Photo Credits — The Author / Interior of The Good Stuff diner on West 14th Street

The City That Was

And will never be again

“You’re a real New Yorker when the New York that was is more real to you than the city you’re walking through today.”

I can’t find that quote anywhere so maybe I’ll just take credit for it but I’m sure I read it somewhere. I thought it was Thomas Wolfe, but nope. Too sentimental to have been Dorothy Parker. Must have been that Remington Write character.

At any rate, after a couple of decades in any city there are bound to be changes. They just seem to happen more frequently and in more places in New York. Take the intersection at West 110th and Broadway. Since I moved here three of the four corners have completely reinvented themselves. However, once our friend, The Virus, came to town the change-machine went into high gear. Witness what happened to The Good Stuff diner on West 14th Street.

That’s what it looks like now, above and below.

Top — the former Shangai Tides on West Houston St. / Bottom left — well, that’s clear enough / Bottom right — Good Stuff after it closed down

The good stuff at Good Stuff wasn’t necessarily the food (although it wasn’t bad, just overpriced)…