Next Saturday, the 29th, I have reservations at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain, here in the City. I've been wanting to try the place for some time, but a recent health issue would have precluded me from trying some of his signature dishes. I've eaten at Mesa Grill several times, both in the city and at Caesar's in Las Vegas, and I've also been to Bobby Flay Steak, at the Borgata in Atlantic City, but this will be my first trip to Bar Americain. I find his food to be both tasty, and pleasing to look at, even if I don't consider him to be a chef in the same league as a Pepin or Boulud. I'll be sure to post a review after the experience.

Does anybody here remember Dubrow's Cafeteria?

If you lived in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Miami (and are old enough), chances are that you do.

It was a small chain of cafeteria-style eateries started in 1929 by Benjamin Dubrow. One of the Brooklyn locations was just a couple of blocks from me. It had remained virtually unchanged: the revolving door entrance, the Art Deco mosaic tilework on the interior, and the inexpensive food. The Kings Highway location (the one near me) was open 24 hours. It really was a throwback to another time. I used to occasionally eat there with my father in the 1960s. He used to tell me how he remembered Dubrow's from when he was a boy.

It closed around 1979, IIRC. I believe they shot some scenes for the film Boardwalk there and then it immediately shut down. No one in the neighborhood saw it coming. A real pity. Maybe the food wasn't as great as it used to be, but the place should have been preserved as landmark for the decor alone. And, in a day when virtually nothing was open 24 hours, it gave people - especially seniors - a place to go at any hour where they could have a cup of coffee, a sandwich, and schmooze with their friends.

The last Dubrow's closed in 1985. End of an era.

The great-granddaughter of the founder has an interesting website devoted to the restaurants:

www.dubrows.blogspot.com

Signor V.

Very well! I used to go to the one near you quite often... Kings Highway was THE place to go shopping for clothes, shoes, etc. before KIngs Plaza opened and I had just finished high school then (when Kings Plaza opened). No trip to the Highway would be complete without stopping in Dubrow's for a bite to eat.

There used to be a bar on Neck Rd and East 15th that would serve me and my friends before we were of age and we'd often go out drinking only to end up taking the subway to the Highway and Dubrow's (getting some food) at 3 a.m.

Dubrow's was a great experience... all the alter cockers from the neighborhood would always hang out there eager to talk to anyone who would listen (and they'd often have GREAT stories!).

Robert Halls on Kings Highway!

That location of East 15th Street and Neck road was used as the black neighborhood in the movie A Bronx Tale.


Ok, How about another place that, in my opinion, is worthy of historical significance:

JAHN'S ICE CREAM PARLORS

We used to frequent two of them; The one on 86th street and 21st Avenue, and the one on Nostrand Avenue and I believe avenue Z.

They later made one on Ave U and Garristen Ave, the former location of The Flame restaurant.

They had really great Ice Cream. They were famous for the Kitchen Sink ice cream dish! Oh, and they had great Cheeseburgers and Shakes too!

Jahn's was a really great place!

Thats right! The bar was a few doors down off the corner (directly next to the storefront that was firebombed in the movie).

The Sheepshead Bay "Jahn's" was on the corner of Nostrand and Z. I went to the school across the street and Friday was the day my friends and I would go there for lunch... a hamburger, fries and a coke would cost 90¢ and we felt like big men by leaving a dime tip.

If memory serves me correctly, the burger and fries were served in a basket.

Speaking of burgers and fries in a basket, do you or Vitelli happen to remember the name of the restaurant in Sheepshead bay and was there BEFORE it became The Grotto Di'Oro? They used to make one of the best burger and fries baskets and an awesome fried chicken and fries basket. Almost all of their combos were served in a basket. It was there for years and then when it closed down it became the Grotto Di'oro. I can't remember the name.

I remember Jahn's quite well. Back in the 1970s I used to go with friends to the one on 86th St. and order their "Suicide a la Mode".

I do remember going to the one on Gerritsen Ave. one time - in 1975 on my 20th birthday. They used to give you something for free if it was your birthday (as I remember), so I went with a girl I was seeing at the time. We ended up with the surliest, most ornery waiter I had ever encountered up to that time. I'll always remember that time at Jahn's, but for all the wrong reasons!

I never went back to that place - after that it was strictly 86th Street.

There was another Jahn's I'll always remember, though: In Miami Beach, on Collins Ave., there was a Jahn's many years ago. This is the area now known as South Beach. One summer, around 1961, I fell madly in love with a waitress named Sheila who had a huge, pink beehive hairdo. I was all of five years old, and had never seen anything like it before. The Miami Beach Jahn's closed up a year or two later, but to this day I can still remember Sheila and her pink hair.

Signor V.

What is a "Suicide a la Mode"?

Don't remember it... I had a lot of friends who lived on Emmons (in those little shacks between the street and the water) so I was there often in the late 50's/early 60's but I just don't remember that restaurant.

Speaking of the neighborhood, there used to be a bar on Emmons and Bedford (Captain Walter's) that had totally awesome burgers!

This was one of their humongous servings of ice cream that could be eaten by several people and probably still have leftovers.

Jahn's had a bunch of strangely-named specialties you could order, usually with many different flavors, toppings, etc. And they were pretty large, to say the least.



