Scott Frankel’s favorite memories of New York gay restaurants aren’t about food. Universal Grill cranked “Dancing Queen” on birthdays.
There was that incredibly hot Italian waiter at Food Bar. Florent was around the corner from a notorious sex club in the meatpacking district.
Manatus was so gay, it had a sobriquet: Mana-tush. Gay restaurants, said Mr. Frankel, the Tony-nominated composer of the musical “Grey Gardens,” “made you feel like you belonged.” But all those places he so fondly remembers are long closed, as are Harvest, Orbit’s and several others listed in an article, headlined “Restaurants That Roll Out the Welcome Mat for Gay Diners,” that ran in this newspaper 27 years ago.