I have a long history with Madison Avenue. I must have walked parts of it 50 thousand times. The areas of concentration for me have mostly been between 60th and 98th streets.
There’s something about Madison Avenue that is comforting to me. Perhaps because it never really changes that much. Yes, of course, the brands come and go, but the spirit of Madison Ave. never changes. It is a strong institution.
I have a million stories about Madison Ave., but the one that comes to mind now happened sometime in the early 80s. We were maybe 12? I can’t remember, but we were young. I was having a sleepover at my best friend's house. She lived on 87th and we decided that we were going to sneak out. Side note: if you have a doorman, it sort of kills the whole "sneaking out" thing, but we were just young enough that we didn’t put that together. So, after some outfit-changes, bra-stuffing, and hyperventilating, out we went. Headed for Studio 54. That was the plan.
We knew someone’s sister who had a friend who knew a guy who could get us in.
The excitement level was at an all-time high. I can almost taste the excess saliva in my mouth from pure adrenaline -- the thrill of being out! At night! So, we got to the corner, hung a right, and headed down Madison. I’m not quite sure how many blocks it took for the thrill to wear off, and for the reality of exactly what we were about to do to set in. The broad pictures of nightclubs and glamour we had each drawn for ourselves started to narrow. We began to color it in and realized - wait where is Studio 54? Midtown? West Side? Wow, that’s far. Our pace started to slow until we found ourselves in front of the now long gone Madison Avenue Pub.
Me - You know, I’m kind of hungry. Maybe we should eat something?
Best friend - Great idea!
So, as I recall, we stepped down into the Tudor-style pub, and were escorted to a booth in the back. After a failed attempt at ordering a Tom Collins, we got a couple of fountain-style cokes and an order of steak fries.
The elevator ride back up to her apartment was one of the longest I have ever taken.
MADISON AVENUE SPOTS:
Sant Ambroeus
The Carlyle
Peress
La Boutique Resale
Gentile's
Lobel's
Madison Pub
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