Lunch in TriBeCa: Second Course

Appetizer:
In late 2019 – just a little before New York City was blanketed with an all-encompassing shut-down over COVID-19 (gosh, remember that?) -- a little vegan concern opened up on Warren Street, down in TriBeCa, just a few blocks away from my office. Dubbed Lekka Burger, this venture served “plant-based” fare, ostensibly disguised as conventional cheeseburgers, not too different from the grub served at Superiority Burger on the other side of town. Always game to try something new and arguably healthier than my usual diet of abject crapola, I gave Lekka Burger a whirl and found their food to be perfectly fine, albeit light years from particularly exciting. As much as I wanted to like and support them, vegan food just isn’t my thang. I remain a carnivore.

Sadly, the COVID years hit Lekka pretty hard, and they never really recovered, finally throwing in the towel in March of 2023.

Entrée:
Having pitched articles at them before, notably about the former site of Plasmatics Headquarters on Thomas Street and about the Charly Garcia Corner on the Walker Street at Cortlandt Alley, I shot my quick post about that 1977 photograph of the nascent Teenage Jesus & The Jerks posing in front of the entrance to 335 Greenwich Street. Imagine my glee when they added a small item about it an In the News post yesterday. You can see that here.

Late last week, meanwhile, I took a westerly detour on my way to the office just so I could walk down that stretch of Greenwich Street. When I reached the portal in question, I duly documented it with a photo of my own.



In the wake of the TriBeCa Citizen posting, meanwhile, I fielded a nice note from a reader named Jean H. who had this to say…

Alas, poor Yorick, I knew them well. Ms. Lunch lived downstairs for a while ( I gave her my bike).. many of those bands, including the Jerks, the Contortions, the Voidoids, Mars, D.N.A., “ practiced”…(smoked, drank, partied) on the second floor of 81 Warren Street. It was wonderful. Those were the daze, my friends…..

I thought that was fascinating bit of intel, so did some further googling, unearthing this nugget, taken from the liner notes of a No Wave compilation, as documented here...

We moved to [painter/musician] Donny Christensen's [later The Contortions] place on 81 Warren Street, just a few blocks away [from Nancy Arlen's loft on Duane Street, ed.], where The Cramps and others were already installed. There we met Lydia Lunch and James Chance, who were squatting next door, and soon started playing together there as well, in Teenage Jesus. This period is well represented by a complete rehearsal set on tape 1 side B."

Don's place was an abandoned old basement storefront with no hot water on 81 Warren Street in lower Manhattan, which then also served as a rehearsal space (named 'The Hole' or 'Home For Teenage Dirt') for The Cramps.

Intrigued, I tried to place the exterior of 81 Warren Street in my head, but had to do some further Googling.

It turns out that hotbed of insouciant, bohemian activity all went down … in the same space recently vacated by Lekka Burger.

Dessert:
Here’s a little taste of Mars, who were mentioned above…. Bon Appetit.