Can't say I remember it either. I do remember that many years ago (the 1960s?) there was a small chain of restaurants called (I think) Chicken in the Basket. I don't know if this is what it was, or not. I didn't start hanging around that area until the late '70s.

Signor V.

I don't remember Dubrow's, but I fondly recall Horn & Hardart (Sp??). My aunt worked as a buyer for Wanamaker's at the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers, and I used to get a lot of my clothes there, thanks to her employee discount. My mother would always take me to eat there after shopping, or we would eat at the Wanamaker's cafeteria, which had huge windows that overlooked all of Yonkers.

I remember that no shopping trip was complete without at least some rice pudding from Horn & Hardart.

I used to LOVE that cafeteria, Babe!

My maternal grandparents lived on Mile Square Road, up in Yonkers. When we'd go up there on a saturday, we loved to walk to Cross County and eat there (stores were still closed sundays). There was also a great Jewish deli, right next to Wallach's, it was called Wilskers, and the sandwiches were great. I remember they did a hell of a bar business, too, because while my brother and I were chowing down on sour pickles, my Pop and my uncles were sipping Cutty at the bar. The other thing I remember about Cross County was going to Lubin's for my confirmation suit (it was a Brioni -- you look like a gangster! ).

I remember Wilskers, but I didn't until you mentioned it. And didn't everyone get their communion/confirmation stuff from Lubin's??

Cross County was THE place to shop. My brother worked at Gimbel's when he was a teenager. Between that and Wanamaker's, my mom had quite the racket on employee discounts. I remember that I got my ears pierced at some little store in the shopping center.

Probably Corbo Jewelers, they just closed after 40 years in the same spot.

Lubin's was THEE place for the confirmation suit. You know where I lived, we could walk to Alexander's on Fordham, but for the important stuff, we went up to either Lubin's or Fox's on White Plains Road.

Horn and Hardart was great. I also remember Schrafts for ice cream.

Not to mention where Rocky Balboa had his last turkey dinner.

Horn & Hardat was a TRUE New York experience. They were better known as "The Automat".

For those of you who've never been to one, they were large rooms full of diner type tables. One of the walls had about 100 "windows" (slightly larger than a mailbox) and in each of the windows was an item of food that you'd buy. You slipped some money into the coin slot (price was depending on what you ordered) and then open the little door on the window and grab your food. You could get just about anything. Appetizers, soup, sandwiches, dinners (like meat loaf or turkey), side orders (everything from mashed potatoes to vegetables) and of course, dessert.

You'd then take your tray with all your goodies and sit at a table (sometimes during busy hours you'd share a table with strangers).

They used to have awesome coffee!!

I remember Capt. Walters. If I'm not mistaken, at one time it was known as Popeyes.

Ok, while trying to think of the name of that place in Sheepshead Bay that was there before the Grotto, another place popped into my head : Bun & Burger! I remember one being in the Kings Plaza Mall.

No... Captain Walter's was never known as that... it used to be a little brick building on Emmons & Bedford... they moved down to Emmons & Ocean about 15 years ago.

"Bun & Burger" was a chain.... they had fairly decent burgers considering.

But there was a place in Sheepshead Bay called Popeye's, right?

Yeah... I THINK it was a chain... they sold chicken and ribs and burgers, etc.

You remember the steak joint on Shore Parkway and Ocean?? I can't think of the name of it now .... it had an OK menu but everyone went there for the salad bar.... they'd put out a platter of shrimp and some people would go up to it with little sandwich bags and fill them up before leaving.

No, It wasn't the Fried Chicken franchise....wiseass.


BEEFSTEAK CHARLIES?

All the ribs and shrimp you can eat!

I LOVED Beefsteak Charlie's. My mother would always steal the banana bread to take home.

I would also see the most OBESE people eating there. We would sit there stuffing our facing, and pointing out how much food the other people were taking!

FWIW - Don Cardi was right (hey, even a broken watch is correct twice a day)... the old brick building to which I was referring WAS once known as "Popeye's". A senior moment on my end.

Now here's a restaurant that definitely deserves historical status in this topic :



Brennan Carr!

It sure DOES for Brooklynites.

That Brennan & Carr is a throwback to another era... its a dingy little place but it offers some REALLY good roast beef. Its not the Arby's kind of roast beef (which I like as fast food) but its like the old Irish bars roast beef... The place was around for as long as I can remember and I've been there enough to have heard old people talking about going back there for the first time in 20 or 30 years (and remarking the food was the same).

I remember them actually selling the juice from the roast beef off their menu, by the cup, and people would order it and have it as a soup, with crackers.

We used to go there at least 3 times a month when we were teenagers. All of the waiters looked to be 100 years old back then. My wife and I went back there a year or two ago and I swear that the waiters were the same old men that worked there when I was a teenager!

Great place!

Hey SC, funny thing that I found this pic of Brennan and Carr because it was only one block away from a fantastic Chinese restaurant that we were talking about only a couple of days ago....Mah Jong!

Au Jus!

That's delicious.

Thats right.

There used to be an absolutely wonderful Italian joint on Avenue U near there... for the life of me I can't remember its name (it was in the middle of the block on the north side of "U")... reminds me of the place in "The Godfather" - it had the best veal in the City.

That Brennan & Carr "juice" was great... the roast beef itself was very good but the juice made it delicious... only problem was if you didn't eat it fast enough the bun would get soaked through.