It’s been a rough month for Upper West Side eateries: Indian Cafe, which opened in 1986, is the latest restaurant to close its doors after Amsterdam Diner and Big Nick’s shut down in the last couple of weeks.
Indian Cafe is on Broadway between 107th and 108th street. The food was relatively cheap and locals touted its vegetarian fare and friendly bar scene. But, as one of our tipsters wrote, it might have had trouble keeping up with Amla and Aangan, two newer Indian restaurants that have opened on Broadway in the 100’s.
In any case, it’s clear that the neighborhood’s old stalwarts are falling fast. If you were a fan, let us know in the comments.
Thanks to our tipsters.
It was the first serious Indian place to come to the UWS; before then, there was nothing you could have in the neighborhood. If you wanted Indian, you had to go elsewhere. Had it not been for Indian Cafe, none of the other Indian places on this side of Central Park would have come about.
YOU WILL BE MISSED!! I think there was room for all three restaurants. Maybe we need to look into things like unrealistically ASTRONOMICAL rents on Broadway and many chronically empty storefronts for years on end north of 96th – – – and add another to the list.
(sigh)
Sorry to see anyone go out of business. We get great Indian food at Indian Tanpura. Good portions, great taste, fair prices.
I have been ordering from here forever. Fast, cheap and really good. Definitely sad to see it go. If it turns into a Starbucks I will be really mad. Anyone out there remember Aesops Table? Another old favorite that preceeded 107 West I think…
Interesting Factoid: Renowned NYC chef Floyd Cardoz, formerly head chef of Tabla and now North End Grill in Battery Park City, got his first gig at Indian Cafe when he moved to NYC after culinary school. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/dining/floyd-cardoz-the-chef-of-tabla-switches-cuisines-feed-me.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Quite the loss! Another neighborhood reliable shot down by the insatiable GREED of the commercial real estate owners. I hope the place stays empty for 90 years, so the bums who own the space can earn Sheiss from it.
Re: #2’s “Maybe we need to look into things like unrealistically ASTRONOMICAL rents on Broadway and many chronically empty storefronts for years on end north of 96th” AND #6’s “…insatiable GREED of the commercial real estate owners. I hope the place stays empty for 90 years, so the bums who own the space can earn Sheiss from it.”
Let’s get real! YES, landlords are greedy; and it would be surprising if they were not. They are IN BUSINESS TO MAKE A PROFIT, not to do social justice. ISN’T IT HUMAN NATURE TO ATTEMPT TO GET AS MUCH RETURN ON INVESTMENT AS POSSIBLE? One wonders: what if some of these wanna-be O.W.S./capitalism-is-bad-bad-bad types had inherited an investment property. Would they keep rents artificially low and walk around whistling Kumbaya? Or would they say “Hey, I have a chance to make some real money! Wow, I’m not such-a-loser after all!”
AND, as part of our exercise in getting real, why don’t we examine ANOTHER REASON FOR CHRONICALLY EMPTY STOREFRONTS? Why doesn’t someone investigate the TAX-BREAKS that property-owners get for their un-rented properties? THERE HAS TO BE A REASON WHY THEY ARE CONTENT TO LEAVE THESE PROPERTIES LIE FALLOW! THEY MUST BE MAKING MONEY ANYWAY!
Property owners (AND I AM NOT ONE!) are just PART of the problem. The enabling part is GOVERNMENT (local/state/federal) POLICIES that perpetuate the ability to leave a storefront or a tenement empty for years. The landlords have a good friend in city halls, state capitals, and in D.C.
PROOF? READ FRANK RICH’S DEVASTATING PIECE IN LAST WEEK’S NEW YORK MAGAZINE, in which that famously liberal journalist ACTUALLY TAKES THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION TO TASK FOR ITS INCESTUOUS TIES WITH WALL STREET AND ALL THE OTHERS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WE SEE ALL ABOUT US.
As Romeo & Juliet’s Mercutio says, “A plague on BOTH your houses!”
Business and Government — TERRIBLE TOGETHER!
When I moved to the neighborhood in 1996, didn’t know a soul, and had an empty apartment, this was one of the first places I would eat. I even had Thanksgiving dinner here once with my visiting mother and we loved it. Sad to see it go, although admittedly I hadn’t been back in years.
So sad! We loved this place, both to eat in and for take-out. Indian Cafe, you will be sorely missed!