The way Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO of Ark Restaurants, told it to an interviewer producing a 2019 segment for a New-York Historical Society series about business owners on Columbus Avenue, the idea of opening a restaurant was intuitive. It was not well thought out and researched. In the early ’70s, “There was nowhere to eat,” he recalled.
Burgers were what was available in the various bars that lined the streets. The shops that were located along Columbus Avenue sold antiques and liquor. There were some bakeries, pharmacies and hardware stores. But the main shopping corridor was Broadway.
Amsterdam Avenue, he said, was dangerous and gritty. People who wanted a good steak would jump into a cab and head to Midtown, “where the restaurants were.”
Advertisement
So, along came a friend who had a little restaurant experience, whereas Weinstein had none. The friend was eager to open a restaurant on Columbus Avenue. So, in 1975, Weinstein kept his day job and invested with a couple of others, including the man who put in the HVAC and the man who put in the cigarette machine and the jukebox. The rent for the space at the northwest corner of 77th and Columbus Avenue was about $10,000 per year.
With very little money, they scavenged around for useful items like $1 chairs and invested the rest in the design of a glass greenhouse to enclose the seating area. It was a style that still looks innovative among the outdoor shelters constructed over the past two years.
View from inside glass enclosure at The Museum Cafe – c/o Grandberg & Associates Architects
The concept was very clear to Weinstein: he wanted to emphasize a feeling of interaction with the vibrancy of Columbus Avenue, while also offering views of the American Museum of Natural History. This idea of creating a connection to the environment was quite different from the more usual goal of leaving outside world behind. The mood was comfortably casual – customers did not feel pressured to dress up – and in those days, many creatives including Meryl Streep and William Hurt were regulars. “The whole cast of Chorus Line came everyday after the show.” The New York Times reported that among other events held at the Museum Cafe were “parties for Diane Keaton and Richard Dreyfuss when they won Oscars in 1977.”
Architect Ira Grandberg had recently graduated from the Columbia School of Architecture and started his own business, Grandberg & Associates Architects. He was hired to design the Museum Cafe and its showpiece glass outdoor shelter. Grandberg said that “the job led us to designing three more cafes on Columbus and another on Broadway for Weinstein. The Museum Cafe broke ground in setting standards that allowed for the growth of cafes along Columbus and in other parts of the city.”
Advertisement
The Museum Cafe was open until 4am. Weinstein recalls a nice variety of menu items written up on the chalkboard every day. “You could have steak, shad roe or a burger.” While everything about the Museum Cafe seems contemporary, forty years ago, there was nothing like it. They didn’t take reservations and often the wait to be seated took an hour. Weinstein remembers the flow of customers who came in on the eve of Thanksgiving after watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons get inflated. A photo was even taken of actor Christopher Reeve dining with a huge balloon of superman behind him.
The Museum Cafe closed in 1998 after 24 years. As CEO of Ark Restaurants, Weinstein became a major restaurateur in NYC and beyond, and started growing bigger restaurants (Bryant Park Grill, Robert, etc). In 2002, the Museum Cafe’s former space became the second of dozens of Shake Shack restaurants. Weinstein said that sometime in the years that followed, he had a conversation with Danny Meyer, owner of Shake Shack, who told him his rent was $440,000 per year. Times change! Cafes and restaurants of all shapes, styles and culinary character have come and gone and proliferated on Columbus Avenue since the days The New York Times and other publications quoted observers who marveled at how the edgy, crime ridden neighborhood had transformed in just a few years.
I still have very fond memories of the Museum Cafe, every time I walk that block. In the mid 1980s, when I was working at the now defunct “Search for Tomorrow” which filmed at Reeves Teletape Studios (Now Staples on Broadway), that was a preferred lunch spot. The “tandoori chicken sandwich” was delicious…and an exotic treat for a kid from the farmlands of Chester County, Pennsylvania!
