Turn, Turn, Turn…

[ahr]

For all you codgers out there, here are the restaurants listed in the 1977 edition of “The All New Underground Gourmet.”  An archeologist reading it might conclude that those were days of simple appetite and unpretentious prose.  Rating factors included air conditioning and hygiene.

Quote of the day:  “Thai food is not found very easily around town.”

While it disguises the distribution of restaurants by cuisine, and particularly the number of Chinese places whose names began with “Szechuan,” I’ve chosen a sort by location as best able to jog failing memories.

First installment

EAST SIDE BELOW 14TH STREET

B&H

Baltyk

East-West Restaurant

Foccaceria

Galishoff’s Dairy and Vegetarian Restaurant

The Grand Dairy Restaurant

Hisae’s Seasonal Kitchen

Katz’s

Leshko’s

Little Kitchen

Odessa

Rajmahal

Second Avenue Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant

Yonah Schimmel’s

EAST SIDE 14TH-34TH STREET

Amy’s

Belmore Cafeteria

Bosphorus East

Brownie’s

East Bay Restaurant

Francesca’s Gourmet on the Run

Hammer’s Dairy Restaurant

The Honey Tree

Hye Middle Eastern

India House East

Jack’s Nest

Josephine

Merhaba

Mexico Lindo

Mimosa

Olé

Philippine Garden

Ralph’s

El Ranch Argentino

Shalimar

Suehiro

Trinacria

Yamashiro

Z

Further installments will follow in response to popular demand.

Edit: A few typos fixed in the names.

[Liza]

Any mention of The Agora? Notable for its candy selection only.

[ahr]

'Fraid not.

[jaybee]

  Quote

Any mention of The Agora? Notable for its candy selection only.

And for their selection of Maggie Akins' felt hats.  I bought two there.

[Liza]

Hats AND candy? Sounds like a wonderful dream...(Great Miracle Legion song "Snacks and Candy", btw).

[Wilfrid]

I love the historical stuff, ahr, thanks for taking the trouble.  I assume the Second Avenue deli is the joint owned by the late Abe Lebewohl, which is still going strong.  Indeed, I recognize a lot of those places.  The Foccacceria remains the place for pig spleen sandwiches!  

[ahr]

"Hats AND candy?"

I think of TUG as the progenitor of Messrs. Leff and Sietsema, as a city cousin of Roadfood.  Did the Agora also sell food?

"The Foccacceria remains the place for pig spleen sandwiches!"

Maybe the only place? "...vastedde--a bizarre Sicilian sandwich, made with boiled ricotta cheese and boiled spleen, topped with grated Romano cheese, in a sesame-seeded Italian bun."

Does it still cost 65 cents?

[jaybee]

God, it must be eons since I had a good boiled spleen.  

[robert brown]

Plus ca mange, plus c'est la meme chose.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Alan - You know I thought the list would make me feel more nostalgic than it did. It seems like a bunch of dairy restaurants that aren't much missed these days. And then there are a few places like Hisae's that I used to eat at. Looking at that list, I could easily say that ethnic food these days is better than it was back then.

[ahr]

Steve, you must just not be an East Side Below 34th Street kind of guy.  We haven’t even yet gotten to Oscar’s Salt of the Sea (not ethnic, nor, as I recall, especially cheap) or Szechuan Taste (“the only Chinese restaurant with a French café”).

I’ll post the next installment shortly.