Enjoying New Haven: A Guide to the Area by Betsy Sledge and Eugenia Fayen
The closing of Clark's Dairy, and the news that Rudy's will be relocating to a location that bears absolutely no resemblance to the place it's been since it opened in 1934, have bummed me out significantly, but I think I can handle it. What made me realize I had to snap out of it (particularly in regard to Clark's) was the act of stumbling on a copy of Enjoying New Haven: A Guide to the Area, by Betsy Sledge and Eugenia Fayen.
This is a little paperback that I remember my parents having a copy of in the late 1980s. I don't think I ever looked at it then but I do remember throwing it out when they moved out of their apartment downtown. The edition I remember -- and which is now sitting on the desk next to me -- is from 1989 and was published by Sledge and Fayen as East Rock Press, Ltd., and it is a fine little guide to the city with some really lovely prints. I found a copy of it a couple of Saturdays ago. I had spent the day at the Institute Library, a wonderful quiet place to go when you need a place that's wonderful and quiet, and on leaving, I went into the English Building Market, which is a couple of doors down. I cruise the place fairly regularly but hardly ever do I look at the books; however, this book caught my eye: I thought, "Oh, what the hell," and bought it.
So let me tell you: reading a guide to New Haven from 1989 is a trip. It's really a strange experience. I found myself remembering shops that I had really and truly forgotten about, though they were once landmarks of downtown New Haven. Scribbles, a shop on Chapel Street, beneath the Yale Center for British Art: you went there for stupid doodads, stickers, obscene greeting cards, and other things no sane person would spend money on. I'd forgotten all about that place. And what makes that awful is, I actually worked there briefly. For about two days. The job was so deplorable that, at the age of 16, I phoned them and said, "Yeah, hi, I won't be coming in. No, I don't need to pick up the paycheck. Keep it." I never wanted to set foot in there again.
How could I have forgotten about Scribbles? And yet I did.
The guide mentions Gentree's, a fairly dignified restaurant that used to be on York Street, in a building that no longer exists because Yale tore it down. It was on York near Chapel, a site now housing the new part of the Art and Architecture school. Gentree's was originally a men's clothing store; I own an overcoat from there, which I acquired at a tag sale on Orange Street simply because I wanted an article of clothing with the Gentree's label. The men's shop closed, and somehow Gentree's was re-conceived as a restaurant, the kind of place where you could get decent burgers and serious drinks. Plants; dark wood; 80s yuppie heaven. Gentree's closed, and I was sad; it wasn't that it was such a great restaurant, but it was reliable. Fitzwilly's, which was on the corner of Park and Elm Streets, was a similar establishment, but much larger, and I was very sorry when they closed, too.
And the Old Heidelberg! Which is now a Thai restaurant! How can it be that the Old Heidelberg is a Thai restaurant? Well, it is the case, my friends. Been that way since 1991. Which means that the Old Heidelberg has been gone for almost twenty years. Which means that there's at least one generation of people to whom that space has "always" been a Thai restaurant.
A sobering thought.
New Haven is, I suspect, no different from any other small city, or even town, in this regard: any business establishment that opens and then lasts longer than three to five years becomes, simply out of its survival, an institution. Some institutions are more entrenched than others: Rudy's may thrive in its new spot, but it won't be Rudy's, really; it'll be something else -- but even so, you know that for the next ten years, there will be people sitting around bars around town going, "Man, remember Rudy's, that night when...." I know that's how it is with the Grotto, a club on lower Crown Street that closed in I think 1988 or maybe it was 1989. New Haven is filled with sentimental chumps like me who remember every club, every restaurant they ever ate at, every store where they ever bought shoes, and lament their closings. If you don't believe me, there is proof on Facebook, even about the shoe store: Cheryl Andresen's shop Solemate, which started on State Street and moved to York Street, is much missed by many. I still wear shoes I bought from Cheryl and her shop closed in 2000. Are people more sentimental in New Haven than in other places? I have no idea. But when I meet someone who has been here a long time, inevitably our first conversation includes a litany of "do you remembers": the Daily Caffe; the Willoughby's on Chapel Street; The Moon on Whalley; the Third World International Cafe... it's always sort of romantic, actually, these conversations. We woo each other with our memory banks of the Nine Squares and the streets that radiate from it. Tight friendships are born out of these shared memories of places long gone.
