Nancy Stark sits patiently in Raoul’s, waiting for SoHo bar patrons to pay her a visit.
A gaunt woman sits in a corner of 180 Prince Street in SoHo. Her unruly silver hair hasn’t surrendered all its ebony, her black shirt is adorned with golden buttons. A black choker lines her neck. Her bony hands shuffle a set of tarot cards. Above her head hangs one of her husband’s artworks: an orange-washed painting of a man in a turban.
There is only one table on the second floor of 180 Prince Street. It is reserved for Nancy Stark, the restaurant’s resident tarot card-reader. Stark, 77, has been conducting tarot card and palm readings over the heads of Raoul’s Restaurant patrons for 24 years. She has watched SoHo evolve. Her lens has been her perch above the restaurant.
She finishes up a reading with a young woman who had come to see her from the bar below. They exchange a handshake-ridden “thank you.”
“But I’m not good with dates,” Stark said over the light of a single votive sitting on her table large enough for a dinner party of one.
Raoul’s, a famed French bistro to the businessman and a cherished local niche to the SoHo resident, recently celebrated their 43rd anniversary.
“I have been married over 30 years. I don’t know exactly how many years, but it’s been over 30,” said Stark of her husband, Barry. He is a retired architect, now a painter and poet.
Nancy Stark emigrated to from Chile to New York at age 13. Her father was already in Manhattan, prompting her family to follow. Her family is full of “spiritualists,” says Stark.
A graduate of Cooper Union in the East Village, wife and mother of one son, Stark has been reading palms and conducting tarot card readings for 48 years. Keep in mind her “dates” disclaimer.
On the recently implemented hike in Cooper Union tuition for students entering in 2014, Stark expressed grief. “It’s criminal. It was one of the last schools that you could enter based on merit alone. It’s ridiculous,” she said.
Another change has struck Stark as an astrologist. Her clientele has shifted in the past two and a half decades.
“It’s funny,” said Stark. Her hands dance atop the white tablecloth, never still.
“I used to get a lot of young women. Now I get a lot more mothers and men asking questions about business, their personal life. We’re all human. Without love, we are nothing. Love, health, and material security.”
The employees of Raoul’s, especially the longtime staff, know Nancy.
“She is a cat lover, and she’s a longtime vegetarian,” said server Catherine.
Working late on a Monday night, Catherine described Nancy’s quirks.
“She’ll greet me like this,” Catherine said before throwing her palms up in the air like that of a kitten and clasping her fingers up and down, meowing.
On SoHo, Nancy is blunt about the decline of what was once a vibrant neighborhood. Although a resident of Chelsea, Stark travels down to SoHo Sunday through Wednesday to settle at her table up the winding staircase of Raoul’s.
“In the 90’s, [Raoul’s] was popping. Jumping. The parties were everywhere. When the money was plentiful, the neighborhood was wild. There were so many personalities, so many celebrities. I met some,” said Stark. “There was a lot of action. It was all very exciting… very, very exciting. A lot of that joie de vivre.”
“Now,” Stark said as her hands dance downward in the air, “it’s not as wild. I think after September 11th, that was the demarcation. It was a very sobering time. Since then, it’s just been a sobering time. But it has been for the whole economy, hasn’t it been?”
Stark believes that SoHo has gone through a maturation that may be a depression, reflected largely in the economy.
Nancy spends Thursday afternoons at a yoga class in Central Park, and Friday nights out to dinner with her grandchildren.
At 11:30, Nancy packs up and goes home. She will usually finish at 11 o’clock, making exceptions only when a customer calls in advance.
“I take a cab,” Nancy said, her folder of fliers in hand. The fliers are full of previous customers’ testimonies and positive claims about Nancy’s readings.
“Coming down here is one thing, but I take a cab when I go home.”
