YES, Andrews Coffee Shop is familiar to office workers in the Penn Station area, on 7th Avenue and West 35th. But indulge me, as it is part of my past dealings in the neighborhood. My 4 years at Macy’s (2000-2004) were mostly punctuated with berations by the manager for one transgression or the other, but on good days she left me alone and I was happy to work at what is the self-styled World’s Biggest Store as a copywriter. (For such a large operation, it didn’t carry a proofreading staff and the copywriters had to do their own proofreading, which I thought was a ridiculous policy.)
Lunchtime was my favorite time of day, as I would have my camera with me and would rove all over Manhattan, sometimes taking the subway and one or twice even got into Brooklyn. My favorite lunch or dinner spots were a Blimpie’s in a basement on 5th and 36th, a hot dog/papaya joint on 7th and 23rd (I also patronized it when I worked at the Tiffany offices in 2013-2014), the long gone Cheyenne Diner at 9th and 33rd, and Andrew’s Coffee Shop.
There once was a string on Andrewses all over town. The chain was founded in 1963 by Palestinian immigrant Andrew Zamel and at one time numbered 15 separate shops. I remember the one here on 7th Avenue and another one on West 34th Street between 8th and 9th, which has since vanished. Far as I know this is the last Andrews in business.
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4/23/22
6 comments
Andrews was always good
Somehow brings back memories of my aunt taking me to Schrafts’,Prexy’s or Hamburg Heaven
as a child.Yes,Hamburg,not Hamburger.Go figure.
Where they served all this great food we never ever had at home.
The great Jean Shepherd was a regular at Prexy’s.I saw online a paper place mat from there
that had notes he had written all over it about future ideas for his radio show.
Been to that Andrew’s many times. It’s one of a vanishing number of traditional New York coffee shops, that serve traditional American fare that is always good for lunch. One of my other favorites of this kind, Eisenberg’s at 22nd St. and 5th Ave., closed about a year ago.
Tried to get a discount on the check because Andrew is my given name as well, but no such luck (LOL!).
I also frequented Andrews Coffee Shop even though I disliked the word “Andrews” missing an apostrophe. It was an accessible spot for my friends and I to sometimes meet for lunch before or after perusing the aisles of Macy’s. I had forgotten about this coffee shop and I appreciate your writing about it and including the history.
Something tells me that this coffee shop will be gone in the near future due to gentrification that will cause their rent to rise.
I believe there was an Andrews on west side of Fifth Avenue around 16th street in the early 70’s.