Agreed. It’s perfect for this purpose, especially when plans also involve a show or something since service is usually prompt and there is no reason to linger. Convenient locations to many entertainment venues, too.
Mmmmm, Collaro’s. Loved their location on McDonald and also on Ocean Parkway. We also loved Magliulo’s on Coney Island Avenue. It looked like a luncheonette with red vinyl booths and a linoleum floor, but served perfect old-school red sauce classics.
Good to see you @Homestyleturkey ! I think I’ve been to Collaros on Ocean Parkway. It was indeed good red sauce Italian.
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There were actually 3 Collaro’s, with the 3rd being on Coney Island Ave, off Kings Hiway. The one we always went to, until it closed down, was on McDonald Ave off Quentin & they had a big notice on their menu that “We are not related to any other Collaro”. Their lasagnas and baked zitis were in “brick” form & their eggplant parm. was great. Must be 25 years since they’ve been gone. The one on Ocean Parkway was much bigger and grander looking & we never managed to go there. The one on Coney Is. Ave wasn’t bad at all. The only Italian place in that neighborhood that we still go to is “Joe’s of Ave U”, a Sicilian place that’s really old school cafeteria style.
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Trader Vic’s at the Plaza was a hoot, and I used to love the cheesecake at Famous Dairy on West 72nd Street.
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Any discussion of cheesecake should include Miss Grimble’s, which was on Madison between 79th and 80th and then on Columbus around 74th. They were the best I had had in the 70s and 80s. Any type was great, but my favorites were their hazelnut and raspberry cheesecakes. I went to Rudolph Steiner School on E. 78th St. for a year and frequently got a mini-chocolate cheesecake from them and ate it after school. It wasn’t cheap, but it was a fair value. They eventually closed their retail stores and concentrated on the restaurant trade, which had always provided them with a lot of their income.
By the way, the company has a site, but I don’t know how up-to-date it is. They’ve been making desserts for far longer than two decades and already had been in 2007, the latest date they mention, so I don’t really know what they’re talking about, but: http://missgrimble.com/
I’m so glad this thread was revived!!!
Or you’d have to start a Nostalgia thread for the Nostalgia thread.
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Here’s additional nostalagia:
It’s 1977, and here I am, a new arrival to grad school at Stony Brook, LI, 1977, in the brand-new bell-bottomed pants that I was led to believe were the raging NY fashion, barely able to afford a round-trip Long Island Rail Road ticket to NY.
When I could get to NYC what could I eat?
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Mamoun’s, Mamoun’s Mamoun’s: For a buck or so you got a fantastically crisp falafel or smoky shawarma.
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Hop Kee on Mott.
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Pizza at John’s on Bleecker.
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Various Indian lunch buffets on 6th. Good Ganesh, could we pack it in then!
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The cheap Indian restaurants are almost totally gone from the East Village, but the rest of the places you mentioned are still around. What did you like to get at Hop Kee?
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It’s been 30 years since I last ate there (I’ve been meaning to revisit, as I have John’s a few times), so it’s hard to remember everything, but Wor Shu Opp was one dish that I recall, and some kind of fried fish. I was pretty deep on Long Island, but had a friend with a car, and sometimes we’d jump into it at midnight and head to Hop Kee.
I know where Stony Brook is. I got my Doctorate there in 1994.
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Man, this site is crawling with 'Brook alums.
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