Rediscover the UWS's Main Street! |
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"West Seventy Today" introduces you to your business neighbors along West 72nd Street, from Central Park to Riverside Park in weekly installments.
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Meet your neighbors, NOW:
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72nd Street is His Middle Name |
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by Claudie Benjamin
When Jonah [72nd Street] Phillips, owner with his father Alan of Pastrami Queen at 138 W. 72nd, starts talking about traditional Jewish Kosher Deli foods, he turns theatrical, using the inflection of immigrants who spoke Yiddish and settled in the early 20th Century in Brooklyn and on the Lower East Side. Jonah looks up (to heaven) from where he and his girlfriend Alex Leshkevich are holding hands across the table to thank his grandma Lil, who lived on 69th Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, for her cooking that has inspired some menu items. The 72nd Street restaurant opened in December 2020. The father & son also own a Pastrami Queen that opened a few years ago on the Upper East Side.
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Not only is Jonah totally New York, West 72nd Street is pretty much his middle name. He grew up on 72nd Street, went to the Hershel School when it was on 89th Street (it’s now on West 62nd Street) and then completed high school at Colhoun on 81st and West End Avenue. Now, he and Alex live on 72nd Street just down from the new restaurant.
Of course pastrami sandwiches are served at Pastrami Queen. They come on seeded or unseeded rye, with two kinds of pickles and a side. “But it’s not all pastrami,” says Jonah. “We’ve got kleplash, stuffed cabbage and blintzes.” Hugely plump knishes like you wouldn’t believe, filled with a variety of ingredients, cram the shelves lining the right side of the deli. Mouthwatering to anyone who walks by. KEEP READING
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Valvoline, Opium and Pastrami |
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by Tom Miller
In 1883 the husband-and-wife team of Francis and Margaret Crawford began construction on a row of five brownstone-faced rowhouses on the south side of West 72nd Street between Columbus Avenue and Broadway. Francis Crawford was a builder and his wife was a real estate developer. They had hired architect Gilbert A. Schellenger to design the high-end residences which were completed the following year.
Like the others in the row, 136 and 138 were designed in the Renaissance Revival style. Four stories tall above a high English basement, they shared striking similarities, like the carved panels between the third and fourth floors, the quoins that outlined the openings, and the similar pediments above the top floor windows.
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136 West 72nd Street became home to Wilbur Dixon Ellis and his wife, the former Harriet Delta Chittenden. Born in Detroit in 1848, Ellis was brought to New York City at the age of 12. His father, Dr. John Ellis, was a physician, who traveled to Titusville, Pennsylvania to investigate the medical uses of crude oil. Instead, he stumbled on a new process to lubricate machinery (animal fat had been previously used). Dr. Ellis secured four patents on his lubricating oil and marketed it under a brand name that combined the word “valve” with the Latin word for oil, “oleum”—Valvoline.
By the time Wilbur and his wife moved into their new home he was a partner with his father in John Ellis & Co. and had helped develop and manufacture a variety of petrol products, including petroleum jellies, compounded oils and kerosene for lighting. His significant wealth (estimated at about $46.3 million in today’s money) was reflected in his social club memberships—the Union League Club, Down Town Association, for instance—and his interest in art led to his memberships in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Fine Arts Club and others. KEEP READING
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72 Crosstown highlights the architectural and social histories of the buildings along West 72nd Street.
We are working on your suggestions -- if you have a building you'd like us to prioritize, or a business you think we should feature, let us know!
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See you on West 72nd Street again, next FRIDAY! |
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LANDMARK WEST!
45 West 67th Street NY NY 10023
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