Joe Jr's Restaurant was my NYC diner. During law school I often had breakfast there. The food was cheap and good. Located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 12th Street in Greenwich Village, this small establishment had lots of character, and they would greet me as a decades younger law student with the nickname "professor."
"Hey professor, how ya doing?"
I almost always sat at the counter and not at the tables. Within minutes of my butt hitting the stool, a plate with two eggs scrambled and home fries would clatter down in front of me.
After law school I wasn't in the neighborhood as much, and I lost touch with Joe Jr's and it's unique style of NYC charm.
Then one evening about a month ago I was watching the local news on television, and there was Joe Jr's again, except this was a story about how it was closing in less than a week. Seems the landlord no longer wanted a restaurant in his building. I felt like someone was taking a brick out of my personal history.
The amazing thing about this broadcast was that it went on for about 10 minutes, which is a length of time more typically given to government coups, assassinations of heads of state, or the world economic crisis. Stories like the closing of a local restaurant usually get about 2 minutes of airtime.
When I did a search online for the restaurant I found out why. I wasn't the only one who found Joe Jr's special - web sites had many personal reviews that extolled the virtues of this eatery, such as "hands down best diner in NYC," "There simply is no overall better diner on the face of planet earth," "NO place is more NYC than Joe Jr.'s," "Simple life and a great atmosphere!," "I was in there when the Yankees won one night and it was free dessert for all!," "A national landmark," and "you are not a genuine New Yorker unless you've eaten here 10 times."
I decided that I had to pay one last visit to my favorite diner. Turns out that my daughter was around that weekend morning and so I took her with me. We brought my camera with me, so I've included here a couple of pictures of me enjoying my last meal at Joe Jr's.
My daughter had never been to Joe Jr's even though she attended the nearby New York University. Once she discovered it she was sorry that she hadn't known about it sooner.
As I sat down I wondered whether current reality would match my memories from 30 years ago. After all, how special could scrambled eggs be? I took a forkful of eggs into my mouth, and I'm not sure what it was, but they were just as special as I remembered them. Joe Jr's still made the best diner breakfast I have ever had.
Stumble It!
Great story. When I was in college, I would stop by a little place a block away from our house on my way home from work around 11 PM -- chip steak sandwich, crinkle fries, cherry ice cream soda. It became my traditional late night meal. I moved away from the area, but returned years later. Tastes had changed. No chip steak, no crinkle fries, and no one had even heard of an ice cream soda. It was a bit sad. I am glad you were able to enjoy your memory one last time.
Posted by: Steve Cotton | August 09, 2009 at 07:18 PM