A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
back then
I always really liked ‘caffs’ in England, so arriving in New York and exploring the diner culture was a real eye-opener…. you mean you can actually specify how you want your egg?! Sunny side up? over easy? and there’s a choice of what kind of toast?! Heaven. The booths were great with friends, but sitting elbow to elbow at the counter you could really feel that coffee shops were great equalizers. All types, all sorts - there to get something to eat. The bonus was that you could witness the whole operation up close, including the orders relayed from waitress to the short-order cook - “2 men on a raft, wreck ‘em, whiskey down”
Back in the day, as they say, the coffee culture was not a thing (that arrived with Starbucks). Every neighborhood had their choice of coffee shop, luncheonette or diner, they all served breakfast, lunch and most of them dinner as well. Open 24hours was not uncommon. The East Village was home to many Polish and Ukrainian coffee shops/diners - Leshko’s, Odessa, Kiev, Vaselka among them; everyone had their local favorite and all had a breakfast special that included endless coffee top ups. My first meal in America was a plate of pierogi at Leshko’s on Ave A. (3rd photo)
I had already done a lot of drawings ‘dahn the caff’ in England, so it makes sense that some of the first paintings I did were diners. Lydia Lunch saw this very early one on the left and liked it so much so she had it hanging with another on the stage of ‘The Immaculate Consumptives’ show at Danceteria (Oct 30th 1983), with Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Clint Ruin (Jim Foetus) and Lydia. Very cool. I’ve never actually seen a photo or video of the show.
way back then - packing it in
There is a fantastic exhibition of Weegee (Arthur Fellig) photographs at ICP. Famed for his 1940s on the spot crime shots in New York (many taken in our neighborhood), he had a short wave radio set up in the boot of his car so he could tune into the police calls and get himself to the scene of the crime first.
One of his most well known photos is from Coney Island on a hot Summer’s day, where he managed to get hundreds of beach goers to look towards the camera. What is great about seeing this photo in the exhibition is that it is presented alongside the original published newspaper - giving the context and a fuller story of the day, which would have all lost without it.
Naturally I read the newspaper and all sorts of interesting contextual backstories emerge - from the ‘cage’ under the boardwalk for lost kids (150 that day) to what Weegee consumed that day, which is pretty unbelievable!
'When I got back to the city I took a shower and finished my pictures. While I was at Coney I had two kosher frankfurters and two beers at a Jewish delicatessen on the Boardwalk. Later on for a chaser I had five more beers, a malted milk, two root beers, three Coca Colas and two glasses of buttermilk. And five cigars, costing 19 cents’
And an Alka Seltzer?
Hero boy
One of my first jobs in New York was on 38th & 8th Ave, a particularly crazy part of town - Garment District/ Hell’s kitchen .
I used to work a block from Manganaro’s - the home of the hero. So every now and again I’d go for lunch. It was really old school, no frills, not trendy, no queues, just people getting lunch which was inexpensive and filling - the two requisites of a diner! Classic New York. I was just reading that after surviving 119 years, it never got over Covid, even though all through the pandemic, with the 244 seat dining room closed — they were busy delivering to frontline workers for essential hospital and transportation staff throughout the city. Now that sucks.
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It is difficult to explain how different it was. Movies filled some of the story, but left so much untold. No social media meant that there was so much left to discover and New York was so new to my eyes, too. Every area a small town. Old school in many ways, foreign and oddly fresh.
You’ve reminded me of an early ‘80’s summer when I’d meet some friends at Leshko’s for breakfast. And then take the train to Coney Island.