Childs Restaurant Landmarked

[NativeForestHiller]

LisaSmith's April 8, 2006 posting: I am trying to find photographs, postcards, history, stories - anything - about Child's Restaurant.

My friend's father was a waiter there for many years, and I'd like to surprise him with a photo or some other memorabilia of the restaurant.

If anyone has a source or can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it! It's an amazing building... so glad it's being preserved!

Thank you,
Lisa

[NativeForestHiller]

Hi Lisa!

That is very sweet of you. I am glad to be of help. You can try looking for memorabilia pertaining to Child's restaurant on ebay. They often have postcards, menus, or matchbook covers.

Also, please check out the following links:

www.preserve.org/fotc/infochilds.htm

www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/childs.pdf (For a detailed history on Child's & info on the Coney Island branch, according to the LPC's designation report)

www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Coney2/coney2.html (Scroll halfway)

www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/queensblvd/queensblvd1.html (Scroll down to Qns Blvd in Woodside)

www.forgotten-ny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/woodside/woodside.html (3/4 down)

www.forgotten-ny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/sunnyside/sunnyside.html (close to the bottom)

www.nyfoodmuseum.org/restau.htm (A Child's Restaurant printable menu)

*Please e-mail me at unlockthevault@hotmail.com I sell prints of the 5 boroughs from restored vintage images. I have quite a few of Child's in my collection.

[SuddenImpact]

I have a coouple questions about the Child's building:

1) Has the adjacent warehouse behind it been landmarked as well?

2) Does the Ricci family (who bought the restaurant and turned it into a chocolate factory) still own the building?

Thanks

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://home2.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downlo...rts/childs.pdf

[tmg]

New York Daily News
New life on menu for eatery
Coney site to get face-lift

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The long-shuttered and graffiti-ridden Childs Restaurant in Coney Island could be reopened as a seaside food court or upscale eatery, the Daily News has learned.

Taconic Investment Partners signed a lease at the landmarked building in August, and also plans to build housing and retail across from the defunct restaurant.

"I think most people are happy with a restaurant coming in," said Community Board 13 District Manager Chuck Reichenthal. "Every year you find another street that didn't have a thing but is now the new 'restaurant row.'"

In addition, a residential building with retail components is being eyed for a 180,000-square-foot lot across W. 21st St. from Childs. How high it will rise has not been determined, said Charles Bendit, chief executive at Taconic.

No restaurant had been chosen for the landmarked terra cotta building, Bendit said, but plans call for a food court, restaurant, grocery store or catering hall.

The restaurant bid is the latest deal to hit Coney Island since developer Thor Equities announced a $2 billion plan to add residential, retail and entertainment to the area.

Until now, however, most of the redevelopment has hinged on glitzy new rides, an indoor water park and a hotel in Coney Island's amusement district - not food and housing.

Reichenthal declined to weigh in on the housing bid, except to say he was opposed to a building that would tower over the parachute jump, now the area's tallest structure.

"The feeling is that nothing should be taller than the parachute jump, that that's the definitive height of the Coney Island amusement district," Reichenthal said.

Bendit would not rule out the possibility that the new building could be taller than the parachute jump.

Childs Restaurant, which opened the first of its nine cafeteria-style diners in 1898, extended to Coney Island in 1922 and included rooftop dancing, said Coney Island historian Michael Immerso.

"Certainly a venue that involves dancing in Coney Island would be consistent with what Childs had in mind," Immerso said. "That would restore something that was synonymous with Coney Island's early days."

Originally published on December 13, 2006

[lofter1]

The Other Player On The Boardwalk
To Dish It Out At The New Child’s Restaurant

kineticcarnival.blogspot
December 13, 2006

Joe Sitt and his Thor Equities will be joined on the boardwalk by Charles Bendit and his Taconic Investment Partners. Having done recent business together they will be doing further business side by side in the New Coney. The only thing between them will be the Cyclone Stadium. Taconic, a real estate investment firm with properties across the country, recently acquired two important parcels west of the stadium: the lot next the park and the Child’s Restaurant building.

As reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Taconic signed a 49-year lease for the Child’s two-story building with an open-air mezzanine in August, with the option to extend the lease or purchase the property if the landlord decides to sell. That same month, the company acquired from the City Investment Fund, at no recorded cost, the 168,000-square-foot lot across the street, where the Washington Bathhouse once stood.

