By Gus Saltonstall
Cafe Lalo will not reopen in its longtime Upper West Side home, the owner of the building confirmed to West Side Rag on Thursday morning.
The popular eatery at the corner of West 83rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue was made famous by its appearance in Nora Ephron’s 1998 romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. The Upper West Side cafe has served customers at 201 West 83rd Street for 35 years.
Cafe Lalo has been mysteriously shuttered since 2020, and has failed to provide an explanation for the closure. In 2022, though, the building’s owner filed a lawsuit against Cafe Lalo over alleged unpaid rent, which the cafe countered with its own lawsuit, claiming that the landlord had not fixed water damage within the property.
A settlement related to those court proceedings happened on September 27, 2024, which included Cafe Lalo surrendering possession of the property and its lease back to the building’s owner, court documents show.
The judge also ruled that Cafe Lalo would not have to pay any of the alleged unpaid rent, and that the landlord of the Upper West Side building had to send $125,000 to the owners of the eatery, according to the court documents.
On Thursday morning, a “For Rent” sign went up for the first time on the door of the address.
West Side Rag called the number on the sign for Gibraltar Management Company, which is the real estate company that owns the 201 West 83rd Street building.
“Is there any chance of Cafe Lalo reopening in the space,” the Rag asked.
“No,” an employee from the real estate company said.
This is the first time that either the owner of the Upper West Side building or someone from Cafe Lalo has confirmed that the iconic eatery would not be reopening in its longtime home.
The employee added that Cafe Lalo had vacated the space and that Gibraltar Management Company was actively looking for a new renter.
Cafe Lalo has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Rag over the past year, including on Thursday. It remains unclear whether Cafe Lalo is looking to reopen somewhere else on the Upper West Side.
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Pleeeeease reopen somewhere else. Anywhere. I am sentimentally attached and haven’t let go.
This makes me sad. 🙁
It was a good run– Great history, timing and memories — Probably no longer a world where we need a Cafe Lalo —
Quite appropriate to revive this zombie’s story on Halloween!
The world has moved on.
In this case that is most unfortunate. We need to respect and treasure all that was good in Cafe Lalo’s past, and the customers who adored it. Perhaps your world has “moved on”, but it is very short-sighted and sad that you do not care to keep the good thing alive.
Reading the settlement it looks like Lalo stopped paying rent, re-signed a lease renewal in 2021, never paid and is now taking and a huge buyout just to leave.
I don’t know why on earth either party renewed a lease in 2021.
Cities change for better and worse.
Prepare for the new reality.
“Reading the settlement it looks like Lalo stopped paying rent, re-signed a lease renewal in 2021, never paid and is now taking and a huge buyout just to leave.”
That in nutshell is exactly what went down.
As with rental housing sometimes a commercial LL simply has to cut losses and move on. Surrendering lease, moving out and otherwise forfeiting all rights to occupy a space may save a tenant money upfront, but LL now has an end to things with certainty.
It may take some time but LL will sooner or later recoup all losses involved by raising rents and other costs on any future tenant.
As they’ve been closed for 4 years already, why would people think they would suddenly reopen?
It was nice while it lasted but time to move on, people.
Nooo!! It was an UWS treasure.
Honestly, by the end, it had gone downhill. Best to just let it go.
What I’ll miss most are the trees in front of Lalo completely lit up in white lights. Made that section of W83rd St. not only safer but somewhat magical in the Winter.
Hopefully the next tenant will be a restaurant or coffee and dessert shop.
Shame to officially lose a landmark, but it seems like this was always going to happen for several years.
The new board game cafe behind Lalo on 84th may be a good late night coffee and wine replacement. Lots of cozy seating and good coffee.
Thanks for the idea, Jack. I don’t think gamers are necessarily talkers and dreamers, but it may be worth a shot. Cozy seating, umm..
This years-long standoff perhaps explains why we see so many vacant storefronts….
Apparently the owners of this place treated their workers very badly, so I was not sad to see it go. Hopefully something better will open in this iconic space.
A smart person would buy the rights to the name, renovate the existing space and open a new restaurant. With the right food, it could be a huge hit.
When Lalo first opened there was a connection to Cafe La Fortuna. Someone check me on this but the first owner of the place, Chaim, was the then boyfriend to a Cafe La Fortuna waitress, Lisa. Lisa worked at Cafe Lalo for a number of years. I always was very pleased that Cafe La Fortuna lived on through Lisa for many years.
I used to live in Riverdale some 25 years ago and used to drive down to Cafe Lalo after dinner for dessert, sometimes multiple times a week. I loved that place. When You’ve Got Mail came out I watched it at the movie theater on Broadway and 84th street and when I saw the cafe on that famous scene I remember yelling “that’s around the corner from here”. Needless to say, a collective “shushshshshh) erupted demanding me to quiet it down.
almost *everything* in You’ve Got Mail was “right around the corner” from the theater! Ha!
What UWS Cat Lady said, my sister got a job there in the late 2000’s and they treated her terribly , never went back after that
Some friends and I ate there a few months before it closed a few years ago. Sad to say, it was time, despite its storied past. It was as if they had just given up providing quality food or service. It happens.
In its last days, it had become a mecca for busloads of mostly young Asian tourists. There were still some local “regulars,” but it had long since stopped being what it had started as.
[I will add here that I sued Cafe Lalo for hiring discrimination, and won my case. Although I was awarded a small amount of money, it was mostly undertaken on principle.]