Caridad at 588 Amsterdam Avenue between 88th and 89th is closed with a marshal’s notice on the door. The phone has been disconnected and Google now lists it as permanently closed. “I think this leaves Malecon at 98th Street as the last true Dominican / Spanish-American restaurants on Upper West Side,” writes Paul, who sent the photo above.
After an exceptionally long build-out, Kosher restaurant Milk & Honey was slated to open its new location on 72nd Street near Columbus Avenue on Tuesday night for dinner. It replaced 72nd Street Bagel. Here’s the menu from one of its other locations.
A new nail salon just opened on Broadway between 87th & 88th. Krissi tells us she thinks it’s called Apple Nail Care.
Yay! Hope it’s clean!
Just what we need;another nail salon. We could also use a few more coffee joints. How about a hardware store? Oh wait, they couldn’t afford the rents.
Caridad has been closed for almost 2 months
For real, I think even longer than 2 months
Le Caridad on Broadway and 80th is pretty damn good and have been going for over 25 years. And they deliver above 100 street.
Hi Sasha,
I think you’re referring to La Caridad 78, at Bway and 78th St. I agree with you that they as are outstanding.
They are Cuban/ CHinese, not Dominican. there also is a Cuban/Chinese restaurant at Bway & 95th, La Nueva Victory. However, i can’t honestly recommend it.
Paul might be right… i can’t think of any other true Dominican restaurants on the UWS other than Malecon. However, i am going to keep my eyes open.
It’s kind of sad… almost every block on the old UWS had a great and inexpensive Cuban / Chinese or Dominican /Chinese restaurant. now, mostly gone.
I am curious about this “Cuban/Chinese” that you speak-of with regard to the restaurants that you named. Is this a fusion between the two cuisines, respectively, of each of those countries? Or is it each cuisine, distinct unto itself, being offered side-by-side in the same establishment? And how did the two cuisines come to meet in these establishments? I suspect that my parents may have explained this to me when I was still a child but I cannot recall now.
Also, do I recall correctly that the restaurant that for many years occupied the location where the Metro Diner now is (Broadway at 100th St.) was, in fact, of the very Cuban/Chinese type that you speak of here?
response to Indy:
Cuban / Chinese restaurants were once all over the West side. They included a traditional Americanized Chinese portion of the menu and an Hispanic portion of the menu. A favorite dish was Boneless Chicken Crackling. The food was cheap and, in most cases, delicious.
These restaurants were started by Chinese people who lived in Cuba and left after the revolution.
Here is more information:
https://www.thoughtco.com/origins-of-cuban-chinese-cuisine-687439
Thank you to Cato and B.E. Bernstein for the info.
Cuban-Chinese cuisine was a thing long before “fusion” became a silly cliche. The proprietors — people from Cuba of Chinese ancestry — for the most part were emigres at the time of Castro’s revolution.
See, for background, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Cubans , and for a bit of history about La Caridad (easily extended to Cuban-Chinese generally) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOckvBaOcLM .
Such a simple thing.
One can find info online.
Google is your friend.
That Caridad is Broadway and 78th
Broadway and 80th Street? I think you’re thinking of Zabar’s.
You might want to try La Caridad (sometimes known as “La Caridad 78”) at Broadway and 78th Street. Good food and they deliver, too.
You probably mean Broadway and 78th.
I saw someone working on the windows this morning inside the old Gracious Home space—any rumors about what may be going in there?
Re: “any rumors about what may be going in there?”
WINDOW CLEANERS !!
😳 😜
The original rumor was Target.
To Paul:
What constitutes a “true Dominican / Spanish-American restaurant”? Is it only the restaurants where you have eaten?
What about El Rey de la Caridad (973 Amsterdam)? Does this qualify? (I know about this place because my wife used to order from there when she worked at St. Luke’s Hospital years ago…)
Peruvian-Chinese is also delicious, at least at Flor De Mayo on Amsterdam!
Tropicsl Sensation (106-107 st Amsterdam) is avery good option for Dominican food..
Caridad closed a couple months ago. We used to go there periodically and it was very good but it took a huge downhill slide about a year ago and we stopped going back.
I walked into Milk & Honey today. It is drop dead gorgeous.