Gem Spa

Last updated
Gem Spa
Company typePrivate
Genre Newsstand
Candy store
Predecessornone
Founded1921
FounderGoldfeder family
Defunct2020
Fatebankruptcy
SuccessorPoetica Coffee [1]
Headquarters131 Second Ave. at St. Mark's Place
Manhattan,
New York City
Area served
 East Village
Products Egg cream, Newspapers, Magazines
Servicesnewspapers, magazine, food and mini mart services
OwnerGoldfeder family (1920s-1957)
Ruby Silverstein and Harold Shepard (1957-~1969)
Irving Stein (1971)
Ray Patel (1986-2020)

Gem Spa was a newspaper stand and candy store located on the corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. [2] [3] It opened under another name in the 1920s, and was renamed in 1957. [4] It was open 24 hours a day, and was known for being commonly considered to be the birthplace of the authentic New York City-style egg cream, which its awning described as "New York's Best." [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

Often referred to as a bodega, [9] [10] in the 1950s, Gem Spa was a gathering place for beats, and in the 1960s it was a hippie hangout, [11] known for selling a wide selection of underground newspapers. [12] [13] New York Magazine named it the best newsstand in the East Village in 2001. [14]

On May 7, 2020, owner Parul Patel announced that the physical store would not re-open due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and rent increases, despite community efforts and a social media campaign to keep it open. [15] [16] [3]

The building in which Gem Spa was located, 131 Second Avenue, or 36 St. Marks Place, was built in 1898-1900 and was designed by Louis F. Heinecke in the Renaissance Revival style. It is located within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, which was created in October 2012. [6]

History

The site was an outlet for the Chain Shirt Shop in 1922, and "Gem's Spa" had opened by the 1950s. [17] [16] Sociologist Daniel Bell, who claimed in the 1970s that his uncle Hymie created the egg cream, says that another man called Hymie owned a candy store serving egg creams on the site of Gem Spa in the 1920s. [18] Village Voice reported in the 1970s that people remembered going to the store before World War I. [19] For thirty years up until 1957 the store was owned by the Goldfeder family. [4]

It had been a Beat mecca in the 1950s, a hippie hangout in the sixties and more recently was the scene of a famous photograph of the Dolls.

—Gary Valentine of Blondie [11]

From 1957 until at least 1969 the store was owned by Ruby Silverstein and Harold Shepard, who employed 11 staff to keep it open 24 hours a day - Silverstein estimated that every 30 seconds someone walked in the store. The clientele initially mainly bought Jewish and foreign-language papers, which began to change around 1963 as they sold more copies of the Village Voice and underground magazines. Silverstein and Shepard gave the store its current name, initially Gem's Spa - the name came from Gladys, Etta, and Miriam, the names of the wives of Silverstein and Shepard and Shepard's ex-wife. [4]

In 1966, The Village Voice called it the "official oasis of the East Village"; [20] it was known as a "hippie hangout". [18] Abbie Hoffman gathered people for his 1967 protest at the New York Stock Exchange at Gem Spa, [21] Allen Ginsberg called it a "nerve center" of the city, [22] and the Art Workers' Coalition had their offices above the store. [23] Robert Mapplethorpe bought Patti Smith an egg cream there shortly after she moved to New York in 1967. [24] In the late 60s it was midway between two other iconic venues, the Fillmore East and the Electric Circus. [19]

The owner in 1971 was Irving Stein. [25] That year Village Voice reported "A permanent cluster of junkies using its doorways and newspaper benches as home base hasn't helped business any" [26] and the store was closed for a time from February 1972 when it ran into financial trouble [19] and the counter-culture that had helped support it collapsed. [27] The storefront caught fire that May, [28] but it reopened that June with new management. [27]

The owner as of 2015 was Ray Patel, who was born in the early 1940s in Gujarat, India. He ran the store with his wife and bought the store in 1986, when he replaced one brick wall with glass. He did no advertising and relied instead on word of mouth. [29] He learned making egg creams from the previous Italian owner, who in turn learned it from his Jewish predecessor. [30] The store manager Salim said in 2010 that only four people knew the recipe. [31] Patel's daughter Parul, a former Morgan Stanley financial advisor, took over the business from her father in 2018 because he was suffering from Parkinson's disease. [32]

Gem Spa sign being removed from the storefront on May 17th, 2020. GemSpaSign.jpg
Gem Spa sign being removed from the storefront on May 17th, 2020.

