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By KEVIN SCOTT
Friday, June 24, 2005
Everyone has his or her favorite block in Manhattan. Mine is East 58th Street
between Second and Third Avenues, “Designer’s Row,” as it’s
called these days.
More than just a block of design stores and antique shops, this one short
block boasts four fine Indian restaurants, three of the last gay haunts on the
East Side, several fancy Italian restaurants, and of course, a world of stores
selling bathtubs, doorknobs and patio furniture to decorators and style-conscious
amateurs.
Any day of the week, you see Indian women in saris sweeping into the Khyber
Grill; gay boys in buzz-cuts heading for Happy Hour at Oscar Wilde’s;
Park Avenue ladies and their walkers checking out the new faucets at Urban Archaeology;
and guys from Long Island escorting blondes to Felidia’s to see if the
owner cooks as well as she does on her TV show, Lidia’s Kitchen.
It’s not a lovely block like Charles Street with its trees and little
houses, or East Anything off Fifth Avenue, with columns and brass and topiary.
A much-used route to the Queensboro Bridge (called the 59th Street Bridge in
Manhattan — much to the frustration of those who live across the East
River), 58th is loud with the horn honks of frustrated drivers.
The block couldn’t be more gay friendly. The Nepalese hostess at Chola,
resplendent in a spangled purple or orange sari, knows the gay gents at the
Townhouse by sight and waves as they approach the bar. Not a few of the decorators
working on the block are gay (surprise, surprise) and have lunch at the Townhouse
Restaurant. The limo drivers waiting for their fares to finish dinner at Bruno’s
share cigarette lighters with the gay guys smoking outside the bars.
The twentysomethings who live in rental apartments above the design stores
walk their dogs in the evening and pause to chat with Townhouse regulars.
It’s not the kind of block a tourist might even recognize as “gay.”
Unlike Chelsea with its tank-topped studs or Christopher Street with its mannequins
wearing thongs and leather vests, East 58th doesn’t look all that gay.
Although it does have store called Underwares for Men. That ought to be a tip-off.
The guys who go to O.W. Bar — which stands for Oscar Wilde, by the way
— wear the same T-shirts, jeans and flip-flops as other male New Yorkers.
There are a lot more suits, granted, at the Townhouse, the block’s other
gay bar across the street.
But except for the occasional pink slacks and a green LaCoste shirt, the regulars
look like regular guys with much better haircuts.
Years ago, before the exodus west, the Upper East Side was much more gay.
In fact, during the ‘40s and ‘50s, it was the nexus of gay life
in the city.
Bars dotted Lexington Avenue (Camp David), Third Avenue (Uncle Charley’s)
and Second Avenue (a leather bar, Cowboys and Cowgirls and the notorious Rounds).
Nowadays, except for 58th Street, there’s just the Toolbox way up in the
‘90s, and Brandy’s, a piano bar that attracts a largely straight
clientele. East 58th is the last block before the wild west of Hell’s
Kitchen, where you can look back at the guy who’s looking at you with
some confidence that he’s flirting and hasn’t just mistaken you
for his accountant’s receptionist.
“Designers Row” is a little oasis of gaydom in a neighborhood
gone utterly hetero and high-rise.
If you like Biedermeir, check out Iliad Antik. If you like lamb pasanda, you
can’t do better than Chola. If you watch Lidia cooking on TV, she’ll
come to your table at Felidia’s. O.W. has a free barbecue on Sundays.
The piano players at the Townhouse already know the tunes from” Spelling
Bee” and “Light in the Piazza.” It’s not exactly Chelsea,
but it’s the best you can do in East Midtown.
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