Theater, History, and Socially Conscious Dining: Lafayette Street between East 4th and Astor Place

This street in the East Village has a lot to offer, so let's jump right in. Midway up the block are two theaters, each in a historic building. Here's a look facing uptown towards Astor Place:

To the left is Colonnade Row, built in 1831.

These four houses are what remain of the original nine that were built here. They were made in the Greek Revival style. 

To the far right of Colonnade Row is the Astor Place Theater, which has been showing the Blue Man Group since 1991.

The theater opened in January 1968 with a play called The Indian Wants the Bronx. It starred a young actor named Al Pacino. As far as I know that is his only acting credit. 

The Blue Man Group bought the theater in 2001. They now have shows throughout the country and internationally. The group formed in 1991 on the Lower East Side based on the work of 3 friends. I haven't seen the Blue Man Group perform in person but I've seen them on YouTube and enjoyed it. I've also seen Arrested Development:




I admit that if I saw the Blue Man Group just starting out in the Lower East Side in 1991 I never would have predicted mainstream success for them around the country. It just seems like a quirky downtown type of thing. But they do it well, and that's awesome for them. 

Directly across the street is the Public Theater:

It was renamed the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1991, after the death of the man who founded the organization in 1954 as The Shakespeare Workshop. It opened in this building in 1967 with the world premiere of Hair, and has always been about featuring new and emerging talent and productions. 

Inside the building are actually 5 separate theaters plus Joe's Pub, which is a music space and restaurant that opened in 1998. Many famous artists have performed there, including Lou Reed and Pete Townshend together, and the U.S. debuts of Adele and Amy Winehouse. 

The building's lobby is beautiful with a nice old-fashioned vibe:

Near the entrance to Joe's Pub was a big wall of photos that I assumed to be from performances at the Public Theater. 

There were many famous actors on the wall, but here's just a couple of photos, first Philip Seymour Hoffman and Natalie Portman:

And Meryl Streep with... is that Sam Waterston? I think it is.

The building's history actually goes back to the mid-1800's when it was the Astor Library. A plaque on the outside gives more info:

Here is a photo from about 1870 which not only shows the building but some more of the block as well:

And here are some present-day looks facing downtown:

Some of today's buildings on the block are taller but at least none of them are big skyscrapers. It would be nice to still have those trees, but overall the vibe isn't as different as I might have expected. Especially compared to how much other blocks have probably changed in the last 145 or so years. 

Random note: Here's a cartoon about the Astor Library from a January 1892 Life magazine. The artist's name is Chip and apparently there were some complaints about the library:


I guess you couldn't take out an e-book back then. 

After the building's use as a library, it housed for several decades the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has been doing important work since the 19th century:

I never realized all of the history to this building. I'm glad it's still around and continuing to have cultural relevance. 

Also on the block are two parking lots! One on each side of the block! Yes!

Enough parking excitement, I need to calm down. Let's look at the Astor Place intersection and get back to the real New York. 

Of course, by 'real New York' I mean a Chase bank, a Kmart, and a Starbucks. Oh yeah, and just out of the photo to the left is a Walgreens:

At least it's in a beautiful red and white building.

Next to the modern glass building on the other side of the street is a small patch of green where you can see through to Cooper Square, if you're into that sort of thing.

Back towards East 4th is a restaurant called Asia de Cuba. It's in a section with scaffolding but here's a wide shot that also shows some other nice buildings on this street:

I was confused by the name Asia de Cuba but apparently it's a fusion place that mixes Asian and Cuban influences. I'm intrigued by what that would be, and now the name makes a lot more sense. 

Next to Asia de Cuba is Colors, a gluten-free restaurant. I was going to joke about the trendiness of fusion and gluten-free restaurants being next to each other, but I learned that Colors was founded by survivors of 9/11 and today is operated by a nonprofit group called Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United. 

ROC originally helped displaced restaurant workers after the World Trade Center 9/11 attacks, and now advocates nationally for the rights of restaurant workers. So that's pretty great. The restaurant also uses local, non-GMO products.   

Here's a look at the front of Colors under the scaffolding, on the left:

To the right is a company selling hand-made rugs. Even though the front says Tibet Home, I believe it is actually called Dolma. I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy, maybe they changed the name.

Across the street is a building that houses some NYU Athletics. I guess that's not surprising since NYU is rather ubiquitous in this general area.

On the same side of the street I saw this old sign for a fallout shelter:

Even if it's from a past era, it's still a bit disconcerting. 

There are a lot of gyms in this area. There was a David Barton Gym above the Walgreens on the Astor Place corner. There is also Barry's Bootcamp just next to the mid-block restaurants, complete with its own 'Fuel Bar' which seems to offer juices and smoothies and such. 

Then there's more exercising at the East 4th Street corner, with a Blink Fitness and Soul Cycle. They're just across from a cafe called La Colombe. Here's a look at that area, facing downtown:

I guess this block really has it all. Check out some history, then go to the gym and have a post-workout smoothie. Then get ready for a night at the theater by going to Kmart to make sure you look your best. And after taking in a live production, wrap things up at a cafe. 

A pretty full day on just one block. Enjoy! And thanks for reading. Here's one last view from East 4th Street: