With concern and sadness I read today in the New Yorker that Cafe Loup has closed. The doors are locked, the cafe is dark, taxes seem to be unpaid. Christopher Hitchens writes:
At different times, I have wandered in for mid-morning coffee and newspaper while the bar is being set up and the deliveries are taking place, and been the only customer while not being made to feel it. I have had long lunches in the near-deserted bar area, being allowed a big round table for only a few guests. I have dined by candlelight (I took a good friend there the night he’d had all his teeth extracted, because the light was so comfortingly low and sparing) and stayed at the bar until the small hours debating with newly-met fact-checkers from glossy or obscure magazines, or grizzled MittelEuropa exiles.
I too have had an early lunch there, the cafe empty and made to feel as if I was a regular just opening up for the day. I have loved the Sunday jazz sessions, the late nights, the black and white photographs on the wall, the quiet spaces where I could read, write and observe.
The Buddhist principle of impermanence manifests once again but that does not mean we cannot feel melancholy in the face of the loss. This is another loss for old New York, will we see another Citicorp branch bank, Starbucks or Duane Reed pharmacy, or Generic Brand, in its venerable space?
Here is the link to the New Yorker article:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/tables-for-two/where-will-we-go-without-cafe-loup