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Over the weekend it was reported that Cafe des Artistes, the serenely romantic restaurant near Lincoln Center, has closed after more than 90 years in business. The wife of owner George Lang blames the closure on the restaurant's unionized workers, who recently sued the restaurant for unpaid benefits, including medical insurance. Local 100 union president Bill Granfield tells the Times, "We think Mr. Lang is a great figure in the restaurant industry, a great person, and it’s a great restaurant. But it feels like time passed it by a while ago."
Time's passing quickly for upscale restaurants all over town; last week the visually stunning Greenwich Village restaurant Elettaria closed after a turbulent year and a half in business; Eater hears that "issues with lease negotiations" were to blame, but reviews were always mixed and prices stubbornly high. And La Goulue, a fancy Upper East Side brasserie, closed after 36 years on Wednesday.
Some 512 NYC restaurants have closed this past year, according to a recently released restaurant census. All of this is just fine by The Feedbag's Josh Ozersky, who sees the death trend as a much-needed thinning of the herd. He tells the Daily News, "The great fine-dining fuddy-duddy restaurants were already on the wane before the recession hit. Overwrought and overstaffed, they were lingering in their own twilight. Now the meteor has hit, and these places have all gone under. The old white tablecloth dinosaurs have been supplanted by friskier mammals." Like that frisky TGI Friday's, opening soon in Union Square!
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What happened? I thought Obama had jerked off, I mean stimulated the economy.
Bloomberg stole our stimulus money
I have such mixed feelings about unions. On the one hand they prevent exploitation and, in the case of trade unions, ensure quality work, on the other they have a terrible tendency to drive businesses into the ground. They can be terribly parasitic.
My issues with Unions aren't the workers but the Union heads who are the driving force now in NYC politics The Working Family Party is a prime example. the are involved in the the corruption in city Hall which is why they endorsed Christine Quinn, John Liu, Bill DeBlasio. Working Family Party receives cash and "unofficial" contracts dealings for their endorsement. Quinn is a crook who overturn term limits, Liu is a liar who lacks a moral fiber and Deblasio introduces bills for money.
http://www.cityhallnews.com/news/128/ARTICLE/2053/2009-08-09.html
90 years was a good run, all the unions were asking for was health benefits, something every employee should have.
I was very pro-union until I was in one and realized all it meant was that I didn't have to work anymore and nobody could fire me.
I'm in the Freelancers' Union, without which I would have no health insurance.
At least 6 people just cried over Cafe des Artistes, combined age 544.
It was actually a great place where the people who served you were nice and the bartender remembered what kind of gin you preferred. Even people like me - in their early 30's - loved that place.
I counted you. The other five were all over 100.
Blame the union-it had nothing to do with the absurd prices to dine in that garish mausoleum...