There’s a website called restaurants.rip where folks can leave memories of permanently closed restaurants.
I really love keeping old pins on my Google Map as a way of remembering those memories I had with others at the restaurant. They may not be functionally useful, but there’s a certain charm in remembering a moment in time when, in most cases, you’re probably looking around for a good restaurant to eat at in the present or future.
Here are a few restaurants that remain on my list, despite being permanently closed:
Madame Poupon
This french creperie was one of the only authentic creperies in the city and served really lovely sweet and savory Breton crepes. It was a super homey shop and bistro with admittedly odd hours and walls plastered with photos of rock concerts, which seemed to imply that the owner and chef played in a band (I never confirmed if that was true.)
Casa Nono
This was a really great Mexican restaurant located near Pratt. Lynne and I walked in looking for a casual meal, and they surprised us with legitimately impressive cocktails and seafood, including fish tacos, grilled octopus, and shrimp. We drank quite a bit there and really enjoyed ourselves after celebrating our first ever tabling event at the Other Islands Art Book Fair <3
Thai Farm Kitchen
When we lived in Ditmas Park, this local Thai restaurant was one of the best places to get Thai food. I remember sitting in their front outdoor seating underneath fairy lights, being greeted by the owner, and really really enjoying food with strong flavors and decadent curries.
Purple Yam
This was a Michelin Bib-awarded Filipino restaurant in Ditmas Park! I enjoyed many meals together in the three years that I lived there, including one where I met Lynne’s dad 😱
What’s the Scooooop
This was honestly not a great restaurant, but it served respectable ice cream, bubble tea, and banh mi and was really the only place to get those three treats in the area — especially when you’re working remotely and desperate to eat something between meetings and classes.
They had countertop seats that looked like swings, big indoor murals, and they never got to actually open up the inside fully because of covid. They also kept changing the menu which was confusing but added to the charm :)
Golden Lake Pavilion
This was the dim-sum restaurant near Flushing that my family always went to growing up! It was never the greatest dim-sum, but it’s my idea of what dim-sum is supposed to be: cart ladies walking around, and kids getting up to check out the specials and bringing them back to the table to share.