View allAll Photos Tagged luncheonette
View this photograph on my Website ⇒ kevinlogan.com/?p=5224.
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www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/610023
more STORE FRONT: The Disappearing Face Of New York here: urbanimagephotography.com/JamesandKarlaMurraySTOREFRONT.html
What should we make of empty big-box stores?
MICHAEL STUPARYK/TORONTO STAR
"While we routinely mourn the disappearance of the small storefront, we rarely ask what happens to the texture of a city when a big-box store closes shop.
For starters, a new language to describe the concrete ephemerality would help.
Bigness, it seems, 'has yet to find its own poetic dimension'
Mar 29, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (11)
Ryan Bigge
SPECAL TO THE STAR
Except for the fact that they're rapidly disappearing, the hundreds of aging New York shops captured in the new book Store Front share little in common. Having spent eight years snapping up the modest beauty and idiosyncratic style of drugstores, bakeries, barbershops, butchers, luncheonettes, beauty salons, fish markets, florists, candy stores, diners, delis and corner groceries in the five boroughs of New York, photographers James T. and Karla L. Murray argue in the book's introduction that "These storefronts have the city's history etched in their façades."
Like people, storefronts absorb and deflect the abrasions of time very differently. Some, such as the Frank Bee 5¢ to $1.00 Store in the Bronx and Barney Greengrass (The Sturgeon King) in Manhattan, retain pristine signage, their stores serving as both museums and functional retail locations. Others, such as Ideal Dinettes in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighbourhood, are resigned to the elegant decay of rust and corrosion, a slow, graceful withering away.
And some are such community fixtures that they no longer require perfect signage, like the I Y L E S store in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant (add a "B" at the beginning and two "C"s in the middle) or the AIR stylists in Bensonhurst. (The "H" is dislocated, rather than missing, and drifts slowly down toward the awning.)
The Murrays note in their intro that about a third of the shops documented in their book are now gone. And while their interviews with proprietors raise the usual issues relating to survival, gentrification, chain-store incursion and the importance of community, Store Front works best as an aesthetic defence of small stores.
(For a sample, visit www.flickr.com/photos/jimandkarlamurray.)
Not every establishment is pretty, but each is unique, and the neighbourhood texture they provide is invaluable. Our own Queen and Spadina, for example, is no longer the same intersection without the Stem Open Kitchen, and Queen and Bathurst is still struggling to overcome the abscess created by last year's fire.
Often we realize what is gone only in retrospect, but the future of retailing, at least in the form of big-box stores, is so incontrovertibly hideous that the loss of an I Y L E S store is felt immediately.
Futuristic films such as Idiocracy and Wall-E posit Costcos with 16,702 aisles and a global conglomerate called Buy n Large, respectively, and neither store appears to be particularly attractive. As Joel Stein noted in Time magazine back in September 2006, "The problem is, Idiocracy is so aesthetically displeasing – its vision of the future so purposely, gaudily, corporately ugly – that even showing a second (of the trailer) made people refuse to see it."
Fussing about appearances might sound nitpicky, but as artist Julia Christensen's recent book, Big Box Reuse, demonstrates, the most significant problem with Buy n Larges is, paradoxically, their impermanence and architectural inflexibility. Not impermanence as in rapidly crumbling walls or leaky roof, but rather, like a young, moulting grasshopper jettisoning a too-small exoskeleton, Wal-Mart has a habit of abandoning stores. (Their website www.walmartrealty.com lists almost 150 empty stores for lease.) This is not due to falling profits, but rather the opposite: the need to expand and grow, just like a grasshopper. As Christensen writes, "It is actually cheaper for the company to build an entirely new store from scratch than it would be to interrupt business at the old building in order to renovate."
Large buildings traditionally required a significant investment in labour and material and implied, by their very existence, a hedge against the passage of time. Department stores could be considered the original category killers, but they certainly looked glamorous doing so. Even 20th-century malls have a certain flair to them. As architect Veronica Madonna writes in Concrete Toronto, "Like the Great Pyramids perched in the desert, the (former) Simpson's building of the Yorkdale Shopping Centre sits like a great monolithic structure in an asphalt landscape."
