A Match Made in Heaven

I used to collect matchbooks from restaurants. Nowadays, they're almost non-existant, since smoking is illegal practically everywhere but outdoors, or inside your own home. I have a fish tank full of them. The picture you see is basically only a handful. Click on it, for a full-sized view.

Some of these restaurants are long gone. The saddest matchbook I found was the one from Windows on the World. I couldn't bear to put it in the picture. Remember 9/11, and the WTC? That's what happened to that restaurant. It used to have a great brunch. I was at work, in Lower Manhattan, when the WTC towers fell.

Girafe and The Ryland Inn are also gone. The Ryland Inn was once one of the best restaurants in NJ, but it never really recovered after a huge fire.

I've no idea whether the Stonington Beach Hotel in Bermuda still exists. It was next to Elbow Beach, but sort of tucked back in its own cove, up the hill. Society Hill in Philly, and Grand Concourse in Pittsburgh bring back tasty memories. The flip side of the Grand Concourse matchbox shows a stylized crab.

I'm pretty sure the Yale Club and University Club still exist. The University Club used to have segregated dining for men-only, and men who brought women to dine. I thought it was funny that I had to eat in a segregated room with my dad (while I was wearing full business attire in the mid-80s), but the place had phenomenal eggs benedict, so I dealt with it, and left on a really full stomach, with no complaints about the service.

Basilico, Campanile, and Telephone Bar still exist. I don't remember where The Spinnaker, or The Privateer were, but it's pretty obvious by their names that they were seafood joints.