Results tagged “closing”

In tomorrow's NY Times Arts & Leisure section, page 3 features a big, 4-color ad boasting about the revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (it's sort of like this). However, the Times reports that it "will close on Sunday, and the companion production of Mr. Simon’s 'Broadway Bound' will not open as planned, because of weak ticket sales, according to an executive involved with the production." BBM "opened last Sunday to a mix of modest and positive reviews, but Emanuel Azenberg, the lead producer, had said that rave reviews would be essential to improve box office receipts."

The High Line seems like a lovely place to spend Halloween, no? Too bad for trick or treaters that it's shutting down early Saturday night. Curbed reports that the Parks Department announced: "Due to anticipated heavy event-related crowds in the neighborhood during the Village Halloween Parade, the High Line will be off-limits starting at 5 p.m." The guests of the Standard hotel will likely still be up to their old tricks, however.

Chelsea's Bungalow 8, home to late night celebrity sightings, is shutting down operations. CityFile reports that the Amy Sacco-owned lounge has long been rumored to be closing, but now it's really happening. They shut down for "renovations" weeks ago, but allegedly have no plans to reopen... and their phone line has been disconnected.

After threatening to lay off some 400 employees during the lucrative holiday season, Tavern on the Green has been granted a reprieve. The city had ordered owners to vacate the premises on January 1st and turn over the lease, but owners insisted that deadline would have required them to close down in December, in order to conduct an onsite auction of their assets, which were valued by an appraiser at $8.171 million. Though Tavern's owners had wanted three months for the changeover, a US Bankruptcy Court judge in Manhattan said "two weeks to a month" in January would be "a reasonable transition period." But will the new occupant play along?

The Botanical Station post office in the Bronx is on the chopping block, as the Postal Service faces a $7 billion deficit. The NY Times visits the establishment, one older patron saying she doesn't "know what I would do" if it shut down. The PO's landlord doesn't want to them leave either, "They always pay on time. It’s like money in the bank." The paper notes that this is just one of 15 city post offices that may be shuttered, 7 of which are in the Bronx (here's a list of 14 of them).

Over the weekend it was reported that Cafe des Artistes, the serenely romantic restaurant near Lincoln Center, has closed after more than 90 years in business. The wife of owner George Lang blames the closure on the restaurant's unionized workers, who recently sued the restaurant for unpaid benefits, including medical insurance. Local 100 union president Bill Granfield tells the Times, "We think Mr. Lang is a great figure in the restaurant industry, a great person, and it’s a great restaurant. But it feels like time passed it by a while ago."

As Hurricane Bill heads north and not too close to our shores, there are still concerns about rip currents from the storm. The Parks Department said that it is "closing Rockaway Beach, Coney Island Beach, Manhattan Beach, South Beach, Midland Beach and Wolfe’s Pond Beach to swimming due to the approaching hurricane. Orchard Beach in the Bronx remains open assuming conditions do not deteriorate and the city’s 63 pools and 650 spray showers offer opportunities to cool off."

In December, the backyard at quintessential Hell's Kitchen dive bar Rudy's was closed down as the ownership started building a proper fire exit to comply with safety regulations. The proper work permits were obtained, but soon bar owners' received a stop-work order, and were told that a "routine audit" of the work had begun. That was seven months ago, and they still haven't been able to make the changes. Now rumor has it that the lost revenue from the backyard has put Rudy's future in jeopardy. A New York City without Rudy's is simply unthinkable—as unthinkable as a city without CBGB, Siberia, the Cheyenne Diner, Chumley's, the Alphabet City Toy Tower, or, uh, Casbar. It's unclear how dire Rudy's status is, but let's not take any chances: bar workers have started a petition, online here, demanding that city officials from the commissioner of buildings on up to Mayor Bloomberg help expedite the stalled process so Rudy's can reopen the backyard. [L Mag via Eater]

