Maya Schaper’s little cheese and antique shop on West 69th Street will be replaced by a cafe. (Photos: James Barron/The New York Times) Moviegoers remember its cameo in the 1998 romance “You’ve Got Mail.”
But the real-life shop around the corner, Maya Schaper Cheese and Antiques, is closing.
It has been a fixture on West 69th Street since the mid-1990’s, with cheese at the front counter and furniture, small silver collectibles and movie posters in the rest of
the shop (including one, not for sale, for “You’ve Got Mail,” in which the cheese and coffees were replaced by books, and the words on the awning out front were changed to “Shop Around
the Corner”).
Ms. Schaper delivered the message indirectly with a sign on the door. “It is with great sadness that after 14 wonderful years here,” it began, “the time has come to say goodbye.”
Maya Schaper says it was too hard to keep her shop afloat.Ms. Schaper, who was born in Yugoslavia and grew up in Italy, said she realized in 2006 that the shop was not making enough money. A year ago, plans were announced for a Viennese-style coffeehouse and wine bar. That deal fell through, she said, and she stayed on, putting in 10- to 12-hour days.
Now, she said, Gary Schaeffer, a former stock exchange floor specialist-turned-real estate developer who lives a block from the shop, will build “the cafe I’ve been wanting.” She said she would shut down her operation at the end of the month.
Mr. Schaeffer said he wanted an elegant “Basque-like environment” that would be cozy and “in keeping with what the essence of the Upper West Side used to be.” He said he was leaning toward a seating plan with 36 seats.
“I want something where people have some breathing room,” he said.
Mr. Schaeffer said he had retired from the New York Stock Exchange “as one of those guys that screams all day” on the trading floor. For the last couple of years, he said, he has been involved in developing a condominium on West 42nd Street at 10th Avenue. But he has long been passionate about good food.
“I’ve been a somewhat wannabe chef my whole life,” he said.
And though he will not be the cafe’s chef, he said, “I’ve got some recipes I’ll be bringing in.”
Over the years, rents on the Upper West Side have soared — Ms. Schaper’s is around $11,000 a month nowadays, she said — and small stores with the owner behind the counter have all but disappeared.
“You cannot be an individual business here anymore,” said Ann Roggen, a violist who has lived up the street since 1978 and is a regular customer. “The rents are too high. That’s why all you see are chains. The people who open their specialty shops because of their interests and their love of something, they’re gone, and that’s a loss for the neighborhood, an emotional loss.”
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