My Mornings Are a Lot Harder These Days
There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while. A couple mornings a week, when I have alotted myself some extra time before work, I have made a habit of stopping into David’s Bagels at the corner of 14th and 1st. The order is simple: hands down, the best everything bagel in the city, with a little bit of butter. The old guy behind the counter always remembered by order, and often poked fun at my Red Sox hat (the “I don’t know if I can give you a bagel with that hat on” line never got old, because those bagels were just so damn good).
On one of those mornings two weeks ago, this sign popped up underneath the racks of their plump, warm bagels:
Their bagels were perfect. Amazingly, so was their spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Another one bites the dust.
On the last day, I stood in line for fifteen minutes to get my last freshly-baked everything bagel. A lot of people in that line with me were broken up about the store’s closing, even though their other location remained open. They were broken up for the same reason I was: we all keep tight schedules, and walking an extra 12 blocks before work each morning to get that bagel would be a hard sell, no matter how good that bagel is. Now, I’m stuck with the generic Hot & Crusty that opened next door to the now-closed David’s, the insufferable bagels from Dunkin Donuts, or - gulp - the Cafe Metro by my office. In the eight weekdays since David’s closed, I have not had a bagel.
The sign outside the store in their waning days said they “lost their lease,” and given the line that ran nearly out the door every morning (and the hike in prices earlier this year that deterred no one), the closing certainly couldn’t be because they weren’t turning a profit. I had asked the cashier on the next-to-last day, and she said “the landlord was asking too much.” Nobody should be surprised. In the new New York, closing institutions have become a sad way of life. The greedy landlords who jack up the rent on neighborhood institutions have become far too common in the East Village and all over the city, and this one hits closer to home than ever before.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 10:54 am and is filed under Food and Booze, Life in NYC. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Jay says:I used to live at 13th and 1st and went to David’s regularly as well. I wanted to point out this post on another blog (http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/07/davids-bagels.html) - apparently it’s not just raising the rent, it is also that the landlord of the building didn’t want competition for the Hot & Crusty.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Chicopea says:oh I definitely sulked over this for days, and I’ve resorted to making my own, its just not the same! The landlord will get whats coming to him if Hot & crusty flops
September 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Chris says:Jay: Thanks for that post… I totally forgot I had read that on Jeremiah’s blog. I had no intention of doing so before that bit of info, but I will not be patronizing Hot & Crusty.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
evan says:go to the one on 19th & 1st! it’s another david’s location…lots of the staff have moved over there, everything is the same deliciousness, and they’ve even moved some of the furniture from the 14th st location over there. 6 blox for a bagel is a lot, but it’s well worth the feeling of coming home again.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Ben says:In what universe is the walk from 14th street to 19th street TWELVE blocks?
September 11th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Chris says:Evan: That’s true. I’m just debating internally whether it’s worth waking up a half-hour early for a bagel that from a nutritional standpoint, I’d probably be better off without.
Ben: It’s between 19th and 20th instead of between 13th and 14th. That’s six blocks apart. You have to walk both ways, so round-trip, it’s a twelve-block walk.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Dana says:Sorry to hear about your bagel store. At least you are still able to visit another location.
If you love the everythings as much as you do you can always stock up from the other location. Bagels freeze really well (just cut them mostly in half before you freeze) and a short trip in a toaster oven and a pat of butter shouldnt take much more time out of your day. Might be cheaper too.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Jamie says:eat cereal like the rest of us.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
keith says:this is as big a crime as moroccan crown. too bad.
note to self to buy handbasket, as neighborhood is going to hell.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
b says:oohh! I hope a nice big shiny bank branch opens up there!
September 15th, 2008 at 8:35 am
jennifer says:i’m so sad - i just moved out of the EV (reluctantly) in july. david’s is the place i missed the most. glad to hear its other location is still open but still! loved the people that worked there. they were the last people i said goodbye to when i left the area.
September 19th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Missing bagels says:I found out the reason why David’s closed - the owner of Hot and Crusty owns the buildings on the entire block and would not let David’s renew their lease. (For obvious reasons).
I miss David’s terribly. I’ve gone up the street, but it’s so much further!