There's surprising news today that the original Bonita location in Williamsburg will close August 15th, according to Brooklyn Based. Opened some six years ago, the popular Mexican restaurant is part of a Brooklyn restaurant empire that also includes Marlow and Sons, Diner, and a second Bonita in Fort Greene. Co-owner Andrew Tarlow blames the shutter on a sour relationship with the landlord: "He hates me. Always has." Also problematic is his failure to acquire a full liquor license for the location, which only serves wine and beer. Eater points out that nearby hotspot La Superior is, well, superior, and that may have something to do with Bonita's bow. But we're no fans of La Superior's skimpy little one-tortilla tacos; you eat five at $2.50 each and you still walk out hungry. So we'll miss Bonita's big fat burritos, but at least the down-market LA Burrito on Bedford Ave is still hanging in there with their decidedly less-haute Mexican fare. And the taco king of NYC, Papacito's, is still the reigning champ.

It seems that a passionate petition drive and an eleventh hour overture from the landlord weren't enough to save Joe Jr., the classic greasy spoon that's been a Greenwich Village institution for more than three decades. The coffee shop was packed with diners this weekend; among them was blogger Vanishing New York, who overheard one customer declare, "The landlord is a greedy prick." The petition on the counter read, "Joe's is our kitchen, our meeting place, our hangout, our comfort food. Our neighborhood will lose a treasure should it shut down this weekend." 65-year-old owner Teddy Hondros's lease had expired at the end of June, and it appears that a dispute with the landlord over who should pay the cost of repairs from a basement electrical fire were a major factor in the closure. Lost City was probably the last blogger to dine there yesterday, and reports a line stretching outside the restaurant: "I don't know about you, but I've never seen a line outside a greasy spoon before... That such a quintessentially American business should on July 4th is bitterly ironic." He says the doors were locked for the final time at 3 p.m., and our calls to Joe Jr.'s today are going unanswered.

After more than 35 years in business, quintessential greasy spoon Joe Jr. Restaurant on West 12th Street and Sixth Avenue will close this weekend. Devoted regulars and casual admirers were both dismayed at the news yesterday, and over 1,000 customers signed a petition begging the landlord to renew the lease, which expired June 30th. But 65-year-old owner Teddy Hondros seems resigned to his fate, and says an 11th hour overture from the landlord is too little too late; he's arranged to have the gas turned off and close after one more Saturday night.

The cursed Studio B, a constant nuisance to neighbors in the past, has been opening and closing since the day it opened! At least, it seems that way with the help of rampant rumors. Brooklyn Vegan reported on the latest from the Greenpoint club/rumor factory, saying "word is that Brooklyn mostly-dance club Studio B is really closing this time—by the end of July." Their website currently lists events through July 12th, and an upcoming 2 Live Crew show on July 25th is being moved from the venue. We've contacted Studio B for a statement but have not heard back yet; last time around they told us: "Studio B is not closed and will be open at least until the beginning of February for sure. Mid February the decision will be made to weather or not the club will keeps its doors open." Raise your hand if you care either way!

No one likes to see another music venue shut down, but it's happening again, people. Grub Street declares, "We hear an off-Ludlow music venue with high ceilings, a mezzanine, a basement, and a capacity of 300 is trying to sell off the remaining eleven years of its $15,000-per-month lease. The tavern-club hybrid, once a destination among rocker-hipsters as well as the young glam set, comes equipped with cabaret and liquor licenses." This has to be Fat Baby or the Annex, but have either actually ever been a destination for rocker-hipsters? Maybe in a "we could see it being used as a generic backdrop in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" or a "the cast of the Real World Brooklyn may have gone there" kind of way. Anyway, LES, take either as your sacrificial lamb, just keep your greedy paws off of Cake Shop.

