I just started working in downtown Brooklyn on Fulton St and was casting about for some place to eat at lunch, when I noticed that Juniors was only about three blocks away. That settled it. I ate a humongous pastrami sandwich and more pickled things than was good for me.
Juniors is a Brooklyn institution and has been since it’s founding in 1950. New York Magazine judged Juniors cheese cake to be the best in New York in 1971. This means, of course, that it is the best cheesecake in the Universe. The décor is very much that of the late 1940’s, as was the piped in Jazz muzak. It is easy to visualize the clientele of 1950, the men and women all wearing hats and the men of the “better” class all wearing double breasted suits. An image comes to mind of a picture recently published in the Times, of Justice Sotomajor as a kid with her parents, all dressed up in Puerto Rico. From what I have read, there was a great deal more of formality in those days, with people shipping trunks of clothing up to the hotels in the borshtbelt and changing clothing to go to dinner.
It might be fun to have a get together at Juniors sometime, with everyone dressed as if it was 1950. The strange confections that constituted women’s hats in 1950 can still be found in thrift shops. Men’s hats are easily obtained new. We could even invite Justice Sotomajor. She must be feeling homesick for New York by now/
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