Building big used to mean building in a meaningful fashion. But big-box stores offer size without heft. "The buildings exude an ephemeral quality," Christensen notes, "imparted by the frequency with which corporations vacate the structures, and yet the dead weight of an empty big-box building does not simply go away."
But rather than simply complain, Big Box Reuse tries to figure out what can be done with a leftover concrete cube. Through 10 case studies, she demonstrates how Wal-Marts and Kmarts have been converted into libraries, health centres, Minnesota's Spam Museum, even a chapel.
This last reuse has a certain poetic justice, given the reverent worship of the late Sam Walton, described by Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed as "the Cult of Sam."
For Christensen, reanimating a concrete corpse requires both physical renovations and psychological shifts, an application of imagination to transform what is into what could be. Preventing new big boxes from being built, however, necessitates a different kind of mental recalibration. Abetted by the convenience of the car and ample free parking, mega-retailing is not an easy habit to cease. As if to underscore this, Philip Preville's October 2008 Toronto Life article defending the (now-defeated) Leslieville SmartCentre was titled "Resistance is Futile." Or, to quote the (fictitious) mayor of Seattle in the 1992 film Singles, "People love their cars."
If big boxes are here to stay, then introducing, or reintroducing, aesthetics into the debate seems reasonable. Of course, there's always a danger of sounding like a persnickety Karl Lagerfeld when daring to suggest that something is amiss about enormous boxes on the hillside filled with ticky-tacky.
But being a snob can produce results. Wal-Mart met unusually strong resistance when it tried to open a location in Vancouver a few years ago. After their proposed store was rejected by Vancouver city hall for not being environmentally suitable, Wal-Mart hired architect Peter Busby, who specializes in sustainable buildings, to make a big green box. After spending almost two years on the project, Busby, in 2005, unfurled a blueprint for a store with skylights, small windmills, an innovative geothermal heating and cooling system, rainwater recovery, and a parking lot of permeable asphalt.
Alas, it was never built. Vancouver city council said no to the store a second time, citing traffic congestion and increased emissions. But it was this kind of leverage and input over the design and impact of large retail that appeared to be lacking in the Leslieville debate – resistance, we were told, was apparently futile. And the Wal-Mart-in-Vancouver story has a happy ending, provided you're Julia Christensen: the Cult of Sam eventually decided to buy and renovate an old Costco instead.
Along with better boxes, a new language to describe and debate the concrete ephemerality of the current behemoths would be a useful step forward. As Andrew Blauvelt, curator of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, writes in the preface to the suburban-art collection Worlds Away, "bigness has yet to find its own poetic dimension."
In Concrete Reveries, philosopher Mark Kingwell suggests we might have to start by learning to appreciate the texture of the evil grey material: "It has swirls and patterns, little islands and continents stained on the extended map of its face. Concrete is beautiful, never more so than in the rain."
Meanwhile, in its rethinking of Brutalism (an architectural attempt to reign in the excesses of modernism), Concrete Toronto reminds us that even a mall can be more than a place to buy stuff. For Veronica Madonna, the Sears building has hints of "social utopian ideology," and "its exaggerated parapet, tilted slightly forward and reaching up to the sky, suggests endless possibilities."
Along with thinking about the outside of the box, we need to consider what occurs within. Chicago-based photographer Brian Ulrich takes surreptitious photographs of the activity within the big boxes. In the introduction to Worlds Away, Blauvelt comments on the suburban ennui that Ulrich's portraits capture and asks: "Is it shocking to see this beautifully composed portrait of someone pushing a cart through Costco?"
New Jersey-based artist Stefanie Nagorka, also in Worlds Away, builds paving-stone sculptures in the aisles of Home Depot, thus putting art in the middle of commerce, and turning the items for sale into art.
