florent, by flickr user DrewVigal

I wasn't a regular at Florent, but had three to four good meals a year there while I lived in New York. (More before I got the day job in '99.) This tidbit from the NYT's coverage of the place closing kind of blew my mind:

On June 29 Florent will close. Its rent was to rise to more than $30,000 a month, said [owner] Mr. Morellet, now 54. He started out paying $1,350. The neighborhood, the city and the people who felt it belonged to them were different then.[full story]

30k a month!