Cabdrivers made their pit stops...
... in 1970 BELMORE CAFETERIA
PARK AVENUE SOUTH between East 28th and 29th was always lined with cabs; Belmore Cafeteria, named for a brand of cigars, served food to drivers at all hours. The Belmore occupied a culinary niche that’s now gone, that of steam-table corned-beef hash and boiled potatoes, borscht and roasted squash, served on fiberglass trays. ... in 1971 The hamburger was reportedly pretty good, and there were pitchers of water in case a customer needed to run outside and top up his radiator. Taxi Driver made it famous— Peter Boyle, as Wizard, lays out his earnest if incoherent philosophy to Travis Bickle there late one night—but times change and cabbies retire. The building came down for a beige apartment tower in 1984. C.B.
and 1998 PUNJABI DELI
BY THE EARLY 1990S, South Asian immigrants had taken on the mantle of the yellow-cab industry. As a cabdriver for five years, Kulwinder Singh faced what he calls “the big problem” of finding a bathroom—public restrooms had vanished and store owners would often turn him away. In 1994, he set out to solve this himself, opening Punjabi Deli in a sliver of a space on East 1st Street. Getting the message out was easy: He told drivers he knew, ... who spread word over the radio. He offered not only a bathroom but tea, coffee, and affordable food made by his family members. There was kheer, samosas, and kadhi pakora that tasted like home for men who had left their own families behind. Singh estimates 300 to 500 cabbies would visit every day. The business could go through 3,000 disposable cups in a week. It was open 24/7 because there was always a cabbie on the road. By the time Harpal Singh started driving in 2003, Punjabi Deli was well established. It was the first place he found in New York that felt familiar: “For me, the food I was getting there was a dream come true.” C.C.