#mott street new york

[uniquegalaxyfox]

Kid Rebecca Lee,age 14, Revy in her teen years.

[wikipediapictures]

Corky Lee

“This is a video still from a full portrait AR 4k video of the unveiling of the street sign for Corky Lee Way in New York City.” - via Wikimedia Commons

[flamingdragonfly-whispers]

Being abused by her own so-called dad. Coming from a broken home.

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Revy in her teen years

[verylead-flavored-candy33]

The perfect easy target: A powerless,very vulnerable child who suffers from abuse...

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Susan Meiselas. Carol, JoJo and Lisa hanging out on Mott Street. Little Italy. New York City, 1976

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Glenn O'Brien, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Madonna on Thanksgiving at Glenn O'Brien's place on Mott Street in New York City, 1982

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Walls / Mott Street, New York City, New York.

[pascal-bernheim]

📷 MOTT STREET New York City 1990

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USA. New York City. 1976. Little Italy. Dee and Lisa on Mott Street. © Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

[strictlyfavorites]

Lombardi’s is a pizzeria located at 32 Spring Street on the corner of Mott Street in the Nolita neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1905, it has been acknowledged by the Pizza Hall of Fame as the first pizzeria in the United States.

[uniquegalaxyfox]

Anime & Manga counterparts!

[wikipediapictures]

Corky Lee

[weneverlearn]

WE NEVER LEARN radio is back at it!

Thanks to Thanksgiving, I was outta town last week, so the fine folks at East Village Radio repeated a previous show. But I'll be back at my usual bi-weekly Wednesday 2-4pm EST shift on December 11 -- and this one's gonna be special!

I will be interviewing live on-air Don Fleming, he of the Velvet Monkeys, Action Swingers, and a few other end-of-the-century acts, and most recently curator and producer of the ongoing Lou Reed rarities releases on Light in the Attic. He'll be bringing along fellow LITA archivist, Jason Stern, to give some more insight into the Reed project.

As loyal listeners might know, on my show I spin actual records -- only 7" singles, in fact -- in an actual radio station, right near the corner of 1st Avenue and 1st Street in New York City's zany Lower East Side -- or as Kramer called it, "the nexus of the universe."

So join me every other Wednesday for only the ginchiest of 1990s underground garage punk and its raw-assed antecedents on my WE NEVER LEARN show RIGHT HERE!

Show logo art by the great Cliff Mott.

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We Never Learn with Eric Davidson on EVR, October 2, 2024

[mariacallous]

When Liebman’s Delicatessen opened on 235th Street in 1953, the Bronx was still sometimes called “the Jewish Borough.” More than half a million Jews lived between Mott Haven and Riverdale, and according to the 70-year-old deli’s website, they were served by 100 kosher delis. Today, Liebman’s is the last one standing. 

“I ask myself a lot: ���why are we the one that survived?’” Yuval Dekel, who has owned the deli for 20 years, told The Nosher. “Certainly because we’re in Riverdale, which is still a Jewish community.” 

He surveys the restaurant, where nearly all 60 blue naugahyde seats are occupied by neighborhood regulars over 60, noshing on pastrami to the strains of ‘50s jukebox hits. “We’re a deli that has regular New York City resident customers. We’re not a tourist destination.”

Dekel, one of the youngest people in the room, took a circuitous route to becoming a deli man. Born in Haifa in 1978, he arrived in the Bronx two years later with his father, who immigrated with hopes of becoming an entrepreneur. A business broker helped the family find Liebman’s, which had foundered under a string of owners after Joseph Liebman sold it in the late ‘50s. 

Though Dekel’s father (also named Joseph) was of Romanian descent, he knew little about the Ashkenazi foodways of New York. “I don’t even think he knew about delis,” Dekel said. “In Israel, there’s no deli culture.” Joseph Dekel added Israeli dishes like falafel and hummus to the menu, but took pains to preserve the deli classics, too. 

For his part, Yuval Dekel was a metalhead. He was the drummer for Irate, a well-loved New York City thrash band, touring up and down the East Coast, throughout Europe and Japan, and playing at iconic downtown clubs like CBGB in the ‘90s. 

“It was pretty hardcore,” Dekel laughs. “Very serious moshing going on. Quite a different environment from this.” 

But during his entire stint as a metal drummer, Dekel also supported himself by working as a baker at Amy’s Bread and the original U.S. location of Le Pain Quotidien, developing a serious commitment to artisanal foods. When his father died in 2002 and Dekel took over Liebman’s, his first priority was the quality. He wanted to make sure that every dish on the menu, from sandwiches to stews, got its due.

“One thing that differentiates us from — let’s say Katz’s — is we pay a lot of attention to not just the pastrami,” Dekel said. “Don’t get me wrong, I spent years figuring out how to make our own. But there’s this whole other side to us, which is basically a full-service kosher diner.”

Liebman’s excels in the kinds of homey dishes that tend to be afterthoughts for the best-known pastrami pushers. Stuffed cabbage, stewed in a sweet-and-sour sauce and piled with melting onions and plump raisins, falls apart at the slightest pressure from a fork. On Fridays, Dekel serves cholent, the slow-cooked Shabbat stew. 

That’s not to say the deli classics can be missed. Dekel began curing his own pastrami several years ago, after the number of high-quality suppliers had dwindled. The deli slices it thin so that slivers of the smoked meat’s dark crust are evenly interspersed on a sandwich. On the Liebman’s Favorite platter, pastrami is piled high on an open-faced slice of rye, accompanied by fries — thick-cut, pleasantly greasy shards of potato — and kishke (stuffed derma) slathered with brown gravy. It’s an unbelievably hefty plate of food that reminds you the object of a Jewish deli is excess. 

Daintier deli classics abound. Liebman’s tender matzah balls float in a rich broth slicked with beads of schmaltz. Hebrew National franks sizzle and blister on a foil-lined griddle in the front window, ready to be garnished with sinus-clearing brown mustard, sauerkraut, coleslaw or — a Liebman’s favorite — a scoop of potato salad. Old timers pick at artfully arranged cold cut platters of sliced tongue, corned beef and kosher salami.

Homemade knishes are of the circular variety, bearing little resemblance to the squared-off “Coney Island” knishes provisioned by wholesalers to hot dog carts across the city. Like all knishes, they are dense starch-delivery systems. But a Liebman’s knish is well-seasoned, and its crust is flaky and pastry-like.

With all of his attention focused on food, Dekel says he struggled with the business side of the operation originally. But a loyal base of customers helped him through his mistakes, and the deli has hit its stride again, getting attention from critics and influencers, and even making an appearance on “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” in 2014. Dekel is planning to open a Westchester County location this year, marking the first expansion of Liebman’s in its seven-decade history.

It seems only right that Liebman’s should be the last deli in the Bronx. A mid-century time capsule, it was reinvigorated by Israeli cooking and by Dekel’s do-it-yourself spirit. 

“In some cases, being the last one standing doesn’t mean you were the best,” he says. “But I happen to think that we deserve it.”

[myborderland]

Susan Meiselas Tina with Julia on Mott Street. Little Italy, New York CIty, USA. 1978. © Susan Meiselas | Magnum Photos