlie Chop-off. Yorkville, Upper East Side Manhattan in the 1980's, all photos by Gary Lenhart. The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland [nedrlnt] ()), informally Holland, is a country located in northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean.It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I am looking for long-time residents of the Upper West Side to answer some questions about how they think the neighborhood has changed and what they remember. Sarabeth was a friend and I too loved her pastries and coffee. Of the 35 brownstones that lined the block, only seven remain today. You couldnt walk down my side street without seeing at least one car window smashed. The space is about the size of a studio apartment, so we wouldnt recommend bringing a group, but its a decent place to watch sports alone or with a friend, especially before 7pm when drinks are half off. My sister and I used to walk down the street and try to remember what was there before. Upper West Side Geography. I remember Zabars being a nice little store to buy deli and grocery items. John was a amazing teacher and he taught me to love learning! There were great clothes stores also on Columbus on the same street, Parachute was one. There was a reason Verdi park was called Needle Park. My grandparents used to call the UWS a slum and would never sleep over instead theyd sleep in a room at the Greystone on 91st and Bwayha! And The House of Games. Explore the scintillating March 2023 issue of Commentary. Of course we remember Charivari. The Upper West Side has plenty of drinking options. And The New Yorker theater. The cavalcade included. I raised two daughters here. Home to such venerable New York landmarks as Lincoln Center, Columbia University, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Dakota Apartments, and Zabar's food emporium, the Upper West Side stretches from 59th Street to 125th Street, including Morningside Heights. They might have called it the airmail theory. There was also Lamstons on 102 street. We neighborhood kids came to call him, with the horrible bluntness of adolescent boys, Charlie Chop-off. My father was the first tenant of the building and moved in in 1929. I frankly dont recognize this overheated characterization of the 1970s-80s neighborhood. Barbara, that was Sarabeths Kitchen on Amsterdam between 82nd and 83rd. And in this case, I dont mean the universal fearsa closed closet door, a dark hallway, a school bullybut rather the very specific fears that came with growing up in my small city in the midst of the big city at a very specific moment. And "Mambo Mouth" in the days before STOMP took over the Orpheum Theater on 2nd and 7th. They have a bunch of beers on tap that you definitely wont find on the shelves at Whole Foods, and the dark space works well for a low-key drink with a couple friends. He struck on 104th and 103rd. Learned how to ride my bike down there. And the bakery that was on 72nd between Bway and West End. jeannine.j@gmail.com. People know me from getting out, and introducing myself, instead of planting my face in my smartphone. Rare images of NYC nightclubs from the 1980s and '90s, including the Limelight and Roxy | amNewYork Entertainment Rare images of NYC nightclubs from the 1980s and '90s, including the Limelight. Indeed, everything suggested it would be. A fine and forgotten 1975 book by Barbara Gelb called On the Track of Murder it reads like a nonfiction version of Ed McBain's glorious 49-year series of police procedurals about the 87thPrecinct, a lightly disguised version of the real-life 24th Precinct on the Upper West Sidetells the story of the homicide squad formed to catch Charlie I remember Mindys and the Japanese store and Francess Hats and the Chinese Restaurant and Jays Stationary and Cake Masters and Eclairs and the Chess Room and the pet store between Columbus and Broadway on 72nd street. But in 1976, when my parents moved to Broadway and 79th street with their three small children, no one in Manhattan lived above 72nd street if they could avoid it. Les Routiers on 89th Stephen Hanson's uptown "Chinese" fantasy, which he bravely launched on the un-trendy Upper West Side, was the big box that spawned all of the city's pan-Asian giants. The next time youre feeling nostalgic about your college days, you could build your own beer pong table and throw out your couch to make room for it - or you could go to Jakes Dilemma. Conservatives sometimes invoke the Upper West Side in their lists of petri-dish-like leftist enclaves along with Cambridge and Berkeley, but despite its homogeneous radicalism, it didnt then and doesnt now offer much in the way of interesting, unexpected, or comical ideological excess. Columbus tween 70,71. It is the principal city of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical . Columbia university kept the neighborhood more desirable. Columbus and Amsterdam avenues were to be avoided though we had to cross them to hang out in Central Parkmostly by the fountain. Its hard to keep up now, tho! Over 25 years, we lived in 3 apartments, none more than 4 blocks from Fairway. The rental apartment upstairs from my mother, with the same layout was recently listed for $9900.00 a month. There was a very nice gelato place in the late 1980s, but its name eludes me. What about doing a simple Lexis-Nexis search? What other stores or restaurants have closed that you miss? At the time, I was going to high school a block away and walked every morning past the tenements from which the airmail had been dropped on Lyfords yard. Two of my favorite restaurants, The All State Cafe, also, on w. 72nd and Nikos at 76th & Broadway were, sadly, priced out of existence. Get some house cocktails at the bar, and if you end up wanting a break from the music (or you come before the music starts), hang out at one of the sidewalk tables out front. I remember Charivari well. I can remember later that the same group opened another trendy bar call Columbus? Is that what a Harvard education gets you these days? I lost touch with them (Joe, the owner, and Mark the pharmacist) about 4-5 years ago. Its a good spot to eat some bangers and mash, and its perfect for when you want to sit on a barstool and watch sports with a Guinness. )Lantern (78th and Amsterdam, where Planet Sushi is now). We also went on amazing trips with him, including the Rocky Horror Picture show on Broadway. Find next available. I do remember cake masters on 99 street, party cake on 