By 1968, there were a whopping 85 bars on the Upper East Side, most of them singles bars. I held auditions for Fame, the TV show, on a Sunday at the New York School of Ballet because thats where I trained, and Mr. Thomas [ballet dancer Richard Scott Thomas] was happy to give me a studio. Im a child of the Midwestern upper-middle class. Clear all filters. But it had started with a simple idea: What if a bar just let women drink for free? 1. It was a total nexus. A cracked bathroom mirror reflecting a sink full of discarded puffs, eyeliner brushes and trays of blush. I was breaking up with somebody a long, slow breakup. We could each get a full breakfast scrambled eggs, hash browns, whole wheat toast with an endless cup of coffee for $5 with tip. Thats where youd run into people, share breakfast. There would be all of the amazing designer clothes that nobody wanted, that were too weird. Or wed go around to try to get breakfast from our friends, ringing doorbells to see who was up. Friday's location on the Upper East Side. They called it rocking early breaking, essentially. I really loved those people the heroism of their everyday lives was palpable, and that was woven into the tapestry of the East Village. By the early 1970s, 20 to 25 percent of American couples had met at a bar, according to Stanford University research. Theyd say, Yo, Dap, listen to that. All the hip-hop artists came [to the atelier]; there wasnt any other place that catered to rappers. If we werent in a group, I would walk over the bridge, because money was scarce and I wanted to have a token to go back out the next night. But truthfully, I hated it. Or with only a few comments in between. I met Kim [Gordon] through a mutual friend. 1. Mos), a Tex-Mex slash surfer-themed bar with a totemistic statue of Geronimo the Apache Surfer hanging by the entrance and countless big screen TVs. I came here from Europe at age 22 in the 1960s already married and went to Park Avenue.) The liquor laws werent as strict Ski Bar didnt have to have a kitchen nor serve any food and rent was cheap, both for bar space and the nearby apartments. What if they just let all women drink for free? Id paid high school kids to go on Thursday afternoons after school and hand out fliers. He recognized me and stopped to congratulate me on the film. Hes a Leo all the Leos I know love history. Upstairs, the formally attired crowd (jackets required, gentlemen) dines on classic fare including the 21 Caesar Salad, Creamy Chicken Hash, and the ever-popular 21 Burger, which has been on the . He goes, What the hell are you doing to my theater? This scrappy 16mm movie that people werent sure if it was a story movie or a documentary, everybody looked at it and said, I know that guy! They werent public figures; they were locally known graffiti artists, break-dancers, hip-hop M.C.s or D.J.s. I couldnt believe he knew the same stuff I listened to as a kid in Greenwich Village. He said he was going to lunch with some friends, and did I want to join? We were then escorted to a quiet table in the rear by the smiling proprietress herself, Ms. Elaine Kaufman, and joined by her good friend, the gregarious publicist Bobby Zarem, a city slicker born in Savannah, Georgia, who told Mr. Carter: Your brother Billy once called me a Yankee because Savannah is north of Plains. Norman Mailer wasnt there that night. The front window was a queer Mount Rushmore, with the heavyweights looking out onto the street: Rene Ricard, Bill Rice, Peter Hujar, Paul Thek. And when she gave me the phone back, she went into [hysterics]. After shows at La MaMa, we would go to the gay bar on East Fourth Street and Second Ave. Photograph courtesy of Charlie Ahearn, whose groundbreaking hip-hop feature film Wild Style (1983) featured Grandmaster Flash, Lee Quiones and Fab 5 Freddy, among others. New York City's Most Classic Restaurants - Town & Country Afterward, wed go to a club. Everything had my initials on it, or the name of somebody else on it; it was really crazy. The infamous Upper East Side murder has yet to fade from public memory. 