Businesses close every day in New York, but when it’s one you love and enjoy there’s a greater sense of loss. Café La Fortuna has been an Upper West Side constant for 31 years, and today is their last day of business due to increased rent. The announcement was made on Friday, and it’s been wall to wall crowds all weekend. We looked in (planning to make a last visit) but it was so crowded and the atmosphere so “forced” that we didn’t stay. I’ve been lucky though, I’ve been to this wonderful little café at least once each week for the past year for mid-afternoon meetings with prospective clients and an assortment of networking colleagues. Café La Fortuna became my “afternoon office” where business could be discussed over tall iced lattes and peaceful surroundings. Like everyone else in the area, I’ll miss this place, another casualty of neighborhood gentrification, and I don’t look forward to its eminent replacement with some indistinguishable, expectedly short-lived “au courant” business.
