3 Comments

1. 

   AScoutingLife July 27, 2010

   Love the unified facade. Yorkville is admittedly a neighborhood I'm pretty weak on. Is there still any sort of German community up there?

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2. 

   DJ July 27, 2010

   A little still remains. Shaller and Weber and Heidelberg are both still on 2nd (Thank God!) and the Hungarian Market is still holding firm, and there's a Hungarian pastry place too. But, nothing like it was 20 years ago for sure. My block still has Oktoberfest every year though. There are a few bakeries and bars too… Most of the old Germans and Eastern Europeans have died away.

   Sammy, there was a bar up the block from me (now an Italian bistro) called Elsie's Oke Doke Pub. It was something out of Bukowski. Elsie served two kinds of beer and hard booze. She slept in the back room. It was a long bar with stools. Long and thin. She played polka and Sinatra. That was it. The place was spartan. Bar, booze, stools, butts. And, it was the place where regulars (the Subway Inn is the only place I know now that is similar) were REGULARS. And, if you came in, if she didn't know you, it might take awhile to get a drink. Or never. But, once you were in, you were expected to drink. And, to pay up front. And, then… one day, she started a tab.

   And, she had no problems cutting you off. And, you felt the better man for it too!

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3. 

   DJ July 27, 2010

   There are a few nice old Lutheran chruches in the area that have that “I'm in an Uber Wooden Boat” feel. Kind of unique for Manhattan in that regard.

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