Mamoun's is still here. Mysteriously, Clarie's Corner Copia is still here. Ashley's is here. All true.
But I miss Thomas Sweet. I miss the pancake restaurant that used to be on York Street. (Not the crepe place; I mean the pancake place; it was where Bangkok Gardens is.) And don't even get me started on the bookstores.
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21 Responses to Enjoying New Haven: A Guide to the Area by Betsy Sledge and Eugenia Fayen
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I'm certainly no oldtime resident, but I'm amazed to think I've been in the New Haven area for 16 years! I remember when the Yorkside Blue State that was Koffee Too? was a Willoughby's. And I remember when Starbuck's was an art store.
What I miss most is the Rainbow Cafe. But what about Book Trader? I have no idea what used to be there, but how was it possible to have downtown without Book Trader? And now, speaking of Blue State, I'm glad there's a coffee shop on Wall Street, not that I ever wondered why there wasn't.
You know what else is fun? Those funky cartoony city maps from the 1970s-80s, of New Haven, that some businesses still have up. I'm trying to remember where I saw one recently . . . It's eye-level, near the door, has Fitzwilly's on it . . .
Donald: Thomas Sweet was in the space where Book Trader is now. Ice cream. I used to go get Thai food and then get some ice cream. It was wonderful. Believe me, there was a downtown before there was Book Trader! Book World was just a few doors down (and before that, across the street), and OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY.
Zoe, those maps are fun, aren't they! I'd forgotten all about them. Thanks for reminding me...
West of 11, the first restaurant in the space now Scoozi. Named for the location being west of the 11th structural element (not sure what the right word is) of the Btisih Art Center.
Annie's Firehouse Soup Kitchen on Edwards.
THE YALE CO-OP.
Sweet Wishes aka Sweet Bitches on Whitney Ave.
The M&T
[British]
Fantastic post! Things have changed dramatically even just in the past 12 years I've been here.
At least it isn't suburbia, where nobody notices. The city is a locus of collective memory.
Colson Whitehead's got a good line on this about New York: "You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now."
Though he overstates a bit, I love that line because it's generous: I think it's true of lots of places, big and small, and It's definitely true of this place. Which is why I like it so much here.
I'm remembering places from the 70's, Eva:
Olivia's, which was next to where the Starbucks is on Chapel - open nearly all night, if I recall correctly. I once sat in the window wearing a see-through blouse (it was the 70's remember) smoking a cigar.
Loews-Poli Theatre on College where the defunct Palace Theatre sits, next to it a very cool eatery famous for milkshakes (name escapes me), and next to that a shoe store to die for. I bought Capezios in many hues in that forgotten shoe emporium. Smelled of the finest calf leather, mmmmm.
Gordon's on Chapel just down from Ann Taylor's, fabulous clothes for when you needed to look less like a hippie for your mother. Nice boots, bought some green suede over the knee boots there and wore them to death.
Papillion in the mall. Much like Scribbles, but just more of it. Park Place on Park Street, everything to outfit your really cool hippie pad. I could go on, but I'll spare you. New Haven, I love you.
Katharine: every single place you named has been on my mind since I wrote this post. Every single one. Also, The Paper Caper, I believe it was called -- a more G-rated version of Scribbles that was on Whitney near Audubon, next to a snooty wine bar; Alibi Books; Alluveia Olde Ways (sp?); Bonnie and Clyde; Broadway Pizza (where they served me Heineken Dark long before they ought to've done); Gag's; the drug store on Crown Street between York and Park...
The video store (Filmfest?) that was on I believe College Street, and then went to Chapel Street (whatever happened to Kenneth who worked there?).
Rhymes Records. The Ritz. All the vintage clothing shops on State Street. Hatsune...
Warms my heart the way people have responded to this. Proof that I'm not the only sap in town.
Bookstores . . .
