Here I am eating my last French bread pizza and lemon cookie at Cafe La Fortuna. In the summer of 1997, Husband I moved to the Upper West Side so that I could live near Fordham Law School, which I was to attend in the fall. (That lasted for two days. I came to my senses and dropped out of law school first thing in the morning of my third day.) We were not thrilled about leaving behind the Village, where we had met while undergrads at NYU. The family-friendly Upper West Side seemed boring and sedate compared to the cafe culture of the Village.Cafe La Fortuna was the first place I went to that made me feel like I could not only survive on the Upper West Side, but actually enjoy it. It was John Lennon and Yoko Ono's favorite cafe. Opera memorabilia adorned the cozy walls, arias played over the sound system, and on warm days, there was a lovely backyard in which to sip iced tea and eat scrumptious desserts. Best of all, they had French bread pizzas for only $3.00! No one was ever in a rush at the cafe. It was a soothing and delightful place.
Over the past 11 years, Husband and I came to love the homey feeling of the Upper West Side. We have lived in three different apartments in the neighborhood, all within 10 blocks. Sadly, we also watched gentrification encroach upon our adopted mixed income neighborhood. It's nearly impossible to buy a one bedroom apartment for under $600,000, and renting one will run about $2,500 a month. Lately, the spread of wine bars, designer boutiques, and Pinkberry frozen yogurt shops has happened so fast I sometimes don't even comprehend the net loss.
Thus it is with Cafe La Fortuna. As you can see below, a combination of rising rents and devastating personal loss led to the closing of my favorite neighborhood refuge. Today was its last day of business, and it was packed with people like us who wanted to say good-bye. My French bread pizza was more like $7 or $8, but it tasted every bit as good as it did when I first took a bite 11 years ago.
Thanks, Cafe La Fortuna, for 11 years of good eats and good times. We'll miss you.
what a history. that's so sad. :(
ReplyDeleteyou have to keep posting things that make me cry? i'm just gonna be a giant tear-sodden mess when we meet on tuesday.
I know. Sorry about that. As I was writing, I kept thinking that this was two tear jerkers in a row. It's been one heck of a weekend, that's for sure. I promise I won't bring you anywhere that will induce tears on Tuesday. (Except that I get very sentimental, so I bet I will be choked up when we part ways at the end of the day. Just warning you.)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely tribute to his wife, that note. gulp.
ReplyDeleteI know - both of his notes make me cry. What a wonderful person.
ReplyDeleteI loved going there. I'm so sad that it's closing.
ReplyDeleteThat's incredibly sad. Is that the place that had a "John & Yoko table" set aside?
ReplyDeleteBut I'm glad that so many people turned out for the last day.
Yeah, it is that place. Yoko has the table now. They gave it to her a few months ago.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one who got teary-eyed over those notices. Suzanne gets mad at me for crying over sappy crap. Don't ask her about "The Other Sister". I cried at that movie and then she got all pissed when she asked if I was going to cry at her wedding and I replied in the negative. For the record, I did indeed get teary-eyed at the wedding, so there!
ReplyDelete-Steph
By the way, I didn't mean to imply that the cafe notes were sappy crap. I thought they were very genuine. I just cry at sap as well as genuine sentiment.
ReplyDelete-Steph