1567 2nd Ave, New York, NY The Landmarks That Made New York a Cultural Capital, Uptown or Downtown? I had gone to a place when I was a kid called Hamburger Express, and the hamburgers used to come around on a little choo-choo train. It was a very quiet audience. I remember being in someones loft it might have been [artist] Brian Hunts with a group of friends, watching the inauguration on a little black-and-white television. And if we didnt have the money, wed go to the matre d it was absurd because this restaurant was in the middle of the slums and say, Can we pay you tomorrow? and theyd let us. Sometimes, after the clubs got out, people would see a kung fu flick on 42nd Street, which we called the Deuce Were going to the Deuce, whats up? (And Ski Bar even opened a Ski Bar 2 pop-up at Hunter Mountain during the winter. The sidewalks along St. Marks over to Astor Place were just as lively they were a sort of souk where you could buy back what the junkies had stolen from your apartment. draw in the skirts that bring in the suits. Upper East Side Bars - Directory of the Best Bars on the UES On NYCs Upper East Side, Ladies Night Ruled the 90s Until It Didnt | VinePair, https://vinepair.com/articles/ladies-night-wars-nyc/, wbs_cat Spirit, ladies\' night, laws, manhattan, women, Domaine Champalou Vouvray 2019, Loire Valley, France | VinePair, https://vinepair.com/good-wine-reviews/domaine-champalou-vouvray-2019-loire-valley-france/, wbs_cat Wine, wbs_type Vouvray, wbs_brand Domaine Champalou, chenin blanc, good wine, Vouvray. Mozart. Lobster Newburg as it looks today. Then you would call at 10, or 10 after, to check in with your agent to see if there was anything going that day. And then off wed go! We did a deep dive into the most avant-garde, atonal jazz. The early 80s were sort of the beginning of serious gentrification. You would have Rock Steady Crew and Zulu Nation on one side of the room, and this notorious gang called the Ball Busters on the other. And thats why Block thinks youll never again see an era like the early 1990s on the Upper East Side. Our club-hop starts with the titular Limelight, Gatien's firstand still favoriteNew York club. We were very, very thin. I went from area to area of the performance space, onstage and offstage. Cities . Two weeks later we were begging to let people come watch us rehearse. It was at Avenue A and St. Marks Place, but the windows looked out on an air shaft, not the park. Williamsburg is like New York in the 70s. We were outside the Mine Shaft [a raunchy 1970s/'80s gay sex club on Washington Street]. I was one of the champions of the golden age of promiscuity, though that all ended with AIDS. It was crazy. Jean-Michel Basquiat wandered in at some point a neighbor with whom we had a nodding acquaintance. It was sort of 11 to 7. Owner Sean Fleming's band was among the many popular bands that would perform there. LL wasnt used to this kind of attention. Mexican chain, which while not the inventor of the slush/frozen margarita, was legendary for them, especially their "Ridiculous", which was the size of a smal. Sometimes that meant dispensing a free keg or two of Bud Light until it ran out during a traditional off-night, like Tuesday or Wednesday. Darryl McDaniels, musician and member of Run-DMC. Within a few days, he came to my apartment, which is how I wound up doing the arrangements for Lets Dance.. People used to say, The East Village will be gone when theres a Gap, and then, in the late 80s, one opened on the corner of St. Marks and Second Avenue. I knew so many people in Harlem, I kept a second apartment in the Bronx, where I tried to be unseen. Yorkville, Manhattan photos from the 1980s - Alamedainfo I lived on the quiet end of Hollis, Queens. The idea of hip-hop hadnt really gelled. In the early 80s, I had a great loft in the meatpacking district, which at that point was full of meat hanging on hooks and blood running in the streets. We were in the habit of throwing parties on Saturday nights. Where To Drink On The Upper East Side - The Infatuation Stephanie Chernikowski/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. Her father said, Dap, my daughter, shes driving me crazy. The gallery space was on the first floor; our offices were in the basement. (212) 861-2290. Id walk to Cooper Union, where I was teaching. It's now a Samsung store. I figure its costing me two bucks to put a girl in my bar for two hours, Reynolds claimed at the time. A lot of very creative, brilliant people were living in rough places downtown, which was dangerous but cheap, but I never did. Caribbean Restaurants Restaurants. My apartment was four stories up, and I got a place on the floor below for Kim Gordon. I had half of the third floor, which was sort of the high-ceilinged fancy room, though it had long, long since stopped being fancy. Id go with Andy Warhol, or to dinner and then to Studio 54 afterwards. James Brown and Ali because of them, I basically became a made guy. I was also a regular at this neighborhood salon presided over by a Mr. Steve, who wore big, Coke-bottle thick glasses and was practically blind. I had reached 30 and was having to face how hard it was going to be. I tried to write every single day, first thing in the morning, 10 a.m. This was a luxury ski town, not the Upper East Side, and he had to ultimately tone things down. It was the only Xerox machine below 14th Street, so every artist used it. Afternoon workouts. In a way, its ironic Ski Bar