After over 70 years serving as both a source for top-notch instruments and a hang-out for musicians between gigs, Manny's Music on "Music Row" (West 48th Street) is said to be going out of business soon. Among other famous clients, Jimi Hendrix bought many of his guitars there, and Ringo Starr got the Ludwig drum set used in the Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” appearances from Manny’s. The New Yorker recently spent a few hours palling around with Manny's cantankerous owner Henry Goldrich (son of Manny), and musicians John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful), Tom Chapin, and Leslie West (the Vagrants). As if to illustrate the signature "thinly veiled hostility" of Manny's staff, Goldrich quickly instructed West, "Get out of my face. Seriously. You’re bothering me." And when West asked Henry if he ever played an instruments, he replied, "I played cash register." Though it's still not quite clear if the fat lady has indeed sung at Manny's, workers are busy scanning all the hundreds of publicity photographs of musicians that line the store’s walls, which will be preserved on a website called Manny’s Virtual Wall. And here's video of the visit.

The final two Balducci's locations in Manhattan closed on Sunday after a heart-wrenching week of discounts, with customers reportedly bursting into tears and even yelling at the staff. One employee tells the Times, "The customers kept asking, 'Where are we going for lunch?' But what I want to know is, where are we going for jobs?" See, that's not Chelsea Pepper's problem; the 24-year-old customer was so totally distraught to find the Chelsea location picked clean on Sunday: "It’s saddest thing ever!" Others like Barbara Colasanti think the expensive gourmet chain—started by Italian immigrant Louis Balducci in 1946—only has itself to blame: "They priced themselves out of the market, it was hubris... Do you really need chipotle raspberry finishing sauce? What is finishing sauce? People don’t need all this stuff. It’s a lesson." It's unclear what fate awaits the spaces formerly occupied by Balducci's, but the Voice reports that stores in other locations have been sold to an investor group, and D.C.'s lone Balducci's will close at the end of June.

It's official, Virgin Megastores nationwide will cease to exist come this June. Billboard notes that while the store failed in its Times Square space, it may have stayed afloat in a smaller storefront in the area. Moving in to the Times Square address next is retailer Forever 21, a much less controversial announcement than the recent rumors of a Wal-Mart moving into the Union Square space, an idea that caused an uproar amongst some locals. However, the pro-Big Box set credit the big name Megastore for revitalizing the Union Square area, "which 10 years ago was filled with bargain stores and pot dealers." One of the head honchos at Virgin Entertainment asks, "What will happen there now with both us and Circuit City leaving at the same time?" Reverend Billy probably has some ideas.

Various news outlets fanned out around Times Square to get comments from "men on the street" reacting to the news that, starting Memorial Day, Mayor Bloomberg will banish motor vehicles from Broadway, between 42nd and 47th streets and 33rd to 35th streets. Bloomberg says computer simulations determined that motorists will be able to cruise down Seventh Avenue 17% faster, and 37% more quickly up Sixth Avenue, once Broadway drivers stop interrupting traffic flow.

Isabella's Oven, the Lower East Side pizza place deemed one of the top ten in NYC by big eatin' Ed Levine, was abruptly closed at the end of January for, rumor has it, not paying $70K in back rent. Co-owner Teresa Rizzo-Marino told Grub Street she fell behind because she spent $300,000 renovating and rat-proofing the pizzeria, and she had hoped the Seward Park Co-Op board, which controls the property, would give her more time: "I was subjected to mental abuse. They told me to sign over the whole store and [that] they'd forget about what I owed if I gave them the pizza recipe." Now it seems Rizzo-Marino, who is rumored to be the daughter of one board member, inflicted some abuse of her own on the way out the door, taking a sledgehammer and spray paint to the place. Photos on Eater and Grub Street depict a level of destruction which one commenter aptly deemed "poetry." The interior has been savagely trashed, and "threatening and derogatory graffiti" spray painted all over the walls. BURN! You just gonna take that, Co-Op board?