110, teachers, the gold rail, the American restaurant on 85 & Broadway. Sure there were some muggings (mostly stealing our bus passes) but nothing serious. It's just happening. I finally made the right connection when I discovered several glass ampules and hypodermic needles. Because The Smith is always there when you need it to be. I think this was the second time. For the reclamation of the neighborhood proved to have a spiritual component as well. Loved growing up there. Email me if you want to answer a few questions. She was the only person that worked there and basically it was a counter that you ordered from and nothing more. An indifferent French restaurant occupies the space that once housed the record store where I bought my first 45 rpm disc of the Cowsills singing the title song from Hair, and standing in front of it I split into two, the 49-year-old in the present and the seven-year-old in the past crossing its portal with a little brown paper bag in hand, excited beyond measure to get its contents home to place the needle on the 45s ridge and watch it slide into the first groove, the sound of the scratches giving way to the opening blast of the Cowsills five-part harmony. Sometimes for the food. Every corner has a bank or a Duane Reade Pharmacy and almost all of the mom-and -pop businesses have been run out due to rent increases. You want something obscure, because your horoscope recently told you to try new things. Go to George Keeley. The Upper West Side of Manhattan is sandwiched in between Riverside Park to the west & Central Park to the east. Only in Honolulu, wrote the journalist Joseph P. Lyford, is there a greater confusion of blood, ancestry, language, and culture in as small a space. But though there were racial and ethnic tensions aplenty, and these would grow exponentially as the years passed, the division in the neighborhood was primarily one of classa division between the middle class and the lower class. Prohibition is a 20sthemed bar with quality live music every night. 4. They have over 30 beers on tap, many of which are unusual options from relatively small domestic and international breweries, and the space tends to fill up with big groups drinking and sharing bar food. Silly me. Thanks! the block just south of where mc donalds is. . My children, who are very young, will know, as my sisters and I did, the oddity of being both entirely privileged and yet significantly poorer than most of their classmates and friends. 1. Probably the first high-end shop on Amsterdam Ave. Upper West Sider here. Girl Scout's Cookies Are a Hit at West Hollywood Gay Bars February 16 2023 5:27 PM. And every effort to cure them through large-scale government action only made matters worse, in one of the most potent demonstrations of the law of unintended consequences. By Carter B. Horsley. I would love more stories. Nestled on the Upper West Side, Bodega 88 features many big screens behind the bar and smaller individual screens at every booth. That mugging was nothing unusual. You can walk down the street . Bar in Upper West Side Add to myNY One of the smaller venues on our list is Bodega 88. I am currently working on my graduate school thesis and have decided to write about how the Upper West Side has changed in my lifetime. Lets not forget about the orginal frozen cappuccinos on Columbus Avenue before Starbucks. Let me correct myself for Sarabeths Kitchen was between 79th and 80th Streets on Amsterdam across from Macs. Today the Upper West Side is considered one of the richest, cleanest, and most expensive places to live in New York City. Vague memory of the window and lady on 83rd Street. Today is tomorrow's yesterday . However, it was still very nice and middle/ upper-middle class between broadway and riverside drive, at least up to about 90th street. A fellow life-long UWSer and Harvard doctoral student. Everybody got mugged. The menu features mini food items, perfect for bar munchies, as well as delightful dinner options. The bakery was Royale, there were others as well, Eclair, and Blooms. That said, it isnt a gimmicky spot where you pretend to be an early American settler. I can just smell the place writing about it. With a drink in one hand, a cigar in the other, and various critical parts of his body glued to a dark-haired woman with whom he is ostensibly dancing, Michael Barrett looks . By 1968, there were a whopping 85 bars on the Upper East Side, most of them singles bars. Dreamstime is the world`s largest stock photography community. Before wine bars, bank branches, and sushi restaurants took over the East Village, there were hole-in-the-wall clubs like 8BC, a gallery and performance space on Eighth Street between Avenues B and C. Opened in 1983, the place was over by the end of 1985. The middle class was split between the professionals of the New York intelligentsiamedia and intellectuals and academics and psychoanalystsand more down-to-earth educated folk, public school teachers and union officials and social workers. The Upper West Side is a great place to live: beautiful prewar buildings, Central Park to one side and Riverside Park to the other, Zabar's.It's one of the most popular residential areas of Manhattan and it's also a hotbed for celebrities. Big flat-screen TVs behind the bar show lists of what theyre currently pouring - and there are also a few other TVs for watching sports. And within those classes there was division as well. The Times described it as a block of decaying tenements packed with poor Puerto Rican and Negro families and the gathering place of drunks, narcotics addicts and sexual perverts. It soon became known as the worst block in the city. Mayor Robert Wagner announced a shock attack, an all-out war on the forces of crime, slum blight and poverty on the West Side. 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Historian, maybe it would be for being snarky to answer some more questions about life the... Ampules and hypodermic needles well as delightful dinner options more than 4 blocks from Fairway also. Is that what a Harvard education gets you these days live Music every.!, Bodega 88 ready to menace unwelcome visitors with a 33-foot lap has. Were others as well the rest of Manhattan another trendy bar call Columbus the northern end, it borders street... Avoided though we had to cross them to hang out in upper west side bars 1980s Parkmostly by fountain... Slum clearance and urban renewal at a loss to recall just when it was a Benetton on corner!