Although the Home Depot once planned for the Queen and Portland condo development is no more, it could have been an interesting experiment in medium box retailing. Indeed, for LTL Architects, a New York firm that enjoys speculations and what-ifs, it represented the future of retail-residential co-habitation. Their New Suburbanism proposal, included in Worlds Away, stacks apartments and housing on the roofs of big-box stores: "The residential neighbourhood above and the commercial zone below are physically separate and perceptually distinct, although each influences the other."
The computer sketches and maquettes generated by LTL are whimsical, strange and counter-intuitive – perhaps even impossible. But at least they aren't ugly."
Defunct luncheonette.
"Luncheonette." Now, there's a (20th Century) word you never see or hear anymore.
Dear mayor of Bound Brook, please have that pole removed. Thanks.
kenilworth, pottstown, pennsylvania
road trip 2012 (day seven)
Referenced in the liner notes of Daryl Hall & John Oates' 1973 album "Abandoned Luncheonette." Hall is a Pottstown, PA native.
"Southington, Connecticut. Girls at drugstore."
Luncheonette and Fountain Service. But what's the word behind the girls?
Photo by Fenno Jacobs for the Office of War Information.
May 1942.
(donation from Jeff Oates, January 2022.)
N.S. da Glória, Sergipe
Brazil, 2011
_____
So this is where Elvis has been hiding all of these years ---probably wearing blue-suede flip-flops and a rhinestone-studded sleeveless T-shirt.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I lived in this town 1967-1969 without electricity, running water, telephones, TV, or a sewage system, but the warmth of the Brazilian people overcame any shortcomings in creature comforts. There are times when my current world seems so complicated that I long for the simple life I lived in Glória.
I returned for the first time in 2011. Now it is a much larger city with many things that didn't exist when I lived there: hospital, colégio, many businesses and industries, full-time electricity, running water, sewage system, a cell tower, and the Elvis Luncheonette.
This is one of my favorite photos. I love the colors. I love that it is humorous. And most of all, it is soooooooo small-town, northeastern-Brazilian.
Em portugûes:
Eu vivi nesta cidade 1967-1969 sem energia elétrica, água corrente, telefone, televisão, ou um sistema de esgoto, mas o calor do povo brasileiro superou eventuais deficiências confortos. Há momentos em que meu mundo atual parece tão complicado que desejo para a vida simples que morava em Glória.
Voltei pela primeira vez em 2011. Agora é uma cidade muito maior com muitas coisas que não existiam quando morava lá: hospital, colégio, muitas empresas e indústrias, em tempo integral de eletricidade, água corrente, sistema de esgoto, uma torre de celular e o Lanchonete Elvis.
Adendum: June 2015. I just discovered there is also a Supermercado Elvis (Elvis Supermarket) in town, too.
_____
Posted to the 3/1 - 3/19/15 challenge on Planet Earth Urban Landscapes (www.flickr.com/groups/2139870@N22/pool/) - Theme: Signs
This Lady Lace Cake is inspired by British baker Peggy Porschen's. Decorated with Victorian scroll work, it's perfect lady luncheonettes!
See more here: layercakeparade.com/lady-lace-cake/
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1/12th scale model by Randy Hage. 25x15x8in. Storefront located 196 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. Take a look at my photostream to see a side by side comparison of my model and the real thing.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/nyregion/album-sto...
abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles...
www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/09/secr...
vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-work-from-randy...
ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/10/its_a_small_world.php
gothamist.com/2013/09/10/photos_amazing_miniaturized_nyc_...
Sign for the Trio Restaurant, 1537 17th Street NW, Washington, DC. Here's the Trio story from their website:
In 1905, Peter Mallios, a 13 year old boy from Arcadia, Greece, headed for America. Knowing no English and having no chaperone to greet him in New York, he was not permitted to leave the ship and was returned to Greece. Back in Greece but undeterred, he boarded the next ship headed for America. This time, on arrival, he yelled “Uncle! Uncle!” at the first man he saw, ran off the ship and disappeared into the crowd. Many years later, Peter, a World War I Veteran and self educated successful restauranteur, met the lovely, young Helen Doukas in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania.
