[Sca-cooks] A dark day for NYC restaurants...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

While still reeling from the blow of yesterday's 
news that Lutéce will soon be closing its doors, 
never having recovered from the post-9/11 
entertainment slump, I now find that Gage and 
Tollner's will be serving its last dinner on 
Valentine's Day, for the same reason.

Gage and Tollner's, on Fulton Street, for those 
who haven't heard of it, wasn't an Old New York 
institution: it was an old Brooklyn institution 
before the city/borough of Brooklyn was 
incorporated into The City Of Greater New York in 
1899. They sold pretty much the same food they 
had served in the 19th century, with lots of 
oyster and other seafood dishes, various chowders 
(yes, tomatoes are in evidence, but not the 
spaghetti sauce with clams in it that many people 
mistake for Manhattan Clam Chowder, Chicken 
Maryland, a million different steak and chop 
entities, and until fairly recently, a 
world-famous turtle soup.

Edna Lewis was their chef for about ten years, 
but she was an old lady when I first became aware 
of her existence, so I assume she's gone now, 
even if still alive.

The owner says they'll be re-opening in a new 
location within a year, but I've seen too many 
such relocated landmark restaurants (the 
aforementioned Luchow's, Lundy's in Sheepshead 
Bay, Brooklyn, Lindy's -- Damon Runyon's Mindy's, 
that is) reopen either after long hiatuses or in 
new digs, and they've never been the same. Most 
don't survive the experience, and it goes without 
saying that any reincarnation of G&T will lack 
the etched mirror walls, the stamped-tin 
ceilings, and the gas jets on the walls (well, 
what _else_ would you light a dining room 
with???).

<sigh>

And I have plans for Saturday night that preclude Gage and Tollner's.

I'd better call Peter Luger's, and make sure they're okay...

Adamantius