Lüchow's

The story

A German bartender bought the café where he worked. That was 1882, and August Lüchow's name stayed above the door on East 14th Street for a full century — long enough for columnist O. O. McIntyre to write, in the 1930s, that in a changing world, nothing changes at Lüchow's. Its longevity owed something to location: the Academy of Music, Steinway Hall, and Tammany Hall all drew crowds who needed somewhere to sit afterward. Eventually it did change, moving to the Theater District in 1982 to survive. It didn't. The building burned in 1994 and was demolished the following year.