continues to have such a strong presence on social media as Block figures social media is the very reason why you dont see these types of bars and binge-a-rific drinking deals any more. Pretty girls in pajamas peeked in on my occupied space. I couldnt, but I did turn around and walk with him for some blocks to the restaurant. We always had coke, and many guests brought their own. And the food at Genroku was really cheap, which was the operative word. For one assignment, the paper sent me to Washington Heights to photograph what it said was a riot. When I first moved to Manhattan I was eager to get back to the Bronx as often as possible, so I would go to the Pathmark on 207th Street and pack bags to try to make change. So in April we held the Rites of Spring Fertility Bacchanal. The Upper West Side has always been a great place to buy food, with terrific places for fish and vegetables. They were on 51st or 52nd between Fifth and Madison. Ski Bar would issue custom-made lift tickets good for eight drinks apiece. And I got in trouble because I didnt get home until like 1 or 2 in the morning. And they said, Yeah, you can have that they werent even thinking about it. Id dance until about two in the morning and then Id go back to work. But I had no idea what I was photographing. My parents were heroin addicts, beatniks. The manager, Dorian Mecir, had a heart of gold. Arent the both of us up early, I said. Together, this chorus of voices assembled, edited and condensed creates a compelling mosaic, revealing a city bustling with creativity but also slowly emerging from its recent near-bankruptcy, with upscale restaurants just blocks away from rubble-filled, graffiti-painted lots. Hear Kim Gordon recount her first impressions of New York City: People say that Manhattan was dirty and dangerous in the early 80s, and I just have to laugh. When the sun came up, we would get bagels or pretzels and get back on the train. Peter was so self-possessed and dignified, I never, ever thought of him as poor, even though he had no money. Thats what I did. It all depended on who was playing. Here, notable locals revisit their routes and routines, from lunch on the Upper East to nighttime sojourns to then-emerging neighborhoods like TriBeCa. You could say I was not a considerate neighbor. By 1968, 85 bars called the neighborhood home, like Gleason's, slightly further uptown near Yorkville, and similarly decorated to Friday's, with Tiffany lamps and the ornate wooden bar that had graced the Schaefer Beer pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. It was a real neighborhood place, with people dropping in and hanging out, and a sort of day care center for neighbors who wanted us to watch their kids. They would shy away with confused expressions, whispering to their friends. I made a short performance called Life Without Grace, a kind of eulogy. Sometimes you would cry, but most of the time you were just stunned, like it wasnt real. You were constantly on the phone: Did you see this in the paper? Richard Gere was a fixture, as well as Diana Ross and Princess Caroline. Dinner on the Upper East Side with a former president of the United States. 16 Timeless French Bistros and Brasseries in NYC - Eater NY But, pre-AIDS anyway, it was also more diverse. At Elaines, for instance, you would find people Elaine was floating. We had a studio on Bleecker near Seventh Avenue. Madison Pub was an indispensable local dive. Best upper east side bars 80\\\'s in New York, NY. Or worse. (What a loft was, I wasnt entirely sure.) Back then no one came in and said, Let me see your bar menu, says Block. 26 places sorted by traveler favorites Clear all filters 1. Youd sit at the bar and someone would say: Hey, were going to Danceteria. Or theyd have a car and youd find yourself in the East Village, which was a total war zone, with junkies passed out and men building fires in trash cans. Wed eat. By my late teens, people used to tell me, You and you sister, its like its your job to go clubbing. Maybe five nights a week Id leave Brooklyn around 8:30 or 9 oclock. I had no reason to stay awake or to fall asleep. A few blocks away was the Ninth Street Bakery. When we went out it was to perform. These 1980s Restaurants Didn't Stand the Test of Time - Eat This Not That Denzel had just gotten St. Next door to my apartment on East Eighth and Avenue C was the Green Oasis Community Garden, and I got involved with that. I would go to these obscure classes around the city that were mostly for dancers. The silence, as they say, was deafening. A group of artists, friends and a few colleagues, including Marcia Tucker, the founder of the New Museum, demolished what remained of a former meatpacking company and converted it into JAMs new space. So I flipped on the light