Restaurants fold all the time, perhaps nowhere more so than in New York, and perhaps never as much as during the Covid era. Frankel, the Tony-nominated composer of the musical “Grey Gardens,” “made you feel like you belonged.”īut all those places he so fondly remembers are long closed, as are Harvest, Orbit’s and several others listed in an article, headlined “ Restaurants That Roll Out the Welcome Mat for Gay Diners,” that ran in this newspaper 27 years ago. Manatus was so gay, it had a sobriquet: Mana-tush. Florent was around the corner from a notorious sex club in the meatpacking district. There was that incredibly hot Italian waiter at Food Bar. Universal Grill cranked “Dancing Queen” on birthdays. Scott Frankel’s favorite memories of New York gay restaurants aren’t about food.
