The Passing of Restaurant Florent
As his legendary 24-hour French diner closes for the first time, it is being mourned as the sad passing of an era. But Florent Morellet regrets nothing. See EA’s earlier post [EA 05/23/08]
“Until a few weeks ago, a tiny map of Liechtenstein, the world’s sixth-smallest country, hung in the back of Florent, the 24-hour French diner that opened in 1985 at what was then one of the more improbable locations in Manhattan: 69 Gansevoort Street, along the southern edge of the meatpacking district. The map was one of dozens mounted on the walls by the owner, a charismatic 54-year-old Frenchman named Florent Morellet, who thinks of maps as accidental works of art, still portraits of places that are constantly changing. Little Liechtenstein had seen a lot in its day.
The map was there back when the neighborhood was a forlorn tangle of cobblestones where slaughterhouse workers hacked apart bovine carcasses and transvestite hookers prowled outside unsubtly named sex clubs like the Manhole and the Mineshaft. Little Liechtenstein was there, too, as the slaughterhouses were taken over by Helmut Lang and Stella McCartney and Apple and as restaurants serving lobster fra diavolo opened in buildings where, as John Waters puts it, “I remember watching men pay good money to get pissed on.” And Liechtenstein was still there, quietly minding its business, on the day two months ago when Morellet told his staff that his lease was up, that the new rent was far out of reach, and that Florent, the establishment that established the neighborhood, would be closing after 23 delightfully wild years.”
Leave a Reply