Taylor Mead had a running tab at multiple bars. Courtesy of John Kelly, photograph by John Dugdale, John Kelly, performance and visual artist. If they didnt give us any food, wed go off to the next person. I would get back home [from school] at a decent hour, four in the afternoon. Or wed go around to try to get breakfast from our friends, ringing doorbells to see who was up. I invited him to dinner. Soon there was an all-out war being waged for putting butts on barstools, and in these days before the internet, the bars would advertise their increasingly outrageous specials in the Village Voice and free local fliers sloppily stacked at the entrance to ATM banks, while hoping for write-ups in New York Magazines weekly goings-on section. In the mornings, usually around 11 a.m., Id go to one of the coffee shops around the corner on Avenue A. Odessa was one, and Leshkos was the other. And yet, Ski Bars five-year run from 1990 until 1995 remains so memorable that close-knit regulars, many with adult children by now, continue to maintain a Facebook group to swap stories, and uniquely 90s photos from the era. The weekend that it happened, I got a call at 2 oclock in the morning from the owner of the theater. We were just taken with each other. I remember I was drawn to the ad for the loft because it was in a place that sounded like trifecta; my father had taken me to the track, so that seemed comforting and familiar. Meanwhile, 25 new bars had opened between 76th and 96th Streets in the first years of the 1990s as well. I met Kim [Gordon] through a mutual friend. In 1981, I had just gotten back from six months on the road with James Brown. The only place that designated who you were was the Upper East Side. I started going to local clubs in Brooklyn at about 14 years old. The front window was a queer Mount Rushmore, with the heavyweights looking out onto the street: Rene Ricard, Bill Rice, Peter Hujar, Paul Thek. Coming from China, I was eager to be accepted in this new environment, which felt like a monstrous machine indifferent, its frenetic energy fueled by ambition. He goes, What the hell are you doing to my theater? We had great people like Billy Nunn [Radio Raheem in Spike Lees Do the Right Thing], Skeeter [Ellis Williams, who was in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway]. That was the best place to get fresh bread and rugelach and sweets. My habit must have appeared bizarre to my peers. May 6, 2009. Ski Bar would issue custom-made lift tickets good for eight drinks apiece. The. And I got in trouble because I didnt get home until like 1 or 2 in the morning. It had a tub in the kitchen, a tiny little toilet bowl in a closet of a room, one narrow hallway room and a slightly bigger front room maybe $210. I would be coming back around 4, 4:30, 5 oclock sometimes 6. The all-you-can-drink deals just dont happen these days, because the rents are so high, says Block. If you wanted fancy, youd go to La Grenouille. Then I would go to Macys and go to the $10 rack. It was a small scene, people like writer Stephen Saban, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel [Basquiat] and Kenny Scharf. Maxi Cohen, Area, 1985, Ladies Rooms Around The World, Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio and Chambers Fine Art. In 1981, I suggested a bacchanal a night of pagan merriment as spring was coming. Theyre exploiting women by using them to attract men, claimed its spokeswoman, Daveda Copeland. He had always been like a surrogate father to me, and when his manager quit midway through the tour, he called me to come and just make sure people werent ripping him off at the venues every night. If you remember Flemings, this event is for you: Saturday, December 4 Fleming's Reunion Party I could feel the presence of someone in the room. I was always worried about getting a dirty shirt or chipping a tooth., Ski Bars biggest attraction was the Slalom Shot, a four-foot-long slab of ice with a twisting trail cut into it. And when my mother asked me where I was at, I just said, Oh, I was in the attic.. But it had started with a simple idea: What if a bar just let women drink for free? I tried never to leave my ZIP code. It didnt have a name. Yorkville, Manhattan photos from the 1980s Yorkville, Upper East Side Manhattan in the 1980's, all photos by Gary Lenhart E. 86th St., NYC [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="204 gal_title="E 86th St NYC Photos"] York Ave., NYC [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="205 gal_title="York Ave NYC Photos"] 1st. But where was the battlefield? Maybe he could do your book under that contract. So I went to the Factory and stood at a tall table with Andy and Bob, and Andy went through the dummy. These are the moments, large and small, recounted by 36 writers, artists, fashion designers, musicians and more who lived in New York City in the early 80s. The first single we ever made [was in 1983]: Sucker M.C.s was the B-side of Its Like That. Its Like That was a record that was talking about all of the things that was going on in communities, society and also the world. It was crazy. In retrospect, Bowie was ahead of the curve. They were spinning on their heads, the cops said. All of the cabbies would line up there to get eggs and bacon late at night. And then we said, We gotta do the real hip-hop that were actually doing at the block parties and at the house parties and at the park parties. So we decided to make it all beat no music, just me and Run [Joseph Simmons, another founding member of Run-DMC] doing the real hardcore, just rhyming on this record. I started spending a third of my time there. 