Cafe Edison, One of Midtown's Last True Old School Lunch Counters, Will Close Its Doors Soon

Legendary Broadway haunt Cafe Edison will close up shop after 34 years in business. The pastel painted ballroom-turned-coffee shop in the Hotel Edison has long been a favorite of cops, the theater crowd, and people looking for some semblance of old New York near Times Square. Playwrights like August Wilson and Neil Simon were regulars in their day. The shop, which is nicknamed the Polish Tea Room, was run for many years by Harry Edelstein, who passed away five years ago. The business stayed in the family, but sadly that wasn't enough.

The hotel has been cleaning house in recent years. Last year they evicted Sofia's Italian, which had been in the hotel for 35 years and a few years before that, they forced out Rum House (and signed on the Ward III team to reopen it as a cocktail lounge). Conrad Strohl, Edelstein's son-in-law, who runs the place, tells Jeremiah Moss that the shop will remain open for at least another month, but won't be around for too long after that, because "they don't want us here."