Of course Whitlock's bookstore, upstairs on Broadway. It's not still there, is it? Like having a small corner of the Yale Library all to yourself, with all books available for purchase.
The Yale Co-Op, which should be the subject of a magnificent essay by a writer whose formative years it shaped--there must be hundreds if not thousands.
And, Eva, perhaps for personal reasons, you omitted Bookhaven, which I know is gone--what is there now?
And other things: The York Square Cinema, where I got my introduction to foreign film, Hitchcock, and early-1980s alt culture (what little of it I felt comfortable with).
And High Street between Elm and Wall.
And, if I remember right, Thomas Sweet was famous as the first ice cream store to have blend-ins, aggressively executed with an enormous and disturbing steel screw.
elegiac yet not unduly sentimental - I like your tone. you should write a guidebook that blends (recent) past and present. The thin membrane of time... M.
Cal:
I was omitting bookstores in general -- god knows I've got things to say about New Haven bookstores -- not singling out Book Haven for neglect... but it's true, Book Haven is no longer. The space is now home to Labyrinth Books (but kept the Book Haven phone number, if anyone cares).
Thomas Sweet didn't invent the blend-in; I think that honor goes to Steve's, or was it Herrell's, in Cambridge. But Thomas Sweet was the only place in New Haven that did it, and they were cherished for their contribution. There was also a Thomas Sweet shop in Georgetown, as I recall; does anyone know if it's still there? (The kind of thing a Google search takes care of in a nanosecond...)
High Street between Elm and Wall: one of my favorite "ah, I remember when" spots.
The Henry bookstores -- Bookhaven and Foundry, are much missed.
Jackson-Marvin Hardware on Whalley Avenue, and the much more recently vanished Bunnell Hardware on Orange.
The four-hour Chinese dinners at Peter Cheng's on Park Street.
Nice piece, Eva! My memories are mostly food-related, since I ate out the first 3 months are so I lived in New Haven. I was always fond of the Educated Burgher (loved the name), and Naples, which still has the sign in the window but is called something else, but at least Yorksides is still around. Is that used record store on Broadway (2nd floor) still around? Forget what it's called, but I used to buy a lot of great albums there nobody else wanted to listen to.
Eva: you had me at OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY. But, re: BT, I still prefer it to ice cream; Ashley's is tempting enough. But my Thomas Sweet recollections take me back to grad school in Princeton. They had two in town. Last I knew they were still there.
Speaking of Princeton, on a visit back once with my daughter I said: the reason "you can't go home again" is that you don't want to go back to where you came from, it's that you want to go back to it as it was at a certain time, and you can't. As Proust says, "the streets are as fugitive, alas, as the years."
don't forget brick and wood!
Hi- I also remember Book World on Chapel st and Ben Bernie on the corner of Crown st across from Malley's. There were also several neighborhood bars on Crown near Orange .BTW where was Gag's bar located ?- I forgot!
Great article. Naples was a daily routine when I worked at Yale, and Thomas Sweet was great, too. I didn't know that Clark Dairy closed -- I used to love their tuna melts. Hatsune was the best for sushi, but I assume they are gone. A great place to listen to jazz was the Foundary (Joey Milotti quartet! -- not sure about spelling). The old Horowitz Brothers -- you could get madras shirts for $4. And yes the Old Heidelberg; how indeedcould it be a Thai restaurant? It was a Yale classic since 1751! The Greenery was ok to pop into as was Kavanaughs. And of course Mexican food was not the only thing you could score at Viva Zapata! Ah, the 80s!
And WOW! Heineken Dark at Broadwa Pizza. Same here -- long before I should have been served. But so did the Triple Crown! I am working to remember a place I think on York, across from Viva, that had a Cabaret license, which meant they could serve until 2 or 3 AM; Owned by an old Greek guy. And heading out of town a bit you could get a glass of stale beer for about 50 cents at a place called the Old Barge -- it was, well, an old barge.
Anyone else remember White Mountain Creamery (where Daily Caffe later was and now Ivy Noodle resides)? Loved their ice cream and they weren't around very long.