Gem Spa merchandise was introduced for the first time in 2019, and its T-shirt became popular. So much so that Eater magazine called it the "Hottest Look in Streetwear" just a couple of days after Fashion Week ended in September 2019, after it caught the attention of fashion influencers like former Calvin Klein model Remy Holwick and designer Kyle Brincefield of Studmuffin NYC.[ citation needed ] While efforts to save it were underway, in May 2020, Gem Spa closed permanently, due to lack of business from the COVID-19 pandemic. [3] After its closure, Gem Spa announced it would continue to operate an online store selling branded merchandise. [33] [34]

Gem Spa is featured on the back cover of the first album by the seminal punk rockers the New York Dolls. [13] [35] Poets Allen Ginsberg and Ted Berrigan both mentioned the stand in their works. [20] Gem Spa is the name of one of the main works painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. [36]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strand Bookstore</span> Independent book store in New York City

The Strand Bookstore is an independent bookstore located at 828 Broadway, at the corner of East 12th Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, two blocks south of Union Square. In addition to the main location, there is another store on the Upper West Side on Columbus Ave between West 81st and 82nd Streets, as well as kiosks in Central Park and Times Square, and a curated shelf at Moynihan Train Hall. The company's slogan is "18 Miles Of Books," as featured on its stickers, T-shirts, and other merchandise. In 2016, The New York Times called The Strand "the undisputed king of the city’s independent bookstores."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SantaCon</span> Annual pub crawl

SantaCon is an annual pub crawl in which people dressed in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters parade in hundreds of cities around the world. The event has sometimes been characterized by drunken behavior, sparking community resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egg cream</span> Beverage

An egg cream is a cold beverage consisting of milk, carbonated water, and flavored syrup, as a substitute for an ice cream float. Ideally, the glass is left with 2⁄3 liquid and 1⁄3 foamy head. Despite the name, the drink contains neither eggs nor cream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dumbo, Brooklyn</span> Neighborhood in New York City

Dumbo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It encompasses two sections: one situated between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another extending eastward from the Manhattan Bridge to the Vinegar Hill area. The neighborhood is bounded by Brooklyn Bridge Park to the north, the Brooklyn Bridge to the west, Brooklyn Heights to the south, and Vinegar Hill to the east. Dumbo is part of Brooklyn Community Board 2.

<i>Alamo</i> (sculpture) Sculpture at Astor Place in Manhattan, New York, U.S.

Alamo, also known as the Astor Place Cube or simply The Cube, is an outdoor sculpture by Tony Rosenthal, located on Astor Place, in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is a black cube, 8 feet (2.4 m) long on each side, mounted on a corner. The cube is made of Cor-Ten steel and weighs about 1,800 pounds (820 kg). The faces of the cube are not flat but have various indentations, protrusions, and ledges. The sculpture's name, Alamo, is designated on a small plaque on the base and was selected by the artist's wife because its scale and mass reminded her of the Alamo Mission. It was fabricated by Lippincott, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of New York City</span> Culinary traditions of New York, New York (USA)

The cuisine of New York City comprises many cuisines belonging to various ethnic groups that have entered the United States through the city. Almost all ethnic cuisines are well represented in New York, both within and outside the various ethnic neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appetizing store</span> Type of retail establishment

An appetizing store, typically in reference to Jewish cuisine in New York City, particularly Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, is a store that sells "food that generally goes with bagels", although appetizings can also be served with a variety of breads. Appetizings include smoked and pickled fish and fish spreads, pickled vegetables, cream cheese spreads and other cheeses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NYC Pride March</span> Event celebrating the LGBTQ community

The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. The largest pride parade in North America and among the largest pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. The parade route through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing the Stonewall National Monument, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim's Video and Music</span> Music store in New York City

Kim's Video and Music was a video and music retail store in Manhattan, New York City, described as the "go-to place for rare selections" and "widely known among the cognoscenti of new, experimental and esoteric music and film". At its peak, there were six locations around Manhattan. Its owner was Yongman Kim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veselka</span> Ukrainian restaurant in New York City

