Abe Lincoln or no Abe Lincoln, it just didn’t smell good.
Don’t forget e.e. cummings
I was sitting in mcsorley’s. outside it was New York and beauti- / fully snowing
by E. E. Cummings
i was sitting in mcsorley’s. outside it was New York and beautifully snowing. Inside snug and evil. the slobbering walls filthily push witless creases of screaming warmth chuck pillows are noise funnily swallows swallowing revolvingly pompous a the swallowed mottle with smooth or a but of rapidly goes gobs the and of flecks of and a chatter sobbings intersect with which distinct disks of graceful oath, upsoarings the break on ceiling-flatness the Bar. tinking luscious jigs dint of ripe silver with warmlyish wetflat splurging smells waltz the glush of squirting taps plus slush of foam knocked off and a faint piddle-of-drops she says I ploc spittle what the lands thaz me kid in no sir hopping sawdust you kiddo he’s a palping wreaths of badly Yep cigars who jim him why gluey grins topple together eyes pout gestures stickily point made glints squinting who’s a wink bum-nothing and money fuzzily mouths take big wobbly foot-steps every goggle cent of it get out ears dribbles soft right old feller belch the chap hic summore eh chuckles skulch… and I was sitting in the din thinking drinking the ale, which never lets you grow old blinking at the low ceiling my being pleasantly was punctuated by the always retchings of a worthless lamp. when With a minute terrif iceffort one dirty squeal of soiling light yanKing from bushy obscurity a bald greenish foetal head established It suddenly upon the huge neck around whose unwashed sonorous muscle the filth of a collar hung gently. (spattered) by this instant of semiluminous nausea A vast wordless nondescript genie of trunk trickled firmly in to one exactly-mutilated ghost of a chair, a; domeshaped interval of complete plasticity, shoulders, sprouted the extraordinary arms through an angle of ridiculous velocity commenting upon an unclean table. and, whose distended immense Both paws slowly loved a dinted mug gone Darkness it was so near to me, i ask of shadow won’t you have a drink? (the eternal perpetual question) Inside snugandevil. i was sitting in mcsorley’s It, did not answer. outside. (it was New York and beautifully, snowing…
I liked everything about McSorley’s when I hung out there except for the fact that that they didn’t allow women on the premises.
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What year was this? I’m female, and I went in the mid -80’s and by that point the main problem I had was that it had become fratty as hell thanks to the massive NYU influx. Not the old man bar that Joseph Mitchell wrote about at all. Still I was glad to have been able to go and experience it.
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I was in there before I was of legal drinking age … I was really young
It was either 1970 or 71, I did not receive a warm welcome
but was definitely not stopped at the door or asked to leave once inside.
First place I had ever been where there was no “ladies” restroom
My memory is of an old man bar … not nearly as disgusting as what is
described above … maybe I was there on a quite night!
Balkan Armenian
Abbey Tavern
Belmore Cafeteria (I never liked it but my parents did - huge nostalgia factor)
El Quijote - first place I ever ate Spanish food
Carolina in Coney Island
Garguilio’s in Coney Island
Senior’s on Nostrand Avenue, more nostalgia for a bygone style than anything else
NEVER Yonah Shimmel, it’s just plain bad, but Mrs. Stahl’s if necessary, preferred Hirsch’s on the Boardwalk
Chock Full O’Nuts - of course the cream cheese sandwiches, but oh, those donuts!
And while I have no personal memories of Horn & Hardart, the wife of my father’s sole employee worked for H&H from 1946 until the very last one closed. I think she may have retired as a manager of some type.
http://pro.harveywang.com/galleries/harvey-wang-s-new-york/images/539c155e-4d2e-41ac-a2ec-f0fd9ee63a55
El Quijote and Yonah Schimmel are still around. And likely exactly as you remember them, should you care to revisit the past (probably not).
Gargiulio’s is still alive and kicking.
For me, Carolina’s baked clams were the benchmark for all others.
We had a huge family seder at Senior’s back in the 70s. I wish we had made it a yearly thing.
Does anyone remember Luigino’s in Brooklyn? It was on Coney Island Avenue just off of Kings Highway. The entrance was very nondescript. It looked as though it was a door to the back of the Kingsway Theater. I remember the place was tiny but buzzing, dripping with chandeliers above circular banquettes.
Can’t remember the name but a cafeteria on Flatbush and Church. Nostalgia factor for the folks. They ate there the night before they got married.
I grew up off Ave M/E. 13th St. (yes, I’ve been going to DiFara for 50 years). I sorta remember a place by the Kingsway, but no details are left in my hard drive. However, on McDonald Ave off Quentin Rd was the real Collaro’s (no relationship to the one on Coney Is. Ave) and I ate there countless times. I still miss their “bricks” of baked ziti and lasagna, as well as their eggplant parm. (no bread crumbs used, only egg coating).
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Murrow grad?
The last time we were at that Collaro’s in the early 90s, we were treated to lunch by a guy who was having “meetings,” one after the other, at a table by the front window. The free meal was to apologize for being too loud. He wasn’t, but I didn’t want to argue with him. Ever.
Murrow? You must think I’m as young as I look! Murrow was a Sanitation Garage when I grew up 2 blocks away. The NBC studio was still active and I was in the audience for several Hulabaloo episodes (think Freddie & the Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, Lovin’ Spoonful…). I went to PS 199 on CIA off Ave N, Hudde Jr. HS, then Midwood.
And, yeah, there were always “meetings” going on in Collaro’s. 
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I haven’t seen you, but you certainly were zoned for it! Hey, at least you weren’t there when Vitaphone/Vitagraph was filming silent westerns. 
Very jealous about Hullabaloo. I think my mother may have seen Sinatra perform there way back when.
You must remember Magliulio’s on CIA and N, I think. I miss them, too. They were a good red sauce joint in a luncheonette setting. I’m not sure when they opened, but they were going strong into the 90s, before our move up to Westchester.
Interestingly enough (or not), my father recalled working there for a brief time when he was young.
Sammy Davis Jr did a “special” at the NBC studio in the '60s & Sinatra was there. So was Maurice Chevalier. I was in the audience then too.
I do remember it, although I think I only ate there once. I have no specific memories of the food. And there was another Italian restaurant off the Highway, maybe near Ocean Ave., whose name I’m blanking on but sounded something like Scaramella or Scar-something, whose food was rather good if you could ignore the singer in the evenings.
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Collaro’s! That’s it! That’s the name I was trying to remember when I said Scaramella or something. The one by the Highway had the singer. The one on McDonald Ave. had pork braciole that still haunts my dreams.
There was also a 3rd Collaro’s on Ocean Parkway on the corner of Ave L. None were related to each other… at least not that they would admit. The McDonald Ave one was the one you’d go to for the food. Owned by Sonny Collaro.
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That Collaro’s was right near the cemetery. I hated walking back to our car after dinner in the dark.
Bickford’s Cafeteria, Hector’s Cafeteria.
I think that is the name I was trying to remember. I knew there was a big Italian on Ocean and the lasagna was bricks of lasagna!
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