lights out
The pink cupcake is dark tonight. Dead. And long may it rest, in oblivion.
I was immediately sorry for what the closing of Burgers & Cupcakes might mean to its employees, but minutes after I heard the news from Barry that the restaurant had closed (he had seen the sign on the window this evening) I told him that I actually felt sorry for the owners.
Then he reminded me that one of them had referred to that paragon of neighborhood aesthetics and sensitivity, the Sixth Avenue branch of the huge Caliente Cab Company chain, as a model for what they described as (if not in the same word) their own landmark sign, a giant spotlighted, revolving cupcake poised on top of an illegal canopy above the curb. Now I can feel totally comfortable saying that anyone who could argue that the archtypical Village monstrosity was an appropriate model for a new, improved 23rd Street totally deserves to go out of business.
We had a celebratory toast before a late supper tonight.
With no thanks to our City Council representative.
UPDATES: Today the giant cupcake itself is nowhere to be seen, although the illegal canopy on which it once rotated remains in place. [reporting from the scene on Tuesday, October 2] Now [later this afternoon] we've heard that someone had paid $400 to take it away.
did you take that photo?? it's great.
Yup. Thanks, Michael. I realized I needed an image for the entry, so when I was done typing I ran outside only to find that the sign Barry had mentioned was gone. I looked up and that's when I caught the cupcake newly-shrouded in a weird darkness.
Luckily I didn't have to live with the exterior architecture (which, to be sure, was hardly an exemplar of Googie School cool), but I'll find it quite sad to live without those burgers and cupcakes inside. Not to mention its delightful waitstaff....
I wish someone had mentioned the impending doom when I ate there last Saturday.
Tonight I will shine a flashlight on my Hostess Cupcake -- the only cupcake you'll ever need in life -- as a memorial.
it's sad - i feel bad when any small business in chelsea closes it doors. most likely this space will yield to yet another atm or bank.
that said - you really can't open a business named burgers & cupcakes - and then offer up both horrible cupcakes and burgers. it really was bad!
hopefully this space will become an affordable - high quality locally based eatery.
I almost always enjoyed their vegetable & mushroom burgers, as well as those cupcake varieties I tried (cinnamon swirl, strawberry cheesecake, banana caramel) -- thereby again demonstrating the subjectivity of taste!
Also worth a mention was their exemplary waitstaff, members of whom I wish all the best in their future endeavors; and if that involves work at a restaurant offering decent nonmeat, nonsoy burgers, so much the better, for perhaps we'll meet again some sunny day.