Helen Doukas came to American from Sparta, Greece, on September 15, 1921, at the age of 17. Helen was detained at Ellis Island for over a month waiting for her Uncle to escort her to Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, where she would care for his children and teach them to speak Greek. Years later in Wilkesbarre, she met Peter while taking tickets at a movie theater and they were married in 1928. After several devastating floods from the Susquehana River, Peter and Helen left Pennsylvania in 1940 with their three children, Margarita, Dimitri, and George. Before 1939, TrioDC was actually a pharmacy. The pharmacy moved to the old Westminster Hotel, and a luncheonette named Trio was born, named for the three partners. In 1950, “Mr. Pete” and his wife, Helen, bought Trio Restaurant with a partner, who has since passed away. “Rita”, Dimitri and George all worked their way through college. In 1960, Rita’s husband, Gus Ladas (a restaurant man from Chicago), became a partner in the thriving Trio. Dimitri returned from the Army to pursue a successful career as an attorney representing local and national restaurants. George returned from the Navy to become a partner in the business. The business expanded to include the Fox and Hounds Lounge in 1967, Trio Pizza Shop in 1973, and the sidewalk cafes in 1975 (among the first in Washington, DC). Mr. Pete retired from the business in 1975 and Gus retired from the business in 1985. Mr. Pete passed away in 1978. But Wednesdays, “Mrs. Pete” (now in her nineties) still has lunch at the Trio with family and friends. Tell her you enjoyed the story of her family when you see her!
Madewell at 69 Gansevoort St. opened in 1938 as the R&L Luncheonette. Meatpackers and longshoremen were major customers. It became the R&L Restaurant in 1955 and closed in 2008, later becoming a wine bar.
The Woolworth Building in Bakersfield has been converted into an antiques collective. The luncheonette is still operated.
Nick's Luncheonette located at 196 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.
Photo shows a side by side view of the real structure and the 1/12th scale model made by Randy Hage. Randy is currently documenting and recreating New York storefronts that are being lost to urban renewal and gentrification
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/nyregion/album-sto...
abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles...
www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/09/secr...
vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-work-from-randy...
ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/10/its_a_small_world.php
gothamist.com/2013/09/10/photos_amazing_miniaturized_nyc_...
Richie Reynolds was a Special Needs Man in Montgomery, NY where I lived from age 10-34. He lived for the Montgomery Volunteer Fire Department and Always rode in the lead truck in all the parades. He was the unofficial ambassador and greeter for Montgomery with his pointed finger hello. He was the first person in Montgomery to say hello to my family when in preparation to moving to Montgomery stopped at the local luncheonette. He is shown here in the fire department dress uniform giving his well known smile and hello. Truly Mongomery's first citizen. He is missed.
NYC’s Oldest Family Owned Luncheonette, Lexington Candy Shop - Celebrated its 90th anniversary last February.
untappedcities.com/2015/02/02/inside-nycs-oldest-family-o...
Stepping across the threshold into The Lexington Candy Shop Luncheonette is truly like stepping onto a 1940s movie set and with good reason, since their last renovation was in 1948. Here you will find the oldest family owned luncheonette in New York City. John Philis, the grandson of the original owner, will most likely be there to greet you. Within these walls, tradition is a way of life from the original coffee urns that date back to 1948
were all just passing through
from this place to whatevers next
so stop in and grab a stool
at the abandoned luncheonette
-------------------------------------------------
please have a listen to the very young hall & oates "blue-eyed philly soul" : tinyurl.com/lyexhy
abandoned luncheonette, hall/oates, 1974
on black,please : tinyurl.com/noqolx
A comparison of Route 73 and Baker Boulevard in Marlton NJ - 2016 photo with inset taken in 1993. The 1993 shot shows the three former residences, replaced with Canal's Liquors that year. Burns Honda was built in the early 2000s on what was the Hedges Diesel plant in the 1950s. Also in the 1993 shot is the sign for Mary's Luncheonette, replaced in the late 1990s with Carollo's restaurant and later Marlton Pizzeria and Bar - which recently closed. Chick-fil-A was built over a former residence that was later a horse transport office, kerosene heater dealer and last Paperback Exchange.