Veselka is a Ukrainian restaurant at 144 Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1954 by Wolodymyr Darmochwal and his wife, Olha Darmochwal, post–World War II Ukrainian refugees. Veselka is one of the last of many Slavic restaurants that once proliferated in the neighborhood. A cookbook, published in October 2009 by St. Martin's Press, highlights more than 120 of the restaurant's Eastern European recipes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray's Candy Store</span> New York City deli established in 1974

Ray's Candy Store is a deli at 113 Avenue A in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The store has been in business since 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton Street Baking Company & Restaurant</span> American bakery and restaurant

The Clinton Street Baking Company & Restaurant (CSBC) is an American bakery and restaurant. It is located at 4 Clinton Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">770 Broadway</span> Commercial building in Manhattan, New York

770 Broadway is a 1,200,000-square-foot (110,000 m2) landmarked mixed-use commercial office building in NoHo, Manhattan, in Lower Manhattan, New York City, occupying an entire square block between 9th Street on the north, Fourth Avenue to the east, 8th Street to the south, and Broadway to the west. The building is owned and managed by Vornado Realty Trust. It was completed in 1907 and renovated in 2000 per a design by Hugh Hardy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliana's Pizza</span> Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York

Juliana's is a pizzeria located in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2012 by Pasquale "Patsy" Grimaldi and named after his mother, in 2015 it was rated the best pizzeria in the United States on TripAdvisor. Along with cannoli and egg cream seltzer drinks, the restaurant is known for its "classic margherita" pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.

Da Silvano was an Italian restaurant in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, known for its celebrity clientele and gregarious owner Silvano Marchetto (1946-2024). The eatery opened in 1975 and shut its doors in December 2016 some 41 odd years later. Jack Nicholson and Leo Castelli ate there once.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pearl River Mart</span> Asian American retail brand, established 1971

Pearl River Mart is an Asian-American retail brand and family-run business in New York City. The business was founded in 1971 in Chinatown, Manhattan, as Chinese Native Products by Ming Yi Chen and a group of student activists from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Chen has said that he and his colleagues "wanted to create a small window into the Chinese culture". Its products include braided straw slippers, paper lanterns, cheongsams, cotton Mary Janes, and copies of Mao's Little Red Book. Pearl River Mart has become a New York City institution. The business has an art gallery in its main location, and hosts in-store events and performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodega cat</span> Cat that inhabits a store to prevent rodent infestations

A bodega cat is a type of working cat that inhabits a bodega, which in New York City English refers to a convenience store or deli. Like other working cats, a bodega cat is typically a domestic shorthair kept as a form of biological pest control to manage or prevent rodent infestations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodega (store)</span> Small owner-operated convenience store

A bodega is a small owner-operated convenience store serving hot and prepared food, often open late hours and typically with ethnic market influences. The NYC Department of Health defines a bodega as any store of sufficient size "that sells milk, meat or eggs but is not a specialty store and doesn't have more than two cash registers". Most famously located on New York City's street corners and associated with immigrant communities such as the Puerto Rican community and the Dominican community, they are renowned for their convivial culture and colorful character. As of 2020, there were an estimated 13,000 bodegas across the city.

<i>Gem Spa</i> (Basquiat) 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled (Gem Spa) is a 1982 painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. It is an autobiographical work depicting a sparsely rendered figure atop a bicycle "drowned in darkness."

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is an ice cream parlor in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City. The business opened in 1977, and is known for their Asian-inspired ice cream flavors. They have also opened two additional locations, in Flushing and the Lower East Side.