You know from our sprawling (but far from exhaustive) roundup of Valentine's Day dining options that V-Day is one of the most lucrative days of the year for restaurateurs. And this year, what with the economy passed out in the garage with the car engine running, it will also be the last day ever for an unknown number of them, according to the Observer's informed speculation: "The full body count is hard to predict at this point because many proprietors are quite clandestine when it comes to closing." But Miracle Grill on Bleecker Street is shutting its doors the 15th, followed by Chef Cyril Renaud’s Michelin-starred French restaurant Fleur de Sel, and Spanish tapas joint Suba on Ludlow Street will close later this month. The article only adds to a gloomy consensus that a disheartening number of NYC restaurant closings loom on the near horizon. So while V-Day isn't generally the best time to eat out, you may want to show your favorite restaurant a little love anyway. We learned of Old Devil Moon's closing too late, and though the place was far from transcendent, we'll always regret losing the best pancakes in town without getting one last goodbye bite.

The embattled Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant in Times Square will close on Saturday, but don't panic! According to a press release, it's just a temporary shut-down to accommodate a planned $500,000 renovation. One might think they'd want to save that money for legal fees, since HTZ—infamous for its scantily-clad waitresses and the former manager who (allegedly!) assaulted them—is facing multiple lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, assault, and discriminatory hiring. A manager tells the Daily News that people shouldn't assume they're closing because of the lawsuits: "One has nothing to do with the other. The lawsuits are without merit. We're confident we will prevail... We're going to use the opportunity to spruce the place up a little bit." And the home of the breast-shaped salt and pepper shakers will shrink a lot; when HTZ reopens in May, the location will be 3,100 square feet smaller and rent out the old space to an unspecified retailer. In the meantime, there's always HTZ Vegas, baby, Vegas.

As a counterpoint to a scintilla of retail resiliency on Greenpoint's funky Franklin Street (hello Alligator Greenpoint and River Barrel), one interesting venue went the way of the dodo this weekend: East Coast Aliens, a 7,000 square foot production studio and performance space, which you may remember from the Mizz Greenpoint Pageant and, um, a Cassidy video. Anyway, it's a big waste of potential for the neighborhood; owner Eric Majorelle says that after three years the film studio could never get off the ground because of all the cacophonous construction above his head, which his landlord never mentioned when he signed the $5,000 a month lease. After two years, the noise finally subsided when two residential floors were finished, but by then the economic death spiral had begun. It's unclear what's to become of the space, but Majorelle plans to get some payback by creating a website for tenants to report on bad landlords. Since badlandlords.com seems to be taken by, naturally, a group of landlords, check back on badlandlords.org in a couple months.

The crumbling of Clubville continues, Guest of a Guest has it that "Marquee is closing! They are apparently transferring its license from its 27th street outpost to the old Earth space." Does this sounds like a Scientology newsletter to anyone else? They also note that "Marquee, the flagship of the Strategic Group’s vast empire, has defied odds by sticking around for over 5 years!" Marquee was most recently making headlines for a summertime narcotics bust and for being the club that 25-year-old Laura Garza was last seen. UPDATE: Just kidding! Lots of annoying techno beats and club kidnappings to come! GoaG now says, "The rumor to this is NOT TRUE."

It seems like just yesterday that Sound Fix Lounge (the bar/venue attached to the record store) in Williamsburg was being shut down, only to be joyously reopened soon after. Well kids, now your precious Sound Fix is being taken away again! Reportedly "the license to serve booze will go bye-bye a little over a month from now" (and we all know comedy, nor music, work without alcohol). Word is that "the owner simply didn't want to fight the neighbors on this any longer." One of whom is allegedly Teresa Polonski, who works for Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, and as speculated last time she may have brought the Mayor's task force down on the venue.

     

The Cheyenne Diner, one of New York City's last streamlined railway car-inspired diners, is one step closer to its relocation to Birmingham, Alabama. On Sunday workers removed the Cheyenne's neon signs in preparation for the move, which is to take place within the next few weeks. Last April, owner George Papas (who also owns the nearby Skylight Diner), closed the Cheyenne, which was built in 1940, and prepared to demolish it to make room for a nine story condo.

