Day 24: Visiting Florent one last time before it closes is BTS

Florent

1985 – 2008

What started out as an unassuming French bistro serving New Yorkers good food round-the-clock in a low-key, congenial, ‘downtown’ atmosphere has become an icon that could’ve very well saved New York from itself. I’ve been to Florent three times before, whether on dates or dining with good friends and I have nothing but lovely memories of it. Some good things never last, true — Florent is closing due to prohibitive rent prices — but that didn’t stop my incredibly talented photographer-friend M.O. from capturing Florent in one of its last few sunrises. We arrived at 69 Gansevoort St. in the Meatpacking District at 3AM the Friday morning before it closed. 

Somehow the next picture reminds me of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, his best-known work from 1942 which captures the exterior of — and glimpses of the patrons in — a diner in the Village.