Chumley's is Still Standing.....kinda

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but life, taste and time simply did not permit. While still indescribably trivial, since I started posting about it week or two ago, I might as well follow-up.

Last weekend, prior to the arrival of the record-breaking rain, I took both of my little kids for a lengthy stroll, allowing my long-suffering Missus some well-earned quiet time. Since I positively loathe our local playground in Washington Square Park with every angry fiber of my conflicted being, I thought I'd treat Charlotte and Oliver to a visit to a comparatively far-flung playground over on St.Luke's Place (a strip near'n'dear to my heart given its prominent role in the 1967 thriller, "Wait Until Dark" which -- despite starring the otherwise cloying Audrey Hepburn -- kicks a man-sized platter of ass). Honestly speaking, the elements that send me into a teeth-gritting rage at the Washington Square Playground (too much exposed concrete, not enough swings, too many rambunctious bigger kids keenly deserving of a swift slap across the gums) are equally represented at the St. Luke's Playground, but I love getting out of our little corner of the world to explore the adjacent neighborhoods.

Weaving our heavy-duty double-stroller (which looks a bit like a Blackhawk helicopter without a top propeller) through the meandering byways of the West Village, I was instantly reminded of the Chumley's collapse I'd posted about fairly recently. I steered my pint-sized platoon towards Bedford and Barrow to check it out.

As you can see from the pic at the top of this post (click on it to enlarge), it really ain't looking very promising (considering it normally looks like this). That all said, there was this notice (again, click on the pic to enlarge), which defiantly insists that Chumley's is merely closed for "restoration." We'll see.

Again, it's been quite some time since I've been able to regularly darken the doors of any drinking establishment -- fabled landmark or not -- but this is less about my affinity for places to get drunk in and more about simply lamenting the unfortunate changes of a storied urban landscape.