1 place sorted by traveler favorites. Caribbean Restaurants Restaurants. And, of course, so did the men. It was the three of us. I returned to New York in 81 after 10 years as an expat. I would go to this rotary sushi place called Genroku. Across the street from my apartment was the McBurney Y.M.C.A., so that was my gym, and halfway down the block was something called the Squat Theatre, home to an avant-garde Hungarian troupe, and kind of a drug spot. Thelonious Monk or Nina Simone or Gloria Lynne would stop by to visit them, so I grew up around these real bebop superstars. And yet, plenty of ladies were also against them. Galleries and museums didnt exhibit their work at that time. The mayoral election of Rudy Giuliani in 1994 would favor the NIMBYs, as he sent task forces around to raid bars, enforce cabaret laws with hefty fines, and even enact Operation Last Call, having police officers carry a meter to check noise levels around closing time. Sometimes I would read him the weeks work. And if I missed it, I felt really bad. At one end of my block was J.G. It was a total nexus. It was 1990 on Manhattans Upper East Side and, after the extravagant 1980s, the neighborhood was in the throes of a countrywide recession and unemployment was on the rise. Like Geronimos Bamba Bay Cafe (a.k.a. When I really started hanging out in Manhattan, the primary place for my crew was Rock Steady Park [Happy Warrior Playground] on 98th and Amsterdam. This was the scene at 2 a.m. on a Friday night in the spring of 1983 when my lover (as we called ourselves then), the film director Howard Brookner, and I threw the first of our preposterous Ladies Parties. 1. How you doin this morning?, He was young, dressed in jeans, and clearly shocked. In the 1980s, the restaurant began to decline, as it switched up menu items in favor of more chicken and fish. Very quickly, I realized it had potential to be a book. Money was secondary to being able to have this playground we could create. The Oldest Bars on the Upper East Side East 86th St Association The legendary Tommy Rowles at Bemelman's (photo credit: VictoriaMcGinley.com) The Oldest Bars on the Upper East Side April 08, 2017 Tracking down the oldest bar on the Upper East Side is no easy task! These are the moments, large and small, recounted by 36 writers, artists, fashion designers, musicians and more who. Friday's location on the Upper East Side. We liked to get there early, which the club promoters loved because wed get the party started. Stephanie Chernikowski/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. The elevated West Side Highway, meanwhile, was a place you could ski. Nobody was talking to him, probably because they didnt recognize him. I had a loft downtown on Walker Street, one of the first buildings that went on loft strike. At the end of the night I would walk all the way home. Upper East Side Aug. 11, 1972 It was a case of mistaken identity, revenge for the sensational rubout of Joey Gallo at Umberto's four months earlier, only this one led to two innocent meat. Sam was doing Ragtime, and then he did A Soldiers Play on Broadway. Those were days when we ate meat just blissfully. I existed like a soldier preparing for combat. In 1981, I lived on 79th and West End; it was tiny but very comfortable. Bars & Music Mama's Bar. We decided to live together at her place, 84 Eldridge Street. Thurston Moore would take me to see hardcore groups like Black Flag. A lot of the alternative spaces Franklin Furnace, A-Space had music, too. This morning was no different than any other. The quiet and space afforded clarity. I lived at the Olympic Tower, and Halston was downstairs.. The era might have been old New Yorks last real gasp a time when the very streets, dirty and unsafe as they were, seemed infused with possibility. Nearby spots like Bear Bar began capitalizing on the traffic by offering their own competing ladies night deals. Thats what I did. Carnegie Deli Carnegie Deli. You could work, then not work for a while, get by. Like Clubhouse on York Avenue, which intentionally offered a frat house-like atmosphere. Every parent, every grown-up was your mother and father. I was living with my parents in the Alfred E. Smith projects on the Lower East Sides waterfront. I lived on the quiet end of Hollis, Queens. If you just wanted to grab a sandwich, youd go to Burger Heaven. Id make sure everything was in place and see what the new orders were. Peter had no small talk at all. It was social, the Upper East Side ladies. During the day, Id get my paints at Canal Hardware or Pearl Paint. I felt like I was having the best entertainment of my life, because people were going up and down the aisle, going, Loose joints People were talking throughout the whole movie going, Yo, shut up! It was just like the kung fu movies they were the same audience. