Althouse: "For the last few years, it’s been clear we are the last remaining connection many Jews can relate to because their parents and grandparents came through the Lower East Side."

January 7, 2015

"For the last few years, it’s been clear we are the last remaining connection many Jews can relate to because their parents and grandparents came through the Lower East Side."

Creeping, relentless, engulfing hipsterism has — at long last — swallowed the matzo factory.

13 comments:

tim maguire said...: If only they could hang on another year or two, de Blasio is sure to bring back the old Lower East Side, when $3,000 condos will once again be $50 tenements!

Just kidding. Sort of.

I lived in New York from the early Giuliani administration to 2012 and the changes during this time were huge. Many for the better, but a lot of color and interest got ground up under the wheels of gentrification. It's sad, but that has always been the way with New York. The landmarks that are closing down now themselves replaced some other period's landmarks. And some of these new things that are pushing out the old landmarks will themselves be landmarks one day.; 1/7/15, 6:49 AM
Bob R said...: “It’s tough to do business in Manhattan.” Unless you are a bankster.; 1/7/15, 6:51 AM
Robert Cook said...: I walked past the Schimmel Knish Bakery recently for the first time in years and I was happy to see it was still there, even though I've never been inside and never had one of their knishes. It's just good to see parts of New York that are as they were.; 1/7/15, 7:04 AM
Oso Negro said...: Ah, but one day, should the hipsters favor us with reproduction, their grandchildren may mourn the passing of the last Starbuck's where Granny and Grampy met over double-skinny vanilla latte.; 1/7/15, 7:30 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Junior's in Brooklyn had planned to sell out to a developer to build on their Flatbush site, then move back into the lobby. I think they've abandoned the idea. Reading about Streit's I heard Katz's came close. What would we do without Katz's, I ask you?

But if they have to build, and of course they do, there's so much low rise housing north of the meatpacking district alone that you could be ripping up and skyscrapering for decades. Assuming the ground is suitable, I recall reading about the geology of Manhattan Island, the band's of bedrock...but they can build on anything these days.

My pet peeve is, no new construction without enormous underground parking.; 1/7/15, 7:34 AM
tim maguire said...: Unknown, I saw a show on that issue once--the skyscrapers are where the bedrock is near the surface, while the low rise buildings are where the bedrock sits deeper.

The effect is of a skyline that mirrors the geology. Turning the Village into another canyon of towers will be more expensive than doing than building tall in some other places.; 1/7/15, 7:43 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @tim and unknown

I don't get it. If "enormous underground parking" is part of the project, wouldn't building be easier where the bedrock is lower?; 1/7/15, 9:01 AM
m stone said...: The neighborhood may be lost as a Jewish enclave, but the matzo will live on forever.

It's easier to make matzo than cupcakes, and fewer ingredients and better taste.; 1/7/15, 9:07 AM
Richard Lawrence Cohen said...: The first matzohs were made on the run, on the backs of donkeys, baked by the desert sun, by people who'd had to move too fast to grab the yeast. We'll find a way.; 1/7/15, 11:08 AM
YoungHegelian said...: My Jewish gastroenterologist says that, from a gastrointestinal point of view, matzoh really is "the bread of affliction". He says they really gum up the works.

Also, as horribly wrong as it sounds, pork chops breaded in seasoned-up matzoh meal are just delicious!; 1/7/15, 1:29 PM
YoungHegelian said...: The article failed to mention Sammy's Roumanian Steak House, which clearly is still there.

I have a soft spot for Sammy's. My wife & I went there with her father, who grew up in the LES & Brookly. He had a horrible childhood, with his dad dying when he was 3, and his mom dying when he was 12. I bribed the lounge singer to play "My Yiddishe Mamma" (Me: Do you know "My Yiddishe Mamma?" Her: "What do you think I do for a living?" Ahh, New Yorkers..), and he cried as he heard it.; 1/7/15, 1:39 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Sammy's...ZOMG drool...pitchers of chicken fat on the table like syrup at ihop...unborn chicken eggs...huuuuge tracts of veal chop...; 1/7/15, 3:21 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/7/15, 9:17 PM