How late can a restaurant or bar have opened and be on your list?
Surprised that no one has mentioned Stanleyās Bar at 12th and Ave B. When I left New York in 1962 it was the hippest of hip bars.
Iām bumping this Nostalgia thread because I think some new members might enjoy it 
I didnāt visit NYC until I was 9 years old, and my main restaurant memory was visiting Wolfās Delicatessen, and trying gummibears for the first time.
My next visit was at 19. I remember a Chicago-style deep dish pizza from somewhere in Greenwich Village (I donāt remember the name), and a Spanish meal at Sevilla in Greenwich Village.
My friend was a concierge at the Waldorf Astoria in the late 90s, and she was given lots of comps to try new restaurants that wanted her to recommend their restaurants. She often brought me as her guest. We went to Firebird, the Russian restaurant in Midtown W, when it opened, and the staff wore uniforms designed by Oleg Cassini. I had to look up who he was.
I bought a copy of Asimovās $25 and under, and used to check off restaurants as I tried them, as well as checking off restaurants on a Flashmaps.
Krispy Kreme expanded to NYC around 1998, and we trekked down from Midtown to try their donuts on 23rd.
Little did I know, Krispy Kreme would expand to the Toronto area by 2003, and to the smaller cities in Ontario by 2004. For a while, some Canadians were so excited about Krispy Kreme donuts that theyād bring them from 120 miles away, to bring them to family gatherings.
Manhattan restaurants that left an impression on me, as a 20something:
Florent
Mee (takeout noodles)
Veselka
Republic
Domingo (Placido Domingoās tapas bar in midtown)
Joeās Shanghai (I know there are better XLB, but this is where I had them first)
Jimmy Sungās (my first fancy Chinese restaurant experience)
Gabrielaās
Dishes that were new to me in the 90s
Vodka sauce
XLB
Empanadas
Lo Mein
Pad Thai, which I tried before I was in NYC, but ordered frequently in NYC. I ordered a lot of Pad Thai in the late 90s. I ate more Pad Thai between 1993 and 2000 than Iāve eaten in the past 22 years.
@Pan , you asked what year to draw the line for when Nostalgic restaurants opened? How about Y2K ? 
Of course, itās a sliding scale, itās all relative .
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Letās go way back. I grew up in a suburb in the 60ās that was a 20 minute bus ride OR 2 hrs+ if rush hour. Anyway, first became familiar with the Wo Ki in Chinatown-- think its addr is/was 17 Doyers St. iirc. It was the basement type & got sold.
Places that have long closed that I regret never getting to. I do see that some have re-opened under new owners.
Luchowās-- Dad talked about his mom taking him there & the waiter filleted a trout with 2 table spoons.
Momma Leoneās-- yes it was a tourist trap but as pointed out elsewhere places donāt become popular because they turn out crap food.
Lutece & Le Pavillion-- I thought Lutece was open much longer. I see Le Pavillion just got a reboot.
21 Club-- Heh, my sister for her Senior Prom went there w/ her date. Their bill was $35.00 for just a ātuna sandwich & 2 cokes!ā Note this was 1970 dollarsā¦$255.00 in todayās money.
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From Molly OāNeillās New York Cookbook. Iāve used this cookbook more than any other cookbook I own!
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In some ways its impossible for me to participate in a nostalgia thread about NYC. Not only was I born & raised here, living here my whole (69 years old so far) life (except for college in nearby Long Island and 6 years in St. Louis), but both my parents were born and raised in Bklyn, living here virtually their whole lives. But, since you referenced Manhattan Chinatown in the '60s, Iāll weigh in with the competition to your place ā my āgo toā was Wo Hop, then (when we got some more cash) Hong Ying next door. Both downstairs on Mott.
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Without prejudice to Mama Leoneās, do you really want to argue that no popular places turn out crap food? What about the horrible chain restaurants like Applebeeās? Maybe the most nauseating meal I ever had was at one. I have refused to eat anything in any of them ever since.
