Gary Indiana's Favorite Place in NYC: El Quijote

     I found a booklet called Frank 151 in the Chelsea Hotel lobby last week.  In addition to a ton of ads, it has short profiles of "cutting edge" New Yorkers, including a few former and current Chelsea Hotel residents such as Rene Ricard, Julian Schnabel, Jonas Mekas and Ben Rhue.  It also has a profile of the fine writer Gary Indiana, where he says his favorite place in New York is El Quijote, because it hardly changes from one year to the next. 
     That's what we like about it too, but it got me thinking, just how has the old restaurant changed in the 10 years we've been living here?
      Well, the biggest change is that the longtime owner, Manny, retired about five years ago and went to live in Spain.  His son-in-law, Jose (formerly a bartender, married to Natty with 3 children: Tatiana, Alexander and Victoria) took over, and the first thing he did was put a TV over the bar.  Far from  standing out, however, the TV immediately looked as if it had always been there and complimented the cheesy decor nicely.   Besides that, the only physical change is that they got new etched-glass mirrors behind the bar, and a window with a windmill-theme near the door. The bar, with all the crazy statutes of Don Quijote & Sancho Panza atop it, remain the same. (Photos: Sparkle's Flickr Pool)
     When Jose first took over, the food went slightly down hill, but now it's better than ever.  They have better appetizers and more desserts.
     Our favorite bartender Santi is still there, and a couple of the old waiters remain, but Paco moved to New Jersey and became a longshoreman, and Antonio retired (that's what they told us anyway.)
     In the back of the restaurant, near the bathrooms, you can still see the ancient hotel switchboard.  Stanely is probably holding on to it in case the hotel needs it again someday.  Let's hope they never get rid of it.