I’ve been eating at Eisenberg’s for so long that I can’t remember when I first started going. Sometime in the ‘90s...
Certainly I went for the egg creams but I also went for the 1930’s atmosphere -- it opened in 1929.
How would one describe the color of the walls -- was it milky beige? And the marble counter, where Maria ordered a liverwurst with onion, Jonathan had the Matzoh ball soup, B got the turkey club, and I always asked for a tuna fish on toasted rye and coffee. Eisenberg’s was such a part of our universe that we always ordered the same meals, year after year.
It was always there, on a rainy day, when you wanted to stop in and have your sandwich and coffee at the counter, always the counter, because where else would you watch the theatre of the cook team flipping burgers, scrambling eggs, or yelling for a “whiskey down” (rye toast)?
Eisenberg’s was located in a small pre-war office building across from the Flatiron. It was so old-school that for a long time you could grab your coffee and donut then head upstairs to get your replacement ribbon at Gramercy Typewriter Co. If ever I wanted to pretend I was a character in a Bogart film…
When writer and editor Susan Chumsky saw the For Lease sign plastered to the window of Eisenberg’s she Tweeted “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”
My sentiments, exactly.
https://www.grubstreet.com/2021/03/eisenbergs-closes-nyc.html