I'm beginning to wonder what the hell I'm doing bumming around 42nd Avenue near Times Square. Actually, I'm looking for the cafeterias where Kerouac and the Beats used to go to. Chase's Cafeteria, called Ritzy's Bar in On the Road is a store sealed up with large wood panels covering the windows. Farther on, a McDonald's sparkling like Times Square replaces Grant's Cafeteria, which was Kerouac's favorite place. In The Solitary Vagabond, he describes in detail the menu and explains he could remain for hours there with his cup of coffee. I tell myself that maybe I'd have a bit more luck with Bickford's Cafeteria, one of the best bars in Times Square, again according to Kerouac in the same book...
Not surprisingly, I discover a sterile cafeteria selling slices of extra large pizzas for the tourists. Herbert Huncke, Vicki Russel, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Jack Melody, John Clellon Holmes, William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr, David Kammerer were all here at one time or another during a given day. They practically lived here, and Allen Ginsberg even worked there for a time wiping tables and mopping the floor. Kerouac wrote Confession of Three Murders in a single day, saying that Huncke could stay seated for 18 hours a day facing the window. This is why I decide, being a little weary, to place myself in Huncke's shoes and inhale a slice of pizza while facing the window...
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