It would a bit too simplistic to blame the impending closure of La Fortuna, the Upper West Side café that first opened in 1976, entirely on the skyrocketing rents of a turbo-gentrifying neighborhood. While the ever rising rental tide was certainly a factor – the building was taken over by a real-estate group after the previous landlord died – three years still remained on the lease. According to amNY, the closure has more to do with the death of the original owner’s wife last month:
Vincent "Uncle Vinny" Urwand called the cafe a dream come true for him and wife Alice, who was the "heart and soul" of the place. Alice died in January, and it was hard, Urwand said Thursday, to think of the place without her.
A hardware store owned by the realty group will take over the café John Lennon frequented several times a week to write songs, draw, and gab with Uncle Vinny. After Lennon’s death the café evolved into a sort of shrine to the ex-Beatle, with his favorite table installed in the front window and stacked with memorabilia. (Last year Urwand gave the table to Ono as a gift, though hardcore fans of La Fortuna can be expected to blame her for the café’s end.)
Located on West 71st Street, a block from Lennon’s home in The Dakota (where Ono still resides), the café was named for Urwand’s wife’s mother. When it opened in ’76, the Upper West Side had few trendy cafés and a lot of crime. La Fortuna became a haven for the locals who loved its opera music, rich coffee and the genial personalities of the owners. Diana Seifert, a regular who still lives next door, expressed a sentiment heard often in neighborhoods across New York:
It's horrible. It destroys the character of the neighborhood. We have nothing left on the Upper West Side. These small coffee houses and bookstores and things are what give the city its character, and we're losing it.
Photo: Eating in Translation
