UPTOWNflavor

I’m starting to notice clear division of Harlem by way of awareness or lack there of. And example would be the tearing down of 135th & Lenox (where Pan Pan once stood, a diner of short term legend and staple – immortalized in the Alicia Keys video, “You Don’t Know My Name.”Two Harlem blogs, Plastic Animals guy [WATPA] who is a photo guy of construction and destruction, and Harlem Fur generally document and feature this type of action (deconstruction with big cranes, etc. of near landmarks (Pan Pan). But the demolition of Pan Pan went unnoticed by all blogs to my knowledge, certainly undocumented. It’s a huge ditch or hole now.So I’m thinking Harlem Fur and the Plastic Animal guy seemed all things SoHa. I sense Flavor is tilted slightly to 145th-ish. Meanwhile the demolition of 135th & Lenox over a 2 week period is not mentioned by anyone. The opening of the new and very nice restaurant on 135th & Lenox “Cafe Veg” by the guy that owns Juice Bar on 125th goes unnoticed.

A reader posted the above comments and I wanted to touch on some of the observations expressed.

We’ve actually addressed the continued division of Harlem numerous times on this blog. You can find a couple of those discussions here:

Southwest Harlem and beyond

South of 125th

As far as Pan Pan, the demolition of this site was noted in the comments sections. There is as much information to be mined in the comments as on the site. Also note that the rate of change in that area has been relatively slow compared to South Harlem and Bradhurst. Here are a few posts that mention the impending destruction/construction:

Tips please

Life A125

M&G

Another thing we try to so is refer to past posts, so clicking on the links can sometimes offer you  a little background information if you are new reader. You may want to take a peek at these popular discussions that focused on that area as well:

Popeye’s vs. Big Apple

Harlem Wing & Waffle

Also note that we’ve had features of other businesses in that area including Big Apple Jazz and the now closed Home Sweet Harlem. You can find those under Reef’s Reviews and on the old site.

Cafe Veg. I was telling a new reader that I didn’t realize they were finally opened since they were under construction for so long (see the date on the post referenced.) From what I’ve uncovered, they are the sister restaurant to the very popular Uptown Juice Bar on 125th (can anyone verify this?) The reader also brought to my attention that Shrine (which was mentioned in this post) has also opened. I post to places like Yelp and Chowhound, so I will mention places on the other sites and forget to post them to UPTOWNflavor (doh!) I’d actually intended to update the status of these establishments but I also wanted to include photos (available next week unless someone submits them to the photo pool).

We’ve got you covered Central Harlem. As always we welcome tips. Harlem is a huge neighborhood and we can’t possibly cover it all without the help of our readers. I’ll be the first to admit that East Harlem is not covered as well as I would like it be. If anyone lives in East Harlem please sign up to be our East Harlem correspondent.

Bradhurst and Hamilton Heights are areas that have been neglected in the past (off the radar so to speak) and it deserves to get a little shine! A lot of interesting development has erupted in a very short amount of time.

This is what UPTOWNflavor is about…the people are what gives Harlem its flavor. Thanks for reading and please keep those tips coming!