More on The Up-Town Restaurant De Luxe Archambault
By Caitlin Hawke
Readers seemed to have loved the reference to Childs in my last Throwback Thursday post. Some of you still remember the actual restaurants. But Jimmy Roberts wins the prize for pointing out the Rogers & Hart reference to the chain in "I'll take Manhattan." I am including it at the bottom of this post as your lagniappe...you know the drill if you're reading this in an email subscription: you have to click here or on the post title to see the video.
You got me all curious about the SE corner of West 102nd Street and Broadway again. You'll recall the recent post of the matchbook covers from the Childs' restaurant "Old Algiers" here. That then led to this post about the corner where Mexican Festival is that used to be home to both Old Algiers and its predecessor, Archambault.
Readers seemed to have loved the reference to Childs in my last Throwback Thursday post. Some of you still remember the actual restaurants. But Jimmy Roberts wins the prize for pointing out the Rogers & Hart reference to the chain in "I'll take Manhattan." I am including it at the bottom of this post as your lagniappe...you know the drill if you're reading this in an email subscription: you have to click here or on the post title to see the video.
You got me all curious about the SE corner of West 102nd Street and Broadway again. You'll recall the recent post of the matchbook covers from the Childs' restaurant "Old Algiers" here. That then led to this post about the corner where Mexican Festival is that used to be home to both Old Algiers and its predecessor, Archambault.
The Upper West Side by Michael V. Susi
My menschy friend, author and postcard collector Michael Susi, kindly sent the images below. Black and white versions of these appear in his wonderful book of postcards, The Upper West Side. It's a book you've seen and leafed through and a book worth having -- not necessarily for the images alone! His captions pack a wealth of historical detail into just a line or two. And that's where I first discovered the Archambault. Michael tells me that the eponymous Mr. Archambault also owned the Hotel Belleclaire which is having a renaissance now.
Again, if you haven't read Pam Tice's piece on dining out back in the day in Bloomingdale, you will enjoy it. She also references the restaurant at 102nd Street.
Michael says that a postcard image of Old Algiers' exterior will be hard to come by since its time falls outside the golden age of these postcards. But behold these two beauties.
I want to say just meet me there tonight for dinner.
Again, if you haven't read Pam Tice's piece on dining out back in the day in Bloomingdale, you will enjoy it. She also references the restaurant at 102nd Street.
Michael says that a postcard image of Old Algiers' exterior will be hard to come by since its time falls outside the golden age of these postcards. But behold these two beauties.
I want to say just meet me there tonight for dinner.
Postcard images courtesy of Michael V. Susi, author of "The Upper West Side" in Arcadia Publishing's Postcard History Series
Here's a side by side just for the kick of it. Thanks, Michael!
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Above is a clip from "Makers of Melody," the short 1929 film featuring Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart's first blockbuster, "Manhattan," as in We'll have Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, too....
It was their first hit song and quickly became part of our DNA. In the film, Ruth Tester and Allan Gould play a "boy and goil" in love, and if you listen closely at the 2:02 mark, you'll hear the reference to the Childs restaurant chain, courtesy reader and musician Jimmy Roberts. (The Childs connection to the SE corner of W. 102nd Street and Broadway is explained here.)
Excerpt from the song "Manhattan" by Rogers & Hart
We'll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wilds.
And starve together, dear,
In Childs'.
We'll go to Coney
And eat baloney
On a roll.
In Central Park we'll stroll,
Where our first kiss we stole,
Soul to soul.
Our future babies
We'll take to "Abie's
Irish Rose."
I hope they'll live to see
It close.
The city's clamor can never spoil
The dreams of a boy and goil.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.
It was their first hit song and quickly became part of our DNA. In the film, Ruth Tester and Allan Gould play a "boy and goil" in love, and if you listen closely at the 2:02 mark, you'll hear the reference to the Childs restaurant chain, courtesy reader and musician Jimmy Roberts. (The Childs connection to the SE corner of W. 102nd Street and Broadway is explained here.)
Excerpt from the song "Manhattan" by Rogers & Hart
We'll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wilds.
And starve together, dear,
In Childs'.
We'll go to Coney
And eat baloney
On a roll.
In Central Park we'll stroll,
Where our first kiss we stole,
Soul to soul.
Our future babies
We'll take to "Abie's
Irish Rose."
I hope they'll live to see
It close.
The city's clamor can never spoil
The dreams of a boy and goil.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.
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