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Inside Chinatown’s Popular Mamie Taylor’s When It Was A Cave Of Construction

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by Andrew Morrison | Three years ago today I took my first look inside the busted up shell of the old Keefer Bakery in Chinatown. This was shortly after Simon Kaulback, Ron Oliver, and chef Tobias Grignon started framing in the kitchen, bar, and gangster table of what would – six months later – become Mamie Taylor’s. With paper covering the windows and dust clouding the beams of temp-lights arranged on the newly poured concrete floor, I remember feeling like I was in a dark cave. The popular rustic American-themed restaurant has since won the devotion of countless gluttons (myself included) eager to wolf their Louisiana country ham, skinny fries, fried chicken, burgers smeared with “fancy sauce”, Mississippi mud pies, and ham grenades — all served on eclectic, mismatched dishes sourced from goodness knows how many garage sales and thrift stores. At the bottom of these images you’ll find a gallery of shots taken on the eve of their opening that July…

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