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My worse meal that falls into the Nostalgia category, in 1998, was at the Carmineās near Times Square. Maybe the worst meal Iāve had in NYC. Most obnoxious meal was at Bagatelle in July 2008.
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Okay, so my mother lived in a Brooklyn area very close to Sheepshead Bay, where an Applebeeās was/is located. Over the years, the places that we all liked to go to dinner with her closed (ie; Collaroās on McDonald Ave) and she asked us to take her to Applebeeās the next time. So we went. Ginny & I tried to drown our sorrows in fishbowls of strawberry margaritas, but all we got were sugar twitches. My mother, on the other hand, was in heaven and, at one point, stated āthey have a great chef hereā. I just couldnāt bear telling her that the kitchen probably had refrigerators full with bags of prepared food to be dropped in water or nuked and that a āchefā was no where near the kitchen. Bless her heart, she made us return there a couple of times a year. I hope to never do that again.
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Yeah, Carmineās is not very good. Though Iāve been to their Upper West Side location more often, itās ranged from acceptable to unacceptable to me, but never as bad as Applebeeās.
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Funny thing, as an undergrad in Canada, I had never heard of Applebeeās. A classmate had a divorced dad living near Cincinnati, and she had a summer job lined up as a server at Applebeeās, around 1996. I was already a food-centric person, and I said Iād never heard of Applebeeās. She described it as unbelievably delicious, amazing food - a neat place to work.
I didnāt try Applebeeās until maybe 2003, the very salty broccoli cheddar soup, near some outlets near Petaluma, then some very salty Buffalo chicken fingers maybe around 2009, somewhere near an Interstate in PA or maybe Binghamton, NY. Both times because we wanted a sit down meal while travelling, and soup and salad on the menu.
My last visit to a TGIF was the Penn Station location in 1998.
One visit to the subterranean Houlihanās near FAO Schwartz in 1998. I donāt think I had anything to eat.
The last time I went to an Applebeeās, 30+ years ago, on the road to somewhere with not a lot of options, they had a three layer omelette on the menu: one cheese layer, one mushroom layer, one ham layer. I asked whether I could get one minus the ham. And was told no, because the omelettes were pre-made.
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I own that cookbook too. Scored it at the used bookstore Iād visit almost everyday (hey, I had to walk right by it coming home from work 
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Iām coming here 5 years late but your taste and mine run in some weird parallel universe. I have been to almost every place you listed and loved them too.
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I agree with both of these. Carmineās is slop and the crowd is horrible. Same thing for Bagatelle - those drunken brunches attract the absolute worst. Other popular places I despise: STK and CATCH, The Smith
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Hahaha, The Smith had been recommended to me a few times when I was looking for a midtown breakfast, but I never made it there. Have managed to avoid STK and CATCH.
Bagatelle has a DJ right behind our table. I was in NYC for a bachelorette.
The meal at Babbo was the best fancy meal of the trip, (pre-Batali scandal), and cost the same amount as Bagatelle per person.
Fast forward 14 years, the couple is still married. I am no longer friends with the bride, one of my first friendships to cease to exist during the early days of the Pandemic, after a disagreement about proper patio protocol. 
I should have known we werenāt on the same page in 2008.
I wonder whether how good The Smith is depends somewhat on which location you go to. Iāve found it reliable thought not particularly inspired or original. On the other hand, I havenāt been there since before the pandemic.
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Extremely sweet mojitos are just wrong. My brother has been to Havana and told me they put a couple of jiggers (I think he said) of bitters in it. Iāve been with him when heās instructed cooperative bartenders to do what they did in Havana, and it tastes much better that way.
Yes, to me itās just one step above Applebeeās. Boring chainlet that you take your cousins from the suburbs so that they are not intimidated by āthe City.ā Too many options in this town to waste on The Smith, IMO.
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The Smith is where I take people who need safe options. Like, heāll only eat steak, sheās mostly vegetarian, and the kid is going through a pasta phase. Nothing is terrible - I usually get the moules frites, and itās hard to screw that up. But itās too expensive for what it is, and it makes me cranky to waste a meal there.
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