McCord Candies, 536 Main Street, Lafayette, Indiana. This building was originally constructed as a single-family home. In April 1872, William Philpot Heath, a wealthy dry goods merchant, decided to turn the first floor of his home into the Indiana National Bank. In October of 1912, Lee Glatz purchased the iconic building and opened up Glatz Candies on the ground floor. Upon his death in 1928, his widow continued to operate the store but needed help to grow the business as she was not a candy maker. Mr. Ivy McCord had been working for the Glatz family since 1917, making candy and confections, and he became Mrs. Glatz's business partner and help her to operate the store. In 1947, Ivy McCord purchased the store as it became more difficult for Mrs. Glatz to maintain it. Ivy renamed the store McCord Candies. In the beginning of their ownership, the McCord family focused on sweets and candies, but they soon recognized a growing demand for a downtown lunch spot to cater to increasing business patrons. So, in the early 1950s they incorporated a soda fountain and lunch counter that is still there today. Ivy McCord and his family owned and operated McCord Candies until 1975, but the business continues under new ownership.
1/12th scale model of Nick's Luncheonette, 196 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY. By Randy Hage 25x15x8in.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/nyregion/album-sto...
abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles...
www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/09/secr...
vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-work-from-randy...
ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/10/its_a_small_world.php
gothamist.com/2013/09/10/photos_amazing_miniaturized_nyc_...
One of the first buildings constructed in Miami Country Club Estates, and the only surviving structure from the original “civic center” envisioned by Glenn Curtiss, the 1925 Clune-Stadnik building has survived hurricanes, floods, fires, burglaries and buy-out attempts. It stands proudly “on the Circle” with an unmistakable presence. Built and occupied by the Curtiss-Bright Company, it housed the offices of the company’s Chief Engineer Daniel Clune. The first floor of this artifact of history was, over the years, the site for a variety of small businesses including a luncheonette, an Eastern Airlines ticket office and a photo shop until it was purchased in 1946 by Pharmacist John Stadnik, who converted it into a drug store. The “Miami Springs Pharmacy” has been owned and operated by the Stadnik family since then. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the second floor was the meeting place for Oleeta Lodge #145, a Masonic Order. It was also home to the original Miami Springs Historical Museum, and now houses private offices.
Due to its unique two and a half-foot elevation above ground level, this building has also served as a hurricane shelter because it did not flood as other commercial structures did. The building suggests the Pueblo Revival theme of the community, and includes scuppers, a battered parapet, a rough textured stucco finish and an arcade that follows the contour of this corner building. It originally also had the exposed log beams (called vigas) of other Curtiss structures, but they were removed and wrought iron railings were added to the breezeway. Otherwise the exterior retains its original appearance.
A restored Woolworth Variety Store currently operating under the name Bakersfield Woolworth Antique Mall.
This place is remarkable both inside and out!
Yes, the Woolworth Luncheonette is still operating with great prices and wonderful food.
This retro-style #luncheonette was opened in 1992 by Karacona Cinar and featured drag queens as waitresses. The #storefront later was home to the Hop Devil Grill and was empty for quite some time with for rent signs visible before becoming part of a large Starbucks that wraps around the corner of St. Mark's Place and Avenue A. We wonder what happened to the old Coca-Cola #privilegesign. #signgeeks #neon #signcollective #type #typevstime #dailytype #everything_signage #eastvillage #ig_signage #lodownny
View this photograph on my Website ⇒ kevinlogan.com/?p=5224.
