WPCNR BOULEVARDIER. By John F. Bailey. August 14, 2012:
City Limits is back!
I had lunch today at the new City Limits Diner-Grill-Bar Bakery , “CLDGBB” the new Livanos Family makeover of the former City Limits Diner on the outskirts of town with my news compadre, Peter Katz,(above) and this diner aficianado delivers this eyewitness report on another unique Livanos’ entertainment creation.
I had my fears when the family announced they were giving my beloved City Limits art deco news biz hangout a renovation. But I went in today with an open mind and mouth (my mouth is always open, much to manys’ chagrin).
It’s not too far out on the highway. You park your car free out in the open and you walk inside!
The Livanos Family has created an adult contemporary atmosphere a cut above the bar/ restaurants in the “White Plains Downtown Drinking District” on Mamaroneck Avenue. What the ambience of the place would be when I heard what they were trying to do, worried me, but what they have done works marvelously.
It is mature. The Livanos have kept the vibrant happening atmosphere of their casual diner of the past upgrading to an adult contemporary look of the 21st century without sacrificing their former establishment’s conviviality.
Rich almond and walnut paneling gives a j’ne c’est quoi hipster feel to the place.
The Bakery with Coffee right up front.
The CLDGBB Cocktail Lounge at noon today.Cool, private with booths (below).
“CLDGBB” has more private booth seating with “rich, Corinthian leather,” (the seats feel like corinthian leather anyway), It has expanded their cocktail bar to where you can fit about 40 persons between booths and bar. But make no mistake, as the always perceptive Mr. Katz observed “this is not a bar with a restaurant, but a restaurant with a bar.”
The Main Dining Area — Private Booths –Comfy –warm, welcoming!
The Balcony in the Back — Note the lively Art —
New Booths on the side by the sophisticated art panel
The Power Alley on the Upper Level
The menu prices are the same as your old favorite with slightly more elegant servings. The City Limits Burger tasted just as it always did with the fries neatly stacked in in a metal french fry caddy, and a dollop of ketscup. The coffee is the usual rich, jumpstart-a-reporter blend, and still the best in town.
You walk in and face an elegant trellis, and have three dining areas to choose from. The bakery greets your eye on the right, easily putting that “takehome dessert” idea in your mind. The intimate cocktail lounge at 12 noon had more patrons on a Tuesday than I have ever seen at a former City Limits lunch. You can choose from the elevated dining areas to your left, to your right and in the deep inviting interior.
It doesn’t have ashtrays with its name on it yet. It does not have coffee cups with logos on it, yet. But the acoustics are just as good. The deep brown-almond orange rug mutes the slap dash of the former restaurant. It is an even better place to meet a business associate, and it should definitely draw a 30s-40s dating crowd in the evenings. The cocktail lounge with sofa, booths and the long long bar is easily the most intimate and inviting in the city.
The decor is reminiscent of a high qauality hotel all-purpose restaurant –that changes personality depending on the patron’s needs. The stone pillars have the informal warmth of an Colorado ski lodge. The color art lifts the spirit.
City Limits you’re once again the place to go. We’ve missed you!
It’s not too far out on the highway(119), you park free in the open and you walk inside. A little cutie gives you a menu and she walks you inside, and you’re “Unlimited.”
It is now a place to take a young woman to dinner, a place to meet a business associate, a place to greet old friends, and a place to go out. It brings back a little of the old Livanos restaurant, that the family ran here before they created the old City Limits.
I haven’t located Table 51 here yet to establish the new White Plains Week table– but Walter Winchell would approve.
See you at lunch! It also serves breakfast