Eating In Translation

E Pluribus Flags

Muriel Stockdale, 2003 and after
From a series "celebrating diversity in the United States," these 12 hang in a window of Desigual, 594 Broadway, Manhattan; another 16 are installed in the lobby of 315 Hudson.
www.MurielStockdale.com

Unagi Aburi Ittetsu

Sauce or salt? My first portion of freshwater eel — each week the shop imports them live from Japan — was coated in a sweet soy sauce, then charcoal-grilled. My second (on the house) was simply salted before grilling. What was meant to be a taste-off proved inconclusive; perhaps my diet is lacking in eel.

Unagi Aburi Ittetsu
60 Kenmare St. (Mott-Mulberry Sts.), Manhattan
212-257-2335
www.UnagiNYC.com

Uncle Boons Sister

Grilled curried striped: aeb plaa, chopsticks-tender bass on banana leaf, generous with lemon grass. H/T Ryan Sutton

Uncle Boons Sister
203 Mott St. (Spring-Kenmare Sts.), Manhattan
646-850-9480
www.UncleBoonsSister.com

Famous Ben's Pizza of Soho

If you can lift it to your lips without spilling a single tomato, maybe pizza just doesn't turn you on! Sicilian-style marinara-and-tomato slice ($3.50).

Famous Ben's Pizza of Soho
177 Spring St. (at Thompson St.), Manhattan
212-966-4494
www.Facebook.com/Famous-Bens-Pizza-of-SoHo-241136589338311

Ring Ding Bar

PB&J ring ding, with peanut butter cream and raspberry jam ($5).

Ring Ding Bar
At Smorgasburg, Saturdays during the warmer months
90 Kent Ave. (North 7th-North 8th Sts.), Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Daily, inside Duane Park Patisserie
179 Duane St. (Greenwich-Hudson Sts.), Manhattan
212-274-8447
www.Facebook.com/pg/RingDingBar

Ragu Spaghetti Sauce

This vintage 1970s sign had been partially obscured for a quarter-century by a billboard for AST Sound. It recently came to light once again after the electronics retailer closed its doors.

H/T Forgotten NY

Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
Surviving signage, 11 Sixth Ave. (White-Walker Sts.), Manhattan

J. Crew Men's Shop at the Liquor Store

This 1809 building "probably always had a shop on the ground floor," according to its New York City Landmark designation. When that protected status was granted, in 1966, the building's upper, residential stories still featured their original Federal-style details, but in a century-and-a-half of use, the street level had been extensively modified by a succession of commercial tenants.

The most obvious additions are a neon sign, likely installed with the arrival of Leonard Hecht's namesake business, Hecht Liquors, in 1941, and the hand-painted lettering on the windows. The liquor store, which was still in fine fettle in 1968, remained a going concern for about a half-century. In the early 1990s the Hecht family, who owned the building, closed their retail business and signed up a tenant, the Liquor Store Bar; after a decade's worth of cocktails (and about two years of vacancy), in 2008 the ground floor became home to a location of clothier J. Crew.

Capitalizing on the rich history of a earlier business, and carrying forward a legacy of place, is hardly uncommon in the city. (See this similar example from Bushwick.) Here in Tribeca, not one but two successor businesses inherited character from Hecht Liquors; the men's shop still wears that mantle.

J. Crew Men's Shop at the Liquor Store
235 West Broadway (also known as 2 White St.), Manhattan
212-226-5476
http://stores.JCrew.com/en/liquor-store

Arcade Bakery

(This venue is closed.) Caramel apple brioche.

Arcade Bakery
220 Church St. (Worth-Thomas Sts., toward the back of the lobby), Manhattan
212-227-7895
www.ArcadeBakery.com
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Strohmeyer & Arpe Co.

The copper letters above the entrance memorialize an importer of food products, founded in 1882, that was successful enough by 1909 to commission these bespoke premises. Among the company's imported brands, according to a 1939 photo, were Umberto Olive Oil and Marie Elisabeth Sardines.

That period photo also includes a name still visible today: "SAPCO BUILDING." (It was the sight of that name, faintly visible even from a distance, that led me here in the first place.) The meaning of S and A are clear enough: The first is for Frederick Gottfried Strohmeyer, the company's founder, the second, for Herman Arpe, who seems to have been employed by Strohmeyer from the start and who made partner around 1895. P surely honors Col. Gustav Porges, who joined the firm as partner after World War I, "fresh from his assignment as General "Black Jack" Pershing's chief food procurement officer." Although almost universally slighted in online accounts, the colonel does receive his due on the Strohmeyer website — a century later, the company, now based in New Jersey, is still a going concern.

Strohmeyer & Arpe Co.
Surviving signage, 139-141 Franklin St. (at Varick St.), Manhattan

Groceries, liquor & segars

The spelling is odd, and at least two centuries old: It figured in the title of an 1802 satirical print published in London. In New York, an 1846 directory identified 273 proprietors whose business included the word "segar," a mere 21 that mentioned "cigar." For reasons unclear, the phonetic spelling gradually fell out of favor over the course of the 19th century.

The premises shown here date to 1810. The initials "G.H." (date and full name unknown) appear above the left-hand door, whose slot for "lettres" is painted shut; following that pointed finger won't get you far. For the current bar-restaurant, take the door to the right — but no smoking, please.

Groceries, liquor & segars
Surviving signage, Tiny's, 135 West Broadway (Thomas-Duane Sts.), Manhattan
212-374-1135
www.TinysNYC.com