Leo Lindy's is Gone

At least it's not where it used to be.

For the last ten years, when I've been in New York I've made it a habit to go to Lindy's on Time Square, sit in one of the window seats, linger over cheesecake and coffee, and people watch.

Today I wandered up and down the west side of Times Square, thinking my mind had slipped a cog and my memory was not to be trusted. Finally I propped myself against a window, huddled over my Treo, Googled "Leo Lindy's" and learned it was on the block at which I was staring . . . except it was not to be seen.

The storefronts along the block were a uniform, shiny aluminum and glass, rather than the jumble I remembered--Lindy's had been some kind of black tile--the windows down the block now looked like a 1950's mall, identical and bland.

I gave up my search and hobbled into the Marriot, headed towards a restaurant called "The View" that some magazine had said, "Gave an unparalled view" of Times Square from its rotating dining room. It was closed.

I eventually wandered to the eighth floor into the "Broadway Lounge," where I got a table at a window overlooking Times Square peopled with scurrying 1/4" tall people--what would that be--a hundred feet below. So much for people watching, I could count bald spots, I guess.

I started to rant here about how even something as innocuous as people watching had, rather than watching people eye to eye, become instead something where you looked down from such dizzying heights there was no possibility of personal interaction.

It was pointed out to me that Starbucks still had seats facing out windows at pedestrian level. That diffused my rant. I like Starbucks--like their pastry and cookies more than Lindy's cheesecake, though I didn't find a Starbucks with a good view of Times Square.

Not to slight the Leo Lindy cake, apparently it's world famous, but it's too gummy for me. The--now defunct--Sandy's Sweets in Lake Jackson made a cheesecake much more to my liking, and it was far from world famous.