The Hamilton Soda Fountain
Opening a restaurant in the West Village is like starting on second base in the baseball game of life. After all, you have foot traffic from all over the world, you have the “tony” clientele, and you have an aesthetically pleasing backdrop for your new venue. If you do become a success story, you have my utmost respect and admiration. But it ain’t easy! And if you don’t make it, what you leave behind in the plumbing and ventilation set-up will be the bones of the next restaurant that tries.
The streets of the West Village have many locations that, if you’ve lived here long enough, you can rattle off two or three (or six) prior establishments that didn’t make the cut. But then someone comes along with the right ingredients and a thriving business is born.
Take 51 Bank Street – everyone remembers La Focaccia—a quaint corner Italian restaurant with a brick oven that, honestly, I never understood why they didn’t utilize more. After some issues with the Fire Marshall they were forced to close. Construction paper went up, and months later The Tremont opened (a real head scratcherfor me). I remember thinking all this construction and such a limited menu? But, like anybody willing to risk the time and money to open a restaurant, I wished the mall the best, although I never ate there.
Then came The Hamilton Soda Fountain—a fifties luncheonette with wait staff in starched white uniforms and paper seaman hats, making egg creams and burgersto order. The first time I walked in, I thought I was in one of the opening scenesfrom It’s A Wonderful Life.
A luncheonette in this corner space works because there aren’t the usual wall to-wall tables and chairs for wait staff and bus people to maneuver through. Plus, ifI’m at a soda fountain, I want to see my ice cream soda come to life and make sure they’re using U-Bet syrup in my chocolate egg cream.
I’m not alone in my assessment of the space. I spoke with Matt Coutinho who, with his wife Chrysalis, owns Café Minerva next door. Matt told me that they liked the odd shape of the corner location and always thought a soda fountain would work well with the constraints a triangular space brings. They also find that people north of sixty-five really enjoy what The Hamilton is trying to do because they understand a soda fountain is a neighborhood meeting place. Many times I’ve walked by after ten at night and the place is packed with people getting an ice cream after a stroll through the village.
Not every restaurant makes it in the village and that’s okay. But every now and then one does come along that gives you value and adds charm to the neighborhood the way The Hamilton does. Please support these gems. If not, you’ll have yet another store selling three thousand dollar handbags. And if you’re anything like me, the only handbags that should cost three thousand dollars are ones stuffed with twenty-nine hundred dollar bills.