Archival Giclée Prints are available to purchase. 28 inch (71.2cm) wide inexpensive sample prints of my panorama photographs are available as well. Questions??? Email me: Kevin@KevinLogan.com
If you wouldn't mind, could you share my post??? Cheers, Kevin
Vintage - FDNY - August 1970
Loc. - Grand St., Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NYC, NY
Alarms - 1 (All Hands)
FDNY members search for victims in this one story luncheonette which was leveled by a gas explosion. Fortunately, the building was closed to customers at the time of the explosion.
Best viewed Large: farm4.static.flickr.com/3505/3463983001_470040e8ff_o.jpg
Scanned from the original Kodak High Speed Ektachrome (ASA 160) slide.
Waterbury Center, Vermont.
Shot in 2013 with my Yashica Mat 124G on Lomography RedScale film.
I'm overall not a fan of this film; it's too much of a one-note novelty for my tastes. However, playing around in Photoshop, removing layers of red, orange, and yellow presented me with a likably (for my tastes, anyway) degraded photo.
U.S. Route #18 offers 8 A.M.F. Automatic Bowling Lanes for your bowling pleasure, plus luncheonette. open all year round from 1 P.M. to 1 A.M. Stop in and enjoy the pleasant atmosphere.
Have you ever had a dinner that was so good, you didn't want to brush your teeth before bed so that you could continue to experience some of the remaining flavors on your tongue for as long as possible?
Dinner with friends at Yume Wo Katare, an unusual ramen restaurant in Porter Square.
"Unusual, how?" you ask.
1) Long line to get in (even at 8 ish on a Wednesday night) for a restaurant with a luncheonette atmosphere.
2) The small restaurant consists of four long counters. All seats face the open kitchen area.
3) The menu consists of...exactly this. Ramen with pork. You can order it with five pieces of pork instead of two but that's it.
4) A sign in the window outside -- which you will have plenty of time tocontemplate while you wait to get in -- explains that "Ninniku iremasuka?" means "Do you want garlic?" Because when the chef is preparing your order, this is what he will ask you. You can also ask for extra veggies or fat.
5) For $10, you can write down one of your wishes and have it hanging on the wall for a month. The walls are covered with them.
6) If you finish the whole bowl, the sever will raise it up on high and cheer "Good job!" and the rest of the diners will cheer for you as well.
7) It is the happiest restaurant I've ever eaten at. The chef and the servers are happy, the room is happy, the food is happy.
This ramen was one of the most satisfying meals I've ever had. The noodles are made and stretched by hand every morning. The broth, I've learned, is slow-cooked over a period of 24 hours. It's an intense, rich flavor that defines "savory." Asking for garlic is very much the right choice: it adds an intensity that's pleasing without being punitive.
And the pork! You bite into it and after just a couple of chews it collapses into a sensation of pure flavor. The visible fat is off-putting, but only because of your past recollections of fatty bits of meat that are chewy and gross. This fat is the consistency of gelatin. It melts in your mouth instantly.
The portion is quite generous. It was precisely as much as I could eat comfortably (but keep in mind that I'd skipped lunch and had two slices of toast for breakfast). But after seeing other diners finish their bowls and how happy it made the servers and the rest of the room, I was determined to please these complete strangers whose names I didn't know.
(Also: a base instinct kept urging me on. "This is delicious. A wise man would continue to eat this until there was no more to eat.")
Whether you empty your bowl or not, the server arrives promptly when it appears as though you're through. I wouldn't say that the attitude is "Eat and get out." This is a very happy place. You simply sense that you could make the establishment and the many people visibly waiting outside very happy if you would eat your ramen without the distractions of your phone or a book, and then vacate your seat with a certain degree of efficiency.
And you want to contribute to the overall happy environment, so you happily depart.
I have set a recurring calendar item on my phone. Every six weeks, I think, I can eat another bowl of this supremely satisfying deliciousness without the habit leading to any medical contraindications. "Every five weeks" would take a year off my life and "every seven" would result in eating fewer bowls of this during that life. So six it is.