.jpg) Mori's Restaurant (1935) | |
 Interactive map of Mori | |
| Address | 144Bleecker Street,New York City, New York |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°43′41.2″N73°59′57.6″W / 40.728111°N 73.999333°W /40.728111; -73.999333 |
| Owner | Placido Mori |
| Type | restaurant,art housemovie theatre |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1832 |
| Opened | 1883 (1883) |
| Renovated | 1883 |
| Closed | 1937 |
| Architect | Raymond Hood |
Mori (1883–1937) was a restaurant in theGreenwich Village neighborhood ofManhattan in New York City. The restaurant, which served Italian cuisine, went bankrupt after theGreat Depression. Its building later housed theBleecker Street Cinema.
The building at 144–146Bleecker Street inNew York City'sGreenwich Village was originally built in 1832 as tworowhouses.[1] Placido Mori[2] converted 144 into the restaurant Mori in 1883[1] or 1884.[citation needed] As architecture historianChristopher Gray wrote,
At some point, Mori befriended a novice architect,Raymond Hood, gave him a house tab and an apartment upstairs and in 1920 had him design a new facade for the building to include 146 Bleecker. Hood gave the buildings a row ofDoric columns across the first floor, imitationFederallintels over the windows and a setback penthouse studio.[1]
The restaurant began as a small bar and eatery and expanded to fully occupy a "rambling, old-fashioned" five-story[3] building nearSixth Avenue.[2] It survived theProhibition era and the worst years of theGreat Depression, when it was temporarily padlocked.
Mori closed in 1937,[1] and Placido Mori filed a petition for bankruptcy in early January 1938, stating that the corporation had no assets and liabilities totaling $70,000.[2] The building formerly occupied by Mori was sold by Caroline Bussing through A.Q. Orza, broker, in October 1943.[3]
Mori's gravesite inWoodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx is marked with a sculpted memorial designed by Hood and sculptorCharles Keck.[citation needed]