and said, Good Morning! Sam [Samuel L. Jackson] and I bought a brownstone in Harlem around 1981. And Dynasty. Ive never gotten over Dynasty. And then people started dying. I loved things coming around and you had to grab them, like getting your luggage off a luggage rack. Could you just call LL so she could just say hi? Everybody knew I knew all the rappers and everything. CBs wasnt the best sound; it was such a long and narrow space that if it was crowded you couldnt really see anything, unless you were standing on the side of the stage, and then you just heard the stage sound. We had a bar and some makeshift situation where people would collect the door charge, $5 or $10 maybe. CBGB was just up the street, and I performed there with my band or as a solo poet many times. She and Larry Gagosian had this space, it was a condo loft in a building on West Broadway. Every night was a huge passeggiata with people perusing the blankets. East Village 1980s | Ephemeral New York I met Peter Hujar through Susan Sontag. Youd press your lips to the bottom and Slalom Girls would pour a combo Jaeger/tequila shot that would shush down the slope and into your face. I had a horrible graveyard shift at a coffee shop, one of the only places to eat in Chelsea, open 24 hours super crickets, deserted. It became a whole sh*t show, recalls Keith Block. High-end lounges and clubs were beginning to pop up downtown, especially around the flourishing Meatpacking District, and if plenty of ladies would continue to drink for free at places like Lot 61, Moomba, Spy Bar, and Marquee, it was the male customers who were usually paying for the overpriced bottles of Grey Goose and Patrn. I realized I had to leave. We decided to live together at her place, 84 Eldridge Street. I would go there every day to write. I lived at the Olympic Tower, and Halston was downstairs. We would get on at the ramp at Chambers Street and ski up to Spring Street to the Ear Inn. The Mudd Club was right around the corner, going full throttle. Todd Jorgensen ran the Xerox machine in Jamie Canvas, the art supply store in SoHo everybody went to. Like the Womens Christian Temperance Union. It was a very different kind of neighborhood from the one I grew up in in Harlem just starting to be gentrified. Sometimes wed have lunch. After three, four months there, we decided to turn our loft into a nightclub. We just called it The Bar, which morphed into Ze Bar, like with a fake French accent. (I might be the only person who never lived in a scary New York apartment. To me it was all an art project. The other was he wouldnt say anything, just [shrug] that meant it was a failure. They are not obliged to talk to anyone. And yet, over the years, bars continued to try to offer ladies night deals (whether discounted or completely free drinks) and various factions had tried to stop them. One night, one horrible July Fourth, I invited the board members up to the roof, and I discovered 40 or 50 people at a party that I think Kenny had organized. I never wore gold jewelry I didnt want to be a target. Initially, owner Klay Reynolds had allowed ladies to drink whatever they desired; then he went through more Baileys Irish Cream in the first month he offered the deal than he would have expected to go through for all of 1991. Guide. And when my mother asked me where I was at, I just said, Oh, I was in the attic.. 40 Iconic Restaurants That Are No Longer Around - Delish Then later, it became about getting a gig at Danceteria, Mudd Club they were all little milestone achievements. One day, I was walking uptown to an appointment just before noon, and coming toward me was Robert Duvall. I would just sit there. Every parent, every grown-up was your mother and father. I tended to feel particularly safe in the theaters. My sense of time was completely distorted. Maxi Cohen, Area, 1985, Ladies Rooms Around The World, Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio and Chambers Fine Art. He claims the resort-area locals didnt know what to do with him when he began offering the same all-you-can-drink, ladies night-type deals. Brandy's Piano Bar 68 Bars & Clubs Gay Bars Upper East Side Open now So the artists would often have free rein, and would sometimes sneak up to the roof, especially for the Fourth of July and other events like that. I would then either go to work or go to an opening because Macys closed at 8:45 or something, so you had to move on. Dont come ringing my doorbell! I remember we would go from person to person. It was all exposed wood and brick, and it had a tiny fireplace, a futon, my books, a sink and a stove. He was very aware I was using a lot of paper that wasnt being accounted for, so we came to an agreement that I had to pay. They were spinning on their heads, the cops