Clinton Street deathwatch

on the street, it’s also perenially popular among the LES penniless crowd.

It looks dreadful from the outside, but it does the job on the inside, with

cheap and filling chicken-rice-and-beans-style food. Could keep on going

indefinitely, but will not be able to afford to renew its lease when the

time comes.

those sandwiches, and the coffee’s not bad either, but there’s not much

atmosphere and it suffers from the same problem as many mostly-empty places:

that when you enter you feel as though you’re barging in on a private conversation

between the owner and his friends. I fear he underestimated the price-sensitivity

of Lower East Siders.

managed to take off. It’s got a weird layout, which isn’t very welcoming

from the street, and the food is unfamiliar enough that you need a real

reason to go there – which most people don’t have. It’s not good enough

to be a destination, and doesn’t have the neighborhood appeal to survive

on locals alone.

– which means it’s very popular and won’t be going away in the foreseeable

future. Lots of loud Bridge & Tunnel types drinking expensive cocktails

make the food more or less irrelevant in any case. In fact, by bar-food

standards the food is very good, but you need to be a bit weird to actually

want to eat there while being constantly jostled by a drink-spilling crowd.

With luck the crowd will move on to the next buzzy bar and Salt Bar will

fizzle out, but I’m not holding my breath.

bar yet: irrationally, I suppose I haven’t forgiven it for kicking Dr Dave

out of his former premises. It’s new enough and inoffensive enough that

I’m sure it’ll be around for a while.

ever seems to increase in popularity. It has had an insane wait for weekend

brunch for a long time now, but even mid-afternoon, mid-week it can be difficult

to get a table. The muffins are good, as is the coffee, and it’s hard to

mess up an egg dish, but overall it’s hard to see exactly why this place

is so perenially crowded. No chance of it closing, though.

very crowded, but one suspects that’s because most of its customers order

delivery. It has good, reasonably priced food: it’s certainly not a destination,

but every neighborhood should have a decent Thai place, and this is the

official Decent Thai Place for the LES.

discussed. But one has hope that its high quality will win out, and

that the restaurant will overcome its present thin patch.

I’m not entirely sure who comes here or why, but it certainly seems to be

at no risk of closing down. I suspect that most of the custom is from guys

wanting to impress their dates by choosing somewhere "sophisticated"

where they can pretend to know something about wine.

probably remain here long after everybody else has gone. If there were any

doubts about that, the aquisition of a liquor license should have put them

to rest. It is the unofficial headquarters of the Lower East Side: hang

out there long enough and you’ll meet pretty much everybody, sooner or later.

Meet people by asking them to watch your PowerBook while you go to the toilet.

Or just hang out at the bar.

selling reversible jeans, it didn’t work as a distant cousin within the

Dufresne empire, and whatever it is now, it still doesn’t work. No one will

mourn its passing.

dogs. A small cross-section of the LES, perhaps, but large enough to keep

this place going. Surprisingly good and reasonably-priced bento boxes, if

you get hungry.

conducive to my dining experience". Perfect for people who like green-tinged

sushi. Which seems to be an enormous number of people. The food’s not cheap,

but it’s BYO, so you end up spending less than you might at a nominally

cheaper and certainly higher-quality sushi place such as Esashi, on Avenue

A. Seems very popular with groups of 21-25 year-old girls. Who can get very

loud. In any case, it seems to have hit on a successful formula.

of an era. I had some great meals there, especially when it first opened

and one could get a same-day table. You’d phone them up, ask them to decant

a bottle of their $28 pinotage ahead of time, and the wine would have opened

up by the time you got there.

"Pizza", the bare-bones sign outside. In fact, I’m not sure if

this is actually a restaurant or is really some kind of money-laundering

operation. I can’t imagine why anybody would actually go in and eat any

of their congealed product, let alone sit down at the plastic tables in

front of the faux-brick walls. Awful.

backlash. Now it’s an established destination for adventurous gourmands

from around the world. Its prices are high enough that it will be able to

stay on Clinton Street indefinitely, should Wylie want to do so.

It lasted for just under 15 minutes a year or two ago? Well, there’s an

entire restaurant devoted to the stuff on Clinton Street. I’m far from convinced

that their turnover is high enough to guarantee the freshness of the fish.

It’s a nice enough restaurant, but no one will be surprised to see it go.

Plus it always gets confused with Chubo, which is a much better restaurant.

Best to settle on just one of the two.

with a nice back yard in the summer. What’s not to like? Should be able

to make it.

restaurant, permanently packed for very good reason. For the quality of

the food and wine, the prices are decidedly reasonable, while the atmosphere

is generally upbeat and friendly. Yes, it does attract rather too many trend-seekers

from the Upper East Side, which means the crowd leaves a little to be desired.

But I’ll always love coming here for a meal.

joint. Friendly, with good food, good music, good atmosphere. Does run the

same risk as Clinton Restaurant two blocks north – that it won’t be

able to afford to renew its lease when the time comes. But its closure will

occasion much sadness in the neighborhood.

packed, for very good reason. The ultimate Italian-style coffee shop, with

great coffee, great desserts, and even proper food (pastas and the like).

Inconceivable that it could fail.

71 Clinton have died. Popular neighborhood restaurant. I’ve never been hugely

impressed myself, either by the food or the wine. But there’s no denying

the fact that lots of people love it. Will stay for a very long time.