Coming and Going
By Robert Beck
One of the Rag’s most popular and important features is the “Openings & Closings” column. It’s more than just a record of what’s new on the streets business-wise, having as much to do with the substance and culture of the Upper West Side as it does with the Rag’s editorial mission. Many of us live in prescribed confines and a uniform manner, only deviating for specific reasons, like shoe repair or a haircut. Knowing what businesses are coming and going saves steps and time, which is valuable currency for an Upper West Sider.
The Rag has that personal heard-at-the-laundromat ring of authority you aren’t getting anywhere else. Information in “Openings & Closings” makes you pause at your computer and say to your wife, “(grunt noise) That store for odd shoes and socks closed,” and it has immediate meaning in your life.
I cringe when a new store comes in and does a muscular renovation in one of the classic buildings. Walking up 72nd, I look at the architecture above the storefronts near Broadway, delighting in all the individual personalities. One has a Moravian tile facade, and I wonder if anybody knows. That could disappear in the blinks of a hard hat and fat wallet. Sometimes, the rebirth takes forever; sometimes, it happens overnight (wait, didn’t that used to be the takeout asparagus place?), but rarely are the bygone remembered for long. It’s New York, things change, but it’s still a stab in the heart when one of those unique or long-serving stores calls it quits.
Some new places look interesting, such as Scarlet, on Amsterdam near 83rd, with its pre-war hot-lounge feel. It’s very red in there. Yet many new arrivals seem to use the same playbook as the other businesses in their field, and you wonder how they expect to make it work. Coffee-shop competition must be fierce.
That whole stretch is crammed with restaurants and bars that I haven’t had a chance to visit. You need help keeping abreast of them. The “Openings & Closings” column does that.
When a friend asks where I want to meet for dinner, I tell them somewhere with no flat screens and quiet enough to talk. If I see a flickering blue glow, I don’t even go in.
That’s not always enough of a forewarning, though. I went to a new upscale French restaurant near my studio and was seated next to a guy working on his computer. After I ordered, he began holding a business meeting, and I could hear both ends of the Facetime conversation. It didn’t faze the management. I expect to see that business in the “Openings & Closings” column soon.
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Before Robert Beck wrote West Side Canvas, his essays and paintings were featured in Weekend Column. Read Robert Beck’s earlier columns here and here.
See more of Robert Beck’s work and his UWS studio by visiting www.robertbeck.net And let Robert know if you have a connection to an archetypal UWS place or event that would make a good West Side Canvas subject. Thank you!
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Nice article. Alas, almost impossible to find a restaurant quiet enough to talk. If it’s not the TV, it’s the piped in musak. Or the constant loud rattle of dishes and silverware —
If you have a list, would love to have it. thanks.
Shun Lee is quiet and screenless.
Bring on that List!
Well put. Love Openings & Closings. Mostly Openings as the Closings is always, well usually, sad. Sayonara new French place. Hold your business meetings is a Starbucks.
Question: do you think it is the job of the restaurant to ask disruptive customers to lower their voices and/or get off their phones? Or do you think that just falls to the patrons sitting near them? Has anyone been in the restaurant on the UWS where the management has taken the initiative of asking patrons to lower their voices ? I would like to go to that restaurant.
I love this column and look forward to it. Thank you for keeping it fresh and informative!
Nice column. I don’t live in the upper west side anymore but have friends there and always look for restaurants that have opened and closed. Wish there was a west side rag in Inwood
I was born and raised in Inwood and am currently writing a memoir. I would so appreciate speaking with you to learn what living in Inwood today is like.
“…only deviating for specific reasons, like shoe repair or a haircut.”
It is exactly these kinds of “mom-n-pop” stores that we need to know about, not the innumerable restaurants. The nice inexpensive shoe repair store on 67th street next to the veterinary hospital and Old John’s disappeared months ago, leaving the shoe repair store (on 72nd Street, near West End Avenue) the only such store for many blocks.
The same is true for hardware stores. Sure, there is Brickman’s Ace Hardware store at Columbus and 90th street but so many of the local hardware stores have closed up.
So sure, cover the innumerable restaurants, but much more important for residents are the less glitzy but more crucial stores that make a neighborhood livable.
Ace Hardware on Columbus, is sadly, gone.
I have had HUGELY positive experiences at Carmelo’s Shoe Repair on W 73 and Amsterdam. Ask for William…He is wonderful.
There’s a shoe repair shop on 70th & Columbus, a five minute walk from Old John’s.
I would delight in a takeout asparagus place! Great idea (but execution might be quite challenging.)
Terrific painting of Scarlet. Loved it.
I think the whole stretch of 72nd street businesses with the extensions they did to the brownstones, hideous to look at. If only they could be brought back to its historic look of the whole facade it would be a beautiful street again. I can only dream
I moved to NJ in September but last lived in the UWS and the “Openings and Closings” feature is my favorite. I look forward to those every week.
Oh, what I would give for an old fashioned diner to open in my neighborhood!!! I don’t need coffee shops. I need reasonable food at a closely place!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Has Mr. Beck ever painted Pomander Walk? I live over it and can see into it, but I’ve never been in it.
This column is one of my favorites! One pertinent investigative inquiry for O&Cs: what’s going on with the “Carvel: Opening Soon” sign on the east side of Broadway & 98th? This sign has been up for a couple of months with seemingly no renovation happening within the storefront. Are we getting some Van Leeuwen competition soon or is this a tease?
Thanks, Robert. Another lovely painting of the neighborhood. And, an enjoyable column.
So glad that you and the Rag offer this
Yes, but we’ve gotten to a point on the UWS that nearly every new store can be described as being located “between the marijuana store and the other marijuana store.”