References

  1. ↑ Grieve (3 Oct 2022). "Exclusive: This is the new tenant for the former Gem Spa space". EV Grieve. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  2. ↑ Allen, Irving Lewis (1995). "New Ways of Urban Living". The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech. Oxford University Press. p. 101. ISBN   0195357760.
  3. 1 2 3 Dai, Serena; Warerkar, Tanay (7 May 2020). "East Village Institution Gem Spa Closes Permanently". Eater NY.
  4. 1 2 3 Wilson, Jane (2 June 1969). "Anatomy of a candy store". New York Magazine. Retrieved 29 May 2011– via Google Books.
  5. ↑ "Top 10 rock'n'roll landmarks in the US". The Guardian. 3 August 2007. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  6. 1 2 Brazee, Christopher D., et al. "East Village/Lower East Side Historic District Designation Report" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (October 9, 2012)
  7. ↑ "Gem Spa's Awning Doesn't Lie, They Really Do Have New York's Best Egg Cream". NYC Food Guy. 2010-05-05. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  8. ↑ Lauckner, Sally (19 October 2010). "A Literary Tour of the East Village". The Local. The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, and The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  9. ↑ Swanson, David (2020-05-11). "Gem Spa closes: Bye Bye, Miss American Egg Cream". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
  10. ↑ Conti, Allie (2019-08-29). "Can Instagram and Egg Creams Save the Last Punk Rock Bodega?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-09-17.
  11. 1 2 Valentine, Gary (2006). "2. Village of the Damned". New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation with Blondie, Iggy Pop, and Others, 1974-1981. Da Capo Press. p. 27. ISBN   1-56025-944-2.
  12. ↑ Romm, Ethel (14 October 1968). "Blueprint for Revolution". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  13. 1 2 "Tanqueray Rock-n-Roll Trivia Map". New York Magazine. 12 October 1992. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  14. ↑ "Best of New York: Best Newsstands". New York Magazine. 2001. Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  15. ↑ "Gem Spa will not reopen". EV Grieve. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  16. 1 2 Carlson, Jen (May 7, 2020) "East Village's Iconic Gem Spa Has Permanently Closed" Gothamist
  17. ↑ "St. Marks Place Lot by Lot History". Lower East Side History Project. 16 October 2009. Archived from the original on 4 October 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  18. 1 2 Simonson, Robert (1 September 2010). "Iconic Foods: Egg Cream". Edible Manhattan. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  19. 1 2 3 Whelton, Clark (24 February 1972). "Gem Spa closes: Bye Bye, Miss American Egg Cream". Village Voice. Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  20. 1 2 Morgan, Bill (1997). The beat generation in New York: a walking tour of Jack Kerouac's city. City Lights Books. p. 100. ISBN   0-87286-325-5.
  21. ↑ Jordan, Ken (7 May 2007). ""I Know We Won" - Abbie Speaks". Reality Sandwich. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  22. ↑ Ney, William (September 1988). "A talk with Allen Ginsberg". The New Common Good. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  23. ↑ Harriman, Jr., Louis (1997). "The Judson Flag Show 1970: actually called The People's Flag Show". Greenwich Village Gazette. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  24. ↑ Rose, Caryn (October 9, 2015). "A Step-By-Step Walk Through 'Just Kids' and Patti Smith's New York". Village Voice. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  25. ↑ Lichtenstein, Grace (17 January 1971). "On Lower East Side, Opinions on Police Strike Parallel the Generation Gap". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  26. ↑ Truscott, Lucian (August 26, 1971). "One-Way Street". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  27. 1 2 Whelton, Clark (22 June 1972). "Gem Spa lives, sort of". The Village Voice. Retrieved 11 February 2012– via Google News.
  28. ↑ "Gem Spa burns". The Village Voice. 4 May 1972. Retrieved 10 October 2018– via Google News.
  29. ↑ Carlson, Jen (August 13, 2015). "A Look Inside The Iconic East Village GEM Spa". Gothamist. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  30. ↑ Berger, Joseph (31 July 2005). "The Pizza Is Still Old World, Only Now the Old World Is Tibet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  31. ↑ Gentilesco, Jackie (20 October 2010). "Egg cream maintains mythic status at Gem Spa". The Hofstra Chronicle. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  32. ↑ Conti, Allie (29 August 2019). "Can Instagram and Egg Creams Save the Last Punk Rock Bodega?". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  33. ↑ Kaplan, Talia (2020-07-28). "Coronavirus permanently closes iconic NYC shop". Fox News. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  34. ↑ "email : Webview : GEM SPA: East Village Institution Closes Forever". t.e2ma.net. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  35. ↑ Carlson, Jen (20 April 2006). "NYC Album Art: New York Dolls". Gothamist. Archived from the original on 5 July 2009.
  36. ↑ "Gem Spa - BASQUIAT Jean-Michel - Art Actuel". Art Actuel. Archived from the original on 2014-09-07. Retrieved 2012-08-25.

40°43′43″N73°59′16.5″W / 40.72861°N 73.987917°W / 40.72861; -73.987917

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.