said. It was kind of a raffish crossroads. My fantasy was to rent one of these theaters on 42nd Street and show my movie alongside Mad Monkey Kung Fu. If I were going out that night, Id go see Garren to fix my hair. Creative Time ran Art on the Beach on the landfill that is now Battery Park City back then it was just a huge field of sand. There was an interest beyond becoming ladies who lunch. Everyone talks about the 1970s as being the birth of feminism, but for me, the 80s were really about feminism in practical use. Bars & Music Mama's Bar. When youre at a memorial mourning the passing of a friend or a lover and theyre really young, where do you put that stuff? And why I got out.. Not surprisingly, it worked. Belgian, Crepes, Wine Bar, Coffee Shop Menu Available. upper east side bars 1980s - Binuli.ge And then eventually some surface decoration with tucks and treatment Id take the fabric and just sew in any direction. We recorded at a studio called Greene Street Recording Studio on Greene Street between Houston and Prince. I spent a decade in New York City like that. Ave., NYC Everyone was very excited. The Upper East Side isn't the first or second or 12th neighborhood that comes to mind for fun late-night bars, but that doesn't mean you need to head across the park or 70 blocks south just to take 2am shots of tequila with strangers. They could be stimulated by the heterosexual pornography that was on the screen. I was part of the backpacker renaissance; you brought a backpack, so youd have a change of clothes. Remembering the Lost Gay Bars of NYC - PAPER He had intended whatever conversation we were having to go in another direction. It was on the 13th floor of an old city building, and you had to walk up a whole floor from the 12th, which was the last floor served by an elevator. Nobody was talking to him, probably because they didnt recognize him. It must have been late spring of 1981. As soon as he opened [his own place] I started working there, alongside Sara Driver [the filmmaker and partner of Jim Jarmusch]. I could feel the presence of someone in the room. If you remember Flemings, this event is for you: Saturday, December 4 Fleming's Reunion Party I would walk around the neighborhood, go down to 42nd Street and do a lot of movie cruising. Thats what happened at Club 57 a lot: We told people, This is the theme. The weekend that it happened, I got a call at 2 oclock in the morning from the owner of the theater. Somebody might have called during the night to say they might have job opportunities, so you always checked your machine. My first photo lab was called Hy Photo. The quiet and space afforded clarity. You could feel it turning, the tackiness beginning to creep in. I was living with my parents in the Alfred E. Smith projects on the Lower East Sides waterfront. He needed someone he trusted. It needs to be said that, technically, ladies nights were illegal in New York and had been so for quite a time. So when they talked to me about playing the character Lydia Grant, the dance teacher, I said, Yes, I would be so interested if I could also be responsible for the choreography. Because by this time, I had been developing as a choreographer, working with the Henry Street Playhouse and the New York Shakespeare Festival, and I really loved doing it. People thought I was a little crazy. Not only did Mr. Brown come on with me, but Muhammad Ali did, too. You could work, then not work for a while, get by. Did you come to see the show? Load more. And the director, Charles Fuller, was like, No, youre not really ready you just think you are! Everybody was anxious to do it for an audience, so by the time we opened, it was amazing. Talk to the actors as they drifted in about your day, talk about whos auditioning for what. That was the best place to get fresh bread and rugelach and sweets. There were no movie theaters, bookstores, galleries or photocopy shops, so my entrepreneurial idea, which failed, was to open one, Chelsea Copy. I started going to local clubs in Brooklyn at about 14 years old. Spanning the late 1980s through the late 1990s, . This was our morning ritual: Wed wake up, and if we had $5 on us wed go to the 103 Restaurant on Second Avenue and Sixth Street. Usually Id take the bus down to Mickeys [Chinese Chance] at 1 University Place, where Julian Schnabel was the cook. No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988 to 1999 - Medium Boozy, drug-fueled parties that lasted until dawn. Jimmy Carters reputation was tarnished by the hostage crisis in Iran, and I feared that perhaps Norman Mailer, an Elaines regular, or some very politically active and argumentative individual, might stop by our table to express some unfavorable comments.
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