June 30, 2007
One More Moondance With You In The Moonlight
The last free-standing diner in Manhattan is closing tomorrow night after 70 years in business, and like many displaced New Yorkers it will be moving to Pennsylvania. The Moondance Diner in SoHo is shuttering, and next month it will be shipped to PA to become part of a museum. The lot where it currently sits is going to become the site of luxury condos. The New York Sun reported the imminent demise of the Moondance back in February and noted the diner's end as emblematic of the westward expansion of the fashionable SoHo district.
The Moondance Diner will live on in the movies. It was featured in several major motion pictures, like Spiderman, and in tv shows. It has actually been quite a tourist draw. The owner of the diner recalls in an NY1 piece how people would come from afar to see a sentimental landmark:
"A lot of people, they get married here, they find they're [sic, or maybe not -DH, Gothamist] girlfriends here,” said Sunny Sharma, owner of the Moondance Diner. “They live in New Jersey, all over, but most the tourists here come from Europe – Belgium, France, England – they all come here to see. Not to see me, just to see the Moondance Diner, the sign of Moondance Diner.”
Kevin Walsh has a great page on New York City's disappearing diners at ForgottenNewYork. To end on a positive note, we do enjoy visiting Relish: the super-chromed free-standing diner in Williamsburg, with a garden and a chain link fence rosebush trellis. It was a forlorn and forgotten unused building before the neighborhood underwent its "transformation" and the diner re-opened. The era of true greasy spoons may be past, but we appreciate the approximation.
(Looking out, by Goggla at flickr)
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"...they find they're [sic, or maybe not -DH, Gothamist] girlfriends here,”
Did you write "or maybe not" because you actually do not know whether "they're" was incorrect in this instance? Are you for real?
there
their
they're
C'mon now, take a guess... which should it be? You can do it!
Sheesh!
It's NYC. It's possible that two women might realize that they are lesbians and girlfriends instead of just close friends over a piece of pie in a diner. I didn't want to rule out that romantic possibility with an unambiguous "[sic]". Thank you for the grammar pointers though.
hmm. is it "citychik" ... or is it "dunce"?
either way i'll miss those moondance burgers and coffee very much but at least citychik is eating crow.
ps nice deadpan reply, author of the post.
pps re "the last freestanding diner in manhattan" -- that might be too hasty because there's still the cheyenne which still had a real menu, as opposed to a fussy menu, as of a few months ago.
please tell me the cheyenne is still "they're"! (har.)
"The owner of the diner recalls in an NY1 piece how people would come from afar to see a sentimental landmark:
"A lot of people, they get married here, they find they're [sic, or maybe not -DH, Gothamist] girlfriends here,” said Sunny Sharma, owner of the Moondance Diner. “They live in New Jersey, all over, but most the tourists here come from Europe – Belgium, France, England – they all come here to see. Not to see me, just to see the Moondance Diner, the sign of Moondance Diner.”
Now what the heck do lesbians have to do with the fact that you wrote [sic, or maybe not -DH, Gothamist] after the incorrect use of the word "they're" in the piece you quoted? I guess your response is to avoid the fact that you don't know what is the proper word in this sentence. Well, I'm not eating crow (huh?), but you sure look dumb.
BTW, it should have been "their."
wow this is delicious. are you serious that you don't get the joke, even after it's explained to you? and even though you profess to understand homophones? (tee hee, i said ''homo''!)
chirp, enjoy that crow which you're not even aware that you are eating!
call me crazy but here's what i think. i think the gothamist scribe does in fact realize the ny1 writer should have used "their." he embraced the mistake as a chance to show some grammar wit. whereas, citychik, you appear to be witless.
and their ewe halve it.
The Cheyenne is still there. Well it was as of late yesterday afternoon.
Duh. Of course I got it, but it was a cop-out.
Furthermore, I don't "profess" anything. However, I know I write better than these bigshot college grads who think they're on the cutting edge of popular culture, and I dropped out of high school.
