Tears and Remembrance as NYC’s Florent Restaurant Closes
On Sunday, June 29, Florent—the well-loved diner in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District—closed its doors for the final time, The New York Times reports (nytimes.com, 6/30).
The restaurant was opened 23 years ago by HIV-positive French restaurateur Florent Morellet, who recorded his changing CD4 cell count on the menu board. Over the last few months, supporters have flocked in to say their farewells to the diner that has stood as a symbol for gay rights and open acceptance for all in the trendy Manhattan neighborhood.
“We’re going to miss it so very, very much,” Manoli Wetherell, an engineer for National Public Radio, told the Times. “It always sounds like a party here, so festive, with lovely conversation and people chatting and laughing. And even when it’s crazy busy, you always feel special.”
Her husband, Lars Hoel, added, “You could be a transgendered elephant walking in here. As long as you pay your check, you’re fine.”
Click here to read about POZ’s long relationship with the restaurant—home of the magazine’s historic 10th-anniversary cover shoot, for which dozens of HIV-positive people posed nude to symbolize their open life with the virus.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
