GOURMET 45, TURTLE BAY

THIS building on the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and East 45th looms large in my memory. From 1982-1988, I was in the building most nights between 2 and 3 AM. No, it wasn’t a crack den; it was a deli, same as today, but then it wasn’t called Gourmet 45. Between 2 and 3 AM was my “lunch hour” on my hybrid 2nd-lobster shift at Photo Lettering, then the city’s biggest typefont distributor. (I was a proofreader and occasional typesetter, entering codes as long as your arm to change type to italic and back.) We set type for some of the city’s top advertising houses, some of which were indeed located on Madison Avenue. First thing in the morning, type for ads were sent by courier to the type firms, which would then send photocopies of revised ads back to Photo Lettering for corrections. (I can go on all day.)

As to the building itself, it was one of a pair of brick walkup buildings on the corner as you see here. The corner building has been given a makeover with a metallic cladding. But its window spots are still there, as well as the fire escapes on the 45th Street side. In 2024, the building next to it was mostly unchanged from what it looked like in 1940.

That year, the 3rd Avenue El still rumbled over the street as it would until 1955. I worked at 216 East 45th, where Photo Lettering was founded in 1936, and where it would remain until around 1990 when desktop technology sounded the death knell, so it was in business when this photo was taken. I found myself back at 216 East 4th in April and May 2018, at a temp job at Summit Financial, a true 3rd shift job from midnight to 8 AM. I was once again a customer of the corner deli, most often for yogurt, chips and a soda. I remember one night looking east on 45th at 3 AM to see a rising half moon, big as half a beach ball. My IPhone camera doesn’t do well with moons, so I didn’t get a picture.

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