Gothamnist. Whoop-dee-doo.
that's good news on the cheyenne. need to hurry over there before it goes the way of the moondance too. anyone remember when the moondance had the mural above it? it's sad what we're losing.
(shot of moondance with mural)
it seems we agree on one thing, citychik, i hate people who think they're smarter than other people, too.
hmm i wonder. maybe later tonight i'll happen to meet someone like you at the moondance diner, and i'll find true love over a slice of pie. with the moondance closing soon, it might be my last chance...
of course because i'm heterosexual and male, i'll have to hope that DH-Gothamist was wrong in his original post, and the moondance isn't too heavily populated with lesbians. not that there's anything wrong with that.
ah, new york!
We cannot forget our friend Monica Geller waited tables there!
Is the Empire in Chelsea not free-standing (and still open)?
"Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves...We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."
Amen Ada Louise, Amen.
This comment probably won't make much sense... but a long time ago I thought the Moondance diner was a figment of my imagination! The first time I saw it I was going by it in a car and I was half-asleep and I thought I dreamt it. I couldn't quite remember where I had seen it. Then I realized it was real.
Now it's going back to being a figment of my imagination, in a way.
a closing day visit to the moondance.
the empire is there but does it count as a classic diner with its modern fancypants menu? (eg not a million pages w everything from omelettes to spaghetti?) just asking
American Diner Museum
P.O.Box 6022
Providence,
Rhode Island 02940 USA
www.dinermuseum.org
Media Release
HISTORIC MOONDANCE DINER TO BE SPARED
NEW YORK, N.Y. - In early August, diner patrons, preservationists, &
community groups, will be “dancing on the moon,” as the culturally &
architecturally significant Moondance Diner (80 6th Ave, SoHo), will
be spared from demolition and has found a new home. The Moondance
Diner will soon be transported to La Barge, Wyoming where it will
again serve a population of five hundred plus at growing tourist
industry.
New Owners Vince & Cheryl Pierce are quite excited about the diners
move and their new venture in the diner business near the Green
River.
Michael Perlman, Queens’s preservationist & founder of the
Committee To Save The Moondance Diner, and Kyle Supley, a Brooklyn
historic preservationist, immediately joined forces & campaigned to
save the diner, when its fate was in limbo earlier this year. Perlman
urged & worked with Extell Development, who generously donated the
diner to the American Diner Museum the Rhode Island non-profit, and
the only organization in the United States devoted to the
preservation, history & restoration of historic factory built diners.
The Moondance Diner is a highlight in terms of its diverse patronage
including celebrities, and the motion picture, sitcom, & Broadway
world (Spiderman, Friends, Igby Goes Home, Sex in the City, etc).
This is also where Jonathan Larson was employed for a decade prior to
producing the Tony Award winning Broadway musical RENT. The Mondance
Diner, formerly called the Holland Tunnel Diner, retains several
original &/or distinctive elements; chrome detailing, a barrel roof
ceiling, wrap-around windows, counter & stools, as well as a famed
retro revolving moon sign by the late architect/designer Alan
Buchsbaum & designer/signmaker Jim Rogers.
According to Daniel Zilka , Director of the American Diner Museum, A
true "diner" is a prefabricated structure built at an assembly site
and transported to a permanent location for installation to serve
prepared food. Webster's Dictionary defines a diner as "a restaurant
in the shape of a railroad car." The word "diner" is a derivative
of "dining car" and diner designs reflected the styling that
manufacturers borrowed from railroad dining cars. A diner is usually
outfitted with a counter, stools and a food preparation or service
area along the back wall.
During the 40's & 50's eras, diners numerously dotted the 5 boroughs,
and brought together individuals of various occupations in a cozy,
personable ambiance. Today, they are becoming an endangered species
at an alarming rate. American Diner Museum has assisted in the rescue
from demolition more than thirty diners thru community awareness.
Photos of the diner can be found on the American Diner Museum web
site at
http://www.dinermuseum.org