Matilda, the beloved Algonquin lobby cat who has a drink named for her at the bar and even her own e-mail address, must be climbing the walls. The kitty has been banished from the lobby and bar area by the Health Department, the Post reports, and must now spend her days chained up at the check-in desk. The Algonquin lobby cat tradition (almost as vaunted as the St. Regis’ tradition of harboring Dalí’s ocelot) goes back to the thirties — an era, you’ll recall, when folks like Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker might’ve still popped in from time to time. This move comes not long after the DOH told McSorley’s its neighborhood felines had to go, along with the wishbones displayed behind the bar. And this is the same organization responsible for telling Greenmarket farmers they couldn’t slice cheese (a decision it later reversed). Get it together, DOH — how about focusing on what’s important rather than denigrating long-standing New York traditions? Oh, and: FREE MATILDA! [NYP]
