This topic got me to sign up with HO.
Went to Columbia '74 to '76.
Campus Dining Room private not a CU facility.
Is the West End still there? (yeah the food was MEH but it was open @ 7am.)
We ate at V&T’s couple times-- was touted as the best pizza in the city. My first experience of a sloppy knife & fork pizza. It was very good but not the “best”
Ta-kome! That was the deli I could not remember. Thank you johnb.
Welcome Wallace
The West End is long gone. Was a great place for pitchers of beer and so so food.
I tried to edit my previous post but it doesn’t seem to be taking.
West End is long gone. Great for pitchers of beer and so so food but freaking great music.
I remember going there one night maybe in 1987 and Dizzy Gillispie (sp?) was playing. They had some mind blowing jazz there.
Couple other places–
Chicken Gourmet – was right on the corner of 112 & B’way? maybe 114? despite its name it had a really decent NYC breakfast.
Leaving CU’s main gates & turning left down the street and maybe 10 blocks my best friend insisted on “La ChinaBeana” (prob mangled spelling) a combo (“fusion” had not been invented yet) Cuban/Chinese diner. I was horrified but glad I did. I saw Arroz con Pollo and ordered it, it was very good.
I don’t know if Chinabeana is the same Cuban Chinese place I was thinking of in my post but there seems to be some carryover from your time to the late 80s
Since this is a thread on a food board about that august institution located on (in?) Morningside Heights, how about figuring out all the food industry folks we know about who attended or graduated from the place? I can contribute a few names: Jacques Pépin (BA '70 , MA '72), Anita Lo (BA?,?), and Chris Kimball (BA '73). Others? Did anybody actually know any of those who were/became food/restaurant luminaries while there?
Martha Stewart, BA 1963.
In the 1970’s the falafel place was called Amir’s. Next to it was Pizza Town. On Broadway and 126, Shanghai Garden was a great place. Below, on Broadway and 110 was House of Tsai and lower, on 107 (approx) was Chuan Hong.
Hmm. It might have still been Amir’s (a decade later). One of my friends ran for mayor of Pizza Town. I’m not sure if he won. House of Tsai was definitely gone by the time I got there.
The Cuban restaurant on Broadway and 109 St. others mentioned but couldn’t recall the name was (again, in the 1970’s to early 1980’s) “Ideal” (pronounced, EE-DEE-AL) and the owner was Frank Castro. By the way, I enjoy reading your varied contributions here and CH.
Thanks! Same. This is making me want to drag out my pix from then.
Yes! Ideal! Such good plátanos, picadillo, ropa vieja. Take out boxes of yellow rice and black beans to supplement whatever was in the fridge for whomever was around….
House of Tsai was the “excellent Chinese place” I referred to above as being around 107th; thanks for reminding me of its name. It’s where I first encountered candied bananas as a desert – I remember Mr. Tsai himself making them at the table, with a big bowl of ice water, even once running out himself to get some bananas when we wanted the dish but he was out of them. I once threw a Sunday afternoon mini-banquet there for about a dozen friends and brought lots of wine. We ended up having too much to drink and were being quite rowdy towards the end, getting stares from the customers who were drifting in. The good old days.
Amir’s, YES! Thank you.
Did any of you go cross town to Rao’s (East 114th St.)? This was our go-to for visits. Had to beg our way in but got Frankie to jokingly call us his West Coast cousins (name translation).
Before the Mill became a Korean joint, the Mill was a prototypical Upper Westside counter joint, known for its egg cream, chicken soup and cheap fried egg breakfasts. One of the counter men, Rene (whom Small H referenced) spoke a little Yiddish–he was likely “tutored” by Morris, the owner and a holocaust survivor. I know this because one day, I was seated at the counter and next to me was I.I. Rabi, Physics Professor and Nobel Prize winner. Rene and Prof. Rabi exchanged pleasantries in Yiddish (which I understand.) https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1944/rabi/biographical/
Another spot in the 1970’s and early '80’s was L&M, a burger joint on Amsterdam and 118 Street. Prof. K-L Selig, whom many of you no doubt remember, pronounced the husband/wife team the creators of “The Renaissance Hamburger.”
Them was the daze…
Much better story than me learning to mix bibimbap at its newer incarnation!
Rao’s is a totally different conversation… Deserves its own thread, in fact.
Not a food luminary but a well know person would be Barry Obama. I didn’t know him but we overlapped when I was there. When he first ran for president a college friend asked me if I remembered Barry. I had no recollection of meeting Barry but my friend said he recalled him once trying to bum a beer from a bunch of us as we were sitting out one night on the steps in front of Low.
As a student I would never had the resources to go to Rao. Could barely afford a burger at Happy Burger. 
