In another sad case of fading city icons, we've confirmed that Upper West Side mainstay (and John Lennon's favorite neighborhood hang-out) Cafe La Fortuna will close this Sunday, Feb. 24 The rumor was first posted on Eater earlier this week. Here's our updated story.
In part, it's the usual New York story. According to the restaurant's Web site designer Elizabeth Halliday, owner Mike Trapani said after rents on neighboring businesses skyrocketed, he knew his building would soon follow.
But the place had also lost its "heart & soul." This note below from original owner Vinny Urwand, known among cafe regulars as "Uncle Vinny," tells patrons his wife and co-owner Alice died in January - and that piece of him went with her.
We first heard about the sign earlier today from a heartbroken long-time patron of Café La Fortuna (located at 69 W. 71st St.) and here's the proof.
The Upper West Side cafe was a favorite hang-out of John Lennon and Yoko Ono – and until early last year when Trapani gave it to Yoko, the couple's table was featured in a front window. The interior is still decorated with Lennon photos and memorabilia.
Randy Smith, a 50-year-old legal word processor, who has lived above the restaurant for 17 years told Urbanite a waitress first told him last week the cafe was set to close and then last night he saw the notice confirming the sad rumor.
“I’ve been going there for the iced cappuccino and chocolate Italian ice for 17 years. I don’t know where I’m going to go now,” Smith lamented.
Confused patrons saw the sign this morning before the cafe opened, and knocked on the glass looking for explanations. The cafe has been a stalwart independent in a neighborhood increasingly eaten up by chains.
"It’s like a boutique coffee shop, it’s not a chain coffee shop. It’s an Old World Italian café where you can linger and talk and be surrounded by music and it’s comfortable, and when we lose places like that, the city loses a little bit of soul," Halliday said over the phone this morning.
She first heard rumors of the closing when a customer wrote a note to the cafe's Web site address, asking if the place was set to shut down - and then she called Trapani.
"He sounded very sad, like resignation," Halliday said. "He said, 'Things change and we have to change with them."
* Click here for photos from Cafe La Fortuna today
-- Lauren Johnston
Comments (3)
This is sad news indeed. The Upper West Side is quickly losing what little socio-economic and cultural diversity it still had as recently as a decade ago. The sterilization and suburbanization of Manhattan is seemingly relentless.
What will replace La Fortuna? An over-priced boutique food store? A chain restaurant? A nail salon? A bank branch? Chances are, it will be something uninteresting.
I was first introduced to Cafe La Fortuna by my uncle after I’d moved to the West Side in 1980. I’d often sit there during autumn afternoons while in B-School. In fact, it was there that I noticed more people drinking coffee and fewer people going to bars. So I wrote a business plan for a chain of espresso/coffee shops and approached wealthier friends from grad school and every relative. People laughed at the idea of creating a chain of coffee bars and I failed to raise the start-up funds. (Simultaneously, Howard Schultz began creating something called Starbucks out in Seattle. Ever heard of it?)
But my favorite La Fortuna story took place in summer 1982. I’d just finished a run in Central Park and stopped to sit in the cafe’s garden while cooling off and to stretch my aching muscles.
Two of my favorite waiters were Tom and Bill. Tom came and asked for my order. I asked for my customary double espresso and jokingly also asked for some Ben Gay.
A minute later, Bill came out and announced to all.. “We have Tom gay and Bill gay but no Ben Gay working here.”
I laughed so hard that my espresso shot out my mouth reminiscent of Danny Thomas’s famed spit-takes. Everyone in the garden was in stitches of laughter as well.
The place was special to the entire neighborhood. The coffee was great. The pastries indulgent. The setting was classic working class immigrant NYC.
The West Side has lost another friend. Everything changes but memories will linger on
Bob Marino
I've been going to La Fortuna since I was a boy. I've shared many good times there with friends, my family, and the love of my life.
My father and I have had countless conversations there, and my favorite picture of my granny was taken in the garden, years ago. Recently, it's been a quiet place for my girlfriend and I to have time together while enjoying the opera music, the great food, and the warm service.
I used to lay out my High School newspaper and literary magazine there, and countless long letters to friends have been composed within it's warm, brick walls.
It's very sad to see one of the last of this city's true neighborhood cafes being forced out. With its recent makeover, I was certain that it would last well into the new decade.
Alas, the City continues to turn into one large MALL, where soon every suburbanite will be comfortable as they see the stores, restaurants and coffee vendors that they can see anywhere else in America.
This was one of the few places left with some real soul, and the last bastion of the neighborhood I grew up in.
Heartfelt condolences and best wishes to Uncle Vinnie and his family, and the wonderful staff - thank you for 32 years of heart and soul and the best cafe in New York.