The Passing Scene: And the Scene is Passing

[Querencia]

Is it bothering anyone but me that so many dear old restaurants are no more? Just tonight I read online that La Bombonera, in San Juan, has closed---without their cafe' y mallorcas I can't see much reason to go to Puerto Rico. Ratner's, in New York, is history: no more onion rolls---and Dubrow's has been gone for years, and Mama Leone's gargantuan meals. In Chicago, no more Berghoff---some family members are doing the Berghoff Cafe' but it's totally another thing. Berghoff had been there for more than a century. In Massachusetts the iconic Miss Florence Diner has closed, re-opened, faltered, and changed.

[Harters]

Things change.

A place in my city is closing in its present form after 100 years of service. The hotel in which it operates is contracting the room to a Michelin starred chef. Progress or not progress - remains to be seen. But a loss to the area certainly.

[iluvcookies]

I get nostalgic for NYC restaurants that I've never been to and have since vanished.
Ever since I read throught the Luchow's cookbook I have wished that I'd been able to go there, but alas it closed down when I was a child. I've started a little collection of restaurant memorabilia--matchbooks, swizzle sticks, ashtrays--and a few cookbooks as well.

[bulavinaka]

I can't speak for the other restaurants that you mention, but Puerto Rico is suffering from a huge exodus. This NPR article might shed some light on why storied places in Puerto Rico might be on the decline.

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/07/1710714...

[ipsedixit]

Nothing lasts forever.

Well, maybe, the cockroach species, but probably not much else.