Monday, October 26, 2009

Chinatown, Mott Street Between Worth and Mosco Streets


Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………. click to enlarge

Starting up Mott Street. Remember when the weather was really warm? What happened to summer?







Mary Sargent © 2009 ……..............…………… ……....…………….. click to enlarge


I was reading up on Wo Hop; New York Magazine says it's old-fashioned Cantonese (chow mein and egg foo yung), but good and comforting, and its readers (4) gave it a perfect 10, which I have never seen before. But then it seems that the Wo Hop they're talking about (established in 1938) was down the stairs you see there. Revel in New York says we mustn't confuse the Wo Hop at 15 Mott Street with the Wo Hop at 17 Mott Street. Can't imagine why that would ever happen. Anyway, click on the link and you'll see the entrance to 17 Mott Street. Now look back at this sad sight. Did you ever see anything that looked more closed?

Here's Robert Chin's photo showing this site in October 2007, two years ago. Check out his interesting website. All things Chinatown.

Don't think, however, that the 1938 Wo Hop closed the downstairs restaurant and moved upstairs. There are too many references to there being two of them.

I'm not satisfied.  Nothing will do but I have a meal there and ask a few probing questions.  Can't you just imagine those waiters having a long chat with me?

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In other news, it seems I must apologize to a bank. Could anything be more galling?  Citibank did not build that glass building we saw last night. According to the Songlines website, a Hong Kong businessman built it as office space around about 1979. A Chinese person built it. Okay, I'm sorry.


See map.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

It LOOKS like a bank and ought to be a bank.

Barbara said...

I ate at Wo Hop 17 years ago - everyone was eating spicy snails - and people were lined up outside waiting to get in. It was quite a large space once you got downstairs.

mary said...

Spicy snails? That doesn't sound like the Cantonese of my childhood. Were the people in line Chinese? Was this a trendy new place for foodies 17 years ago? You raise many questions, Barbara.

Barbara Lubliner said...

Oh my, I should have put in a comma - I ate at Wo Hop 17 as opposed to Wo Hop 15, years ago. Well let's see, could have been five or ten. Not trendy, more like an underground favorite for foodies in the know.