It’s hard to say which neighborhood the Cup & Saucer on Canal and Eldridge Streets is in. If this was 30 years ago you could say without a doubt it was the Lower East Side. However, since Chinatown has expanded well past its old boundaries over that time, you might be tempted to call it Chinatown. I’ll stick to the LES, but if it ever converts to Asian fare, Chinatown it is.
photo: SeriousEats.com
It’s a tiny diner on this pedal to the metal, traffic-choked pollution-producing boulevard between the Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel, a way station for truckers, delivery men, local shopkeepers, Canal Street bargain hunters, and loutish layabouts like me. The menu has typical breakfast and lunch fare.
Co-owner John Vasilopoulos has been here for a quarter century and the luncheonette has been in existence for about 75 years. The plastic-lettered awning signs have been there since the 1960s or even before that, in my estimation, but the “swash” Coc-Cola logo was introduced in 1969.
Hopefully it’s there another 75 years.
[Unfortunately Cup & Saucer was scheduled to close on Monday, July 17]
10/8/14