I remember so fondly some of the restaurants which lined the streets of Columbus Ave. in the 70s and 80s: The Museum Cafe, Dobson’s, Ruskays and other names I can’t recall. The Museum Cafe was definitely among my favorites. Funny, I can’t remember what the interior of the restaurant looked like because the charm of the place was to sit in the glass enclosure.
i lived across the street from Anita’s Chili Parlor (73/74). i can’t remember the name of the place it replaced. but right next door was one of those infill stores, about four feet wide. i could watch its customers all day long come and go, often with a lineup across the sidewalk. it was the local marijuana outlet. that, and other stuff. the neighborhood was so interesting in those days, more so to me, than now. when i moved into my building there was an upholstery shop in the building dating from the 1940s. it became on of the first ‘new fangled’ shops, Design Observations. remember the nighttime street scene? buskers and comics all over the place, gathering crowds of 60, 70 people, maybe more.
Yes those days I remember fondly.
The Museum Cafe was the best. In fact for a brief moment in time Columbus Ave was it.
I moved to the UWS in 1974- and stayed until 1982. Walking up and down that street and going to the Cherry Restaurant for Breakfast then over to the Second Coming to get some antique clothing or furniture was the best.
I loved their greek chicken salad. miss that place. thanks for the memories.
There was nothing better than the UWS in the late ’80s. I was a regular at the Rocky Horse Cafe by day and Wild Wood by night. How lucky was I to be there before the Madison Ave shoppes moved in.
I will never forget the day the Museum Cafe opened – my young husband and I lived on West 81st Street opposite the museum and we rightly saw the opening as a bell weather event since there were no restaurants north of 72nd Street on Columbus. When we moved to the City in 1977 (everyone thought we were nuts!) the Endicott at 81st Street and Columbus was the largest SRO in NYC. But it was soon cleared for redevelopment and the Museum Cafe was a clear sign that what we now call gentrification was on the way. As the neighborhood evolved, we loved that it was a wonderful mix of the gritty, the mundane, the elegant and the cool (remember Charivari?) Much more interesting than the current homogeneity. Thanks for the great memories!
I still miss the Museum Cafe . . . Sitting by the window eating a Grecian chicken salad with my significant other was a delight! That restaurant, and Rain, were our favorites. Cita
You forgot when it was Jaques-IMO’s, in the mid-2000s, before it became the current Shake Shack!
One of my favorite memories…I was sitting across from one of my best friends when two strangers were seated next to us. My friend immediately starts signing ( we were both teachers for the deaf) the word “ house, “ and I was looking at our new neighbors and then finally I got it!!! It was Tim Mathewson and Bruce McGill!!!! We both were so thrilled!!! My friend also was signing to me, as I am deaf and could not eavesdrop, telling me what they were talking about…many other people stopped by to talk to them too about Hollywood deals. And I have to say seeing Tim in Virgin River…he is still a good looking guy!!!! Oh what fun in a favorite restaurant!
Museum Cafe,
In 75 I was walking every morning to school at IS 44.
From a very poor block of 82 between Amsterdam & Columbus. The very first week they were open ( I think)
I went in alone at lunch time ( they had no customers)
I had no money but the place looked so new and fancy to me I felt compelled. I asked a bunch of 11 year old questions.
Jerry the manager, maybe a part owner of course at the time I was certain he was. Set me up with a free Hamburger and glass of milk. 🙂
I am 61 now and have opened one at a time about 6
Different small restaurants, Thank you Jerry!
Lovely story.
And while we’re at it, let’s not forget Isabella’s that was across the street. The first place I had brunch with my future husband of 35 years and counting! And what was the name of the Cuban place up the street?
For me, if it wasn’t the Museum Cafe, it was Ghengis Khan’s Bicycle (where I found out what the menu item ‘Ram’s Eggs’ were from the waitress who whispered warmly it into my ear) or Cherry Restaurant, all on Columbus. Our Group of Five were regulars. Then it was my future wife and me.
From 76th Street two brownstones away from the Historical Society, I never found it difficult to find places to eat, albeit, I didn’t have much money to eat out anyway.
We were young then.
BW
I visited NYC for the first time on Columbus Day in 2000. I just discovered a matchbook cover from the Museum Cafe that was squirreled away at the back of a desk drawer. It brought back wonderful memories of a trip that included all of the tourist-y destinations and some unexpected positive interactions with the natives, along with a dicey wait at a deserted subway station (It was Columbus Day, so Times Square wasn’t busy and the station was eerily empty). I do remember expecting to pay a fortune for lunch at the Cafe, but it was surprisingly affordable and the soup and sandwich was excellent (As was the people watching from our table next to the large glass windows)!