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, a boy like me didnt know there was a place for him in the world like that. The sidewalks along St. Marks over to Astor Place were just as lively they were a sort of souk where you could buy back what the junkies had stolen from your apartment. They were on 51st or 52nd between Fifth and Madison. Hey, I said. 68. I got up at anywhere from 3 to 5 in the morning and worked as long as I could. Photograph courtesy of Charlie Ahearn, whose groundbreaking hip-hop feature film Wild Style (1983) featured Grandmaster Flash, Lee Quiones and Fab 5 Freddy, among others. If we werent in a group, I would walk over the bridge, because money was scarce and I wanted to have a token to go back out the next night. Bob introduced us, and Dustin congratulated me on the film and told me my acting was naturalistic. It dawned on me that there are so many different styles of acting and you dont have to adhere to just one. . Block opened it with a partner, Adam Singer, when he was just 22; he had worked at nearby Brother Jimmys for just two weeks before getting fired and deciding he could run a better bar. A short-lived club in the 1980s East Village. Todd didnt like the idea that I was doing a fanzine. Four days a week, I was studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute down on 15th Street. I would go to these obscure classes around the city that were mostly for dancers. Two editors at Simon & Schuster thought it was terrific, but they said, You have to produce this yourself, and we can possibly get you a distribution deal. Then we packed up our stuff, went back to the coffee shop to have breakfast and headed home. It was hard. Since no ones making them, they dont.. The apartment, at 1060 Fifth Avenue, at 87th Street, was like a fantasy apartment huge, with a view of the reservoir. Next door to my apartment on East Eighth and Avenue C was the Green Oasis Community Garden, and I got involved with that. In 1980, I was working as a staff photographer for the New York Post. I didnt know anything. And then we had Robert Rauschenberg, a rascal and a great man. I mean, thats when Brooklyn was Brooklyn, not some extension of the West Village or a place with good coffee. That is something I have never done with anyone else. I was kind of tomboyish, but also pretty poor. Team Infatuation August 19, 2022. Cramped beer and shot joints with names like the Blue Moon, Czar Bar, and Richters were all vying for the attention of this influx of recently graduated young adults who wanted to go out, but had little money to do so. He would maybe drink half a glass of wine. They were supposed to be 17 or 18. People have bidding wars over apartments that cost millions of dollars. Studio 54 was over after the owners, Steve [Rubell] and Ian [Schrager], got arrested in 1980, so we all migrated to the Mudd Club, on White Street. I would walk around the neighborhood, go down to 42nd Street and do a lot of movie cruising. It was really like a combination of living theater and installation art, very communal. You did a lot of the auditions immediately. The manager, Dorian Mecir, had a heart of gold. To me, the 1980s were incredibly liberating. hip-hop open mic nights and more than a few not-entirely-cool bars around the Upper East Side. It was nothing but rejection. We did a deep dive into the most avant-garde, atonal jazz. The conversation was very interesting. (Never let on to a dog youre afraid of him, my Uncle Charlie would say.) So the artists would often have free rein, and would sometimes sneak up to the roof, especially for the Fourth of July and other events like that. I lived and still live in a large duplex at the corner of Park Avenue and 80th Street, in a 1907 building designed by Delano and Aldrich. And Silk Road. 80s Night Clubs in New York City, NY About Search Results Sort: Default All BBB Rated A+/A Coupons View all businesses that are OPEN 24 Hours 1. I didnt smoke or drink, and when you dont do those things, you need an outlet. They are not obliged to talk to anyone. Le Relais, on Madison and 63rd, was more everyone my age and everyone from Europe. Many of these bars tried to offer a sort of bridge from cheap college boozing to costly, real-world imbibing. It's just happening. Creative Time ran Art on the Beach on the landfill that is now Battery Park City back then it was just a huge field of sand. But truthfully, I hated it. We just called it The Bar, which morphed into Ze Bar, like with a fake French accent. Queens: PS1, the site of the era-defining exhibit New York/New Wave (1981); Queensbridge Houses, public housing that counted Juice Crew founder Marley Marl and rapper members Roxanne Shant and M.C. Jean-Michel Basquiat wandered in at some point a neighbor with whom we had a nodding acquaintance. Jane Fonda had recently released her workout tapes, and it was the first opportunity a lot of women had to exercise. You could order a pizza anytime. Being at the Carlyle was amazing, but I was still an undergrad at Yale at the time, and the whole thing felt unreal, as though I was living two lives. Thats where I first met [the late street-style photographer] Bill Cunningham, I think. It was on 35th and Fifth, and it was a place where the sushi came around on a conveyor belt. Everyone writes that I was his tour manager, but thats not what it was. There are a lot of places to eat eggs and pancakes in the middle of the day on the Upper East Side.