Two distinct East Village establishments are on the verge of going under, and though the businesses are polar opposites, their troubles highlight the downward spiral of the neighborhood into a boarded-up ghost town dotted with high rise condos. Exhibit A, Kurve, is no surprise; the long-delayed Thai restaurant from acclaimed chef Andy Chang (Rhong-Tiam) finally opened last Autumn to disastrous reviews . But given Kurve's groovy design and its party zone location, it seemed possible the drunken masses would keep it afloat. In better times, maybe, but today Eater reports that the restaurant has been abruptly shut down, with an eviction notice on the door demanding $52,253.43 in back rent from last May.

The Brooklyn Paper and The Post are making waves today with sensational headlines about Nathan's Coney Island flagship being doomed by the city's final rezoning plan for the area. But as we cautioned yesterday, this is pure speculation, based on assumptions that the rezone will raise the value of Nathan's property so high that the owner will be tempted to sell. Nathan's CEO Eric Gatoff released this statement this morning: "We remain committed to Coney Island in the long-term and we fully intend to maintain our historic flagship restaurant at 1310 Surf Avenue... As to the latest report issued by the City, we believe the information relating to Nathan's Famous is being misinterpreted and that there is no intention to replace or demolish our flagship location." So everybody calm down; there's certainly plenty to get worked up about on Coney Island right now, but Nathan's Famous lips and assholes will available on Surf Avenue for a long time to come.

Restaurateur Rohini Dey holds a Ph.D. in economics, formerly managed foreign investment policy at the World Bank, and owns hit Indian-Latin fusion restaurant Vermilion in Chicago. But despite her supposed business savvy, she just couldn't stop herself from going through with opening her glamorous, 12,000-square-foot New York City restaurant "At Vermilion" last November (photos). Obviously not the best timing, and today the Times checks in on the place, which was deemed a major "flop" by the Village Voice. Dey tells the Times, "From Day 1, we knew that this was a bad time to open, because every investor told us that. I persisted. Why? Well, because fools rush in." And lose their shirts. The place needs $6 million to $10 million a year to stay afloat, which means they have to start serving twice as many diners as they're getting now. No sweat, right?

After 15 years of slinging Southern style fare out of its super-funky Alphabet City home, Old Devil Moon closed last night. And so the city loses its best pancakes; made with cornmeal and whole wheat, these thick cakes had an incomparable texture and bold flavor that made them peerless in this town. Though we had noticed a slight drop in overall quality in recent years (maple syrup sacrilegiously mixed with Aunt Jemima, home fries less chunky than years past, biscuits less moist), the place was always packed for brunch, and the naughty Masturbakers operation run out of the back seemed to be doing brisk business. Vanishing New York stopped in last night and learned that "even though the rent is decent, there just wasn't enough money coming in, and the owner just had twins, so she doesn't have the time and energy to continue to devote to a business that is not doing well." RIP ODM; you will now be gutted and taken over by some yuppie organic restaurant.

In 2006 Tower Records tumbled, only to be followed by rumors in 2007 of New York's Virgin Megastores being the next to close up shop. Originally the Union Square outpost was supposed to be closing by February of 2009, but now it's confirmed that the Times Square one will actually be shutting down first...or as the NY Post put is: "come April, there'll be one less Virgin in Manhattan."

Damn Manhattan, this is just cold: First the Ohio Theater announced its imminent demise, and now the funkiest venue in town, The Zipper Factory, is getting bagged and tagged. Time Out NY reports that the deceptively capacious room (located in a former Garment District zipper factory) and the attached bar will cease operations immediately. Since opening in 2001, The Zipper Factory has become well-regarded as a hotspot for burlesque, music, comedy and other eclectic performance art; we most recently caught A Murry Little Christmas there. Speaking to Variety, proprietor Lee Z. Davis attributed the closure to "a disagreement over real estate." But what's there to disagree about? The NYC real estate market has been sucking the soul out of this town for years. Goodnight, sweet Zipper Factory; we'll miss your recycled vintage bus benches. Oh, and the Cutting Room closes tonight, too!