“We are developing our plan for Child’s right now,” said Bendit, co-founder of Taconic. “I think ultimately, we’d like to restore it to what it once was, which was a food-type enterprise,” with possibilities including a combination of a restaurant, market and catering service. “I think [plans for the lot] are really going to be predicated on what the EDC and the city come up with.” Bendit added that he didn’t want to go into specifics about Taconic’s wishes for the site before the city made its final zoning determinations. But according to Recchia, housing is definitely on the table.

The Fund bought the lot in June for $90 million from Thor Equities — $77 million more than Thor had paid for the property only a year earlier. The move has been criticized by some locals as a sign that Thor CEO Joseph Sitt also intends to flip the 13 acres he’s been buying up between KeySpan Park and the New York Aquarium.

Founded in 1997, Taconic Investment Partners is a fully integrated real estate investment company that acquires office and multifamily properties. The firm also manages its own properties and provides asset and property management, leasing and financial reporting services.

Developer To Resurrect Once-Thriving Coney Landmark [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
see full article here on CIUSA BBS {Courtesy of Brooklyn Daily Eagle}

[fbenjul]

Hello, Lisa and others:

Your questions re Childs are more than two years old but perhaps you and others can answer mine.

I knew Manhattan in the late 30s, 40s, and 50s, growing up. My grandmother used to take me to the Automat. I do not recall any visits to a Childs.

1. How would you and others compare the Automat and Childs?
The Automat was always self-service. That is how the Wired article also describes the Childs chain. But you, Lisa, mention a friend whose father was a waiter at Childs. Which was it, self-service or waitered, or both, or did it evolve?

2. How would others desribe the similarities and differences between the two chains? Different prices, ambience, operating hours?

I'd appreciate it if could send this to others on the threadc who might help me.

All the best.

fbenjul

Madison, WI.

[lizbeth li]

I worked in the Child's on 42nd right near Grand Central. It was much more upscale than the Automat, a little old blue-haired ladies sort of place, prim and proper, wrought iron and tiffany with the tiles, and many of the help throwback servant Irish and the clientele more WASP. The food was uninspiring but good, good basic steaks, nice gravies, but hardly gourmet. This restaurant (and others I think) was very long and thin, went the entire block from 42nd to 43rd. I was the last hired and had a station a block away from the kitchen, so if I forgot a pat of butter, I had a two block walk.

[brianac]

New Coney Island roller rink to skate into Childs Restaurant Building

By JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, March 10th 2008, 4:00 AM

Coney Island's Boardwalk is getting a new pink roller rink.
Lola Staar's Dreamland Roller Rink will open March 22 in the Childs Restaurant Building, a city landmark.

"It's extraordinary," Lola Staar owner Dianna Carlin said.

"Having a roller rink in the Childs building is a dream come true, for myself and Coney Island. It's a positive thing for the neighborhood."

Designer Tommy Hilfiger and Glamour magazine chipped in to pay for the rink after Carlin won a competition that asked entrants to write about their "dream come true."

Hilfiger and Glamour will film Carlin as she renovates the hot-pink rink - which might showcase burlesque shows - for a television documentary.

Childs opened the first of its nine cafeteria-style diners in 1898. The chain expanded to Coney Island in 1922 and featured rooftop dancing before closing in the 1950s.

Copyright 2008 The New York Daily News.

[brianac]

May 21, 2008

Dreamland Looks to Reopen this Summer




On March 22nd Lola Staar opened up her Dreamland Roller Rink inside the historic Childs Building on the Coney Island Boardwalk. The temporary rink was paid for by Glamour and Tommy Hilfiger, who sponsored a contest Staar won.

At the time, Staar (real name Diana Carlin) hoped to move the rink into the former Washington Bath House after her time ended at Childs, but without sponsors helping out monetarily she's on her own to reopen the rink.

Lola has been working night and day to reopen the Dreamland Roller Rink. She has overcome many obstacles in the labyrinth of obtaining permits and insurance for the rink. These obstacles have added exorbitant costs to the reopening of Dreamland! Costs that we simply cannot cover with the budget in our business plan. After some generous donations we are very close to being able to reopen.... but we aren't quite there yet! Hence, we need your help to reopen the fabulous Dreamland Roller Rink.

If you'd like to see this great addition stay on Coney Island, toss some change in the donation hat. Chipping in will even reap you some rewards, from getting your name glittered on a rollerskate plaque to a season pass to the rink.

Photo by Adrian Kinloch.

http://gothamist.com/2008/05/21/skate_1.php

2003-2008 Gothamist LLC.