[Reader-submitted photo]
As we've been reporting since August, a new bar-restaurant called Avenida Cantina is in the works for 25 Avenue B between East Second Street and East Third Street. Notes posted on the front window announce that the bar will officially open tomorrow (Saturday!).
Here's more about Avenida Cantina based on information on their website:
Three Texans and a New Yorker meet in a bar...
For years, southern transplants in New York have proclaimed the need for REAL Tex-Mex in NYC. Tex-Mex, as southerners know it, does not consist of tiny tacos in corn tortillas or $15 guacamole.
You cried out. We listened. This is not another fancy, overpriced Mexican restaurant. This is your friendly, neighborhood home-cooking, tequila and beer, East Village-charming Tex-Mex experience you crave.
Welcome home.
Here's a look at the menu...
[Click to go big]
Avenida is open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week. The bar is open until 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
In addition to Avenida, there's a speakeasy in the basement space called The Mockingbird. Per the website:
No sign in the sky will tell you where The Mockingbird is nested. Just look for the silhouette on the door in the underbelly of New York’s indelible East Village.
Through that door lays an eclectic bar and lounge serving up tequila-centric cocktails with the gritty swank of a classic Manhattan speakeasy. Built by the hands of local artists, The Mockingbird provides a cozy, yet untamed atmosphere suited for every occasion, from first dates to birthday parties to private events.
That basement space was once Save the Robots... and much more recently Idle Hands.
No. 25 has been several bars in the past few years... It was home for two months to Matty's, which shut down last February ... and, earlier, Idle Hands, Station B and Billy Hurricane's.
A few CB3 watchers have emailed us in recent weeks asking how/why this item was never heard before the Board's SLA committee. Despite the new concept and 100 percent turnover in corporate partners, this item was not heard at the committee this past September.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Something new in the works for 25 Avenue B
Signage arrives for Avenida on Avenue B
24 comments:
I like my bars built by "hands". Far better results than using other appendages.
I am so glad I do not live near that strip of Ave B, my sympathies to those that do.
This should provide some stiff competition for Brother Jimmy's with the bros.
I'll be sorry if it ends up being a bro joint, but I am thrilled at the prospect of breakfast tacos in the neighborhood nthpugh come to think of it, they aren't open at proper breakfast hours.
Gimme a break, I don't think anyone who goes there will give a flying click about the food.
Menu is priced well, I'll give it a try...
Hopefully it will so something genuine... all my Texan friends complain there is not good Tex Mex in NYC.. ANYTHING will be better than place that was there. The owners of Save the Robots must have been HORRIFIED!
and to the person who felt bad for those of us living on or around AVE B... Don't I have been there 20 years and it is still awesome!
their map shows the restaurant/bar on the wrong block. mad skillz, yo.
This is good news, especially since I'm now on the ABC Tex-Mex diet: Anything But Chipotle.
I love Tex-Mex. I hope they sign onto Seamless.
Blue Bell ice cream is currently under investigation by the DOJ for listeria contamination cover up. I'm not in hospitality, but I'd assume rule one is don't kill your customers.
I'm waiting for a place to open that has *real* chicken-fried steak. Any recommendations?
The reality is any place opening in this area will just be a bro place serving up greasy drunk food and more booze to go with that greasy drunk food.
I live next door to this place and have been in the neighborhood for many years. The guys running it seem to genuinely want this to be a decent place different types of people can enjoy and seem sincere about wanting to be a good neighbor. I'd much rather have a thriving business there than a vacant building. I'm keeping an open mind and wish them success.
chicken fried steak?! i want.
Hmm, this Avenue B-dwelling TexPat doesn't hate it. Prices are good, hope the food is too. Will give them a try for sure!
Wow, tex-mex that is priced like tex-mex should be (as opposed to that clip joint in the Flatiron district that's gotten so much attention). I will absolutely try it out.
If they're legit, this could be a good spot. If they're pieces of shit like Poco, this is no bueno.
Time will tell.
Seems promising - despite the lame PR write-ups ("speakeasy" give me a break).
Wow, surprising amount of trolling for a place that hasn't even opened yet haha. I live around the corner and I've stopped in a couple of times and met the owners. Definitely doesn't seem like a "bro joint". I also happened to be there while they were testing the queso and it was damn good!! Hopefully the rest of the menu will be as good.
Why are you guys such wackjob neo-Prohibitionists sometimes? This place sounds awesome. Not every place that opens is Poco. If you'd only criticize places that are clearly shit rather than every single place being for "bros" because it's below 59th, you'd probably be more credible.
-A
Because bros never go above 59th St.
As I live on that block and walk past it every night since opening I can absolutely confirm that yes, Avenida Cantina is yet another hive of douchery and bruhdom and their female adjacents. As I have lived here since the early 80's I could write paragraphs lamenting how this once lovely quiet mostly hispanic residential COMMUNITY has become to resemble a midwestern college fraternity row. Yes back in the day we had to deal with the occasional crackhead and some gang shenanigans but I'd still take that as opposed to the proliferation of sports bars, bottomless brunches and SantaCon that attract their ilk that now treat this once COMMUNITY as a 20 something playground and vomit receptacle.
(steps off soapbox)
Damn @ronnie, sorry to hear that.
I'm a Texan who lives in the neighborhood. Went tonight and discovered they are only serving a limited menu with a few items. Food was disappointing--very mediocre. Wings and fries are the best options, not tacos. Boo. The wait staff, however, was lovely, accommodating, and friendly. We won't go back, but we have to remark on the kind servers. After being at Ssam Bar the night before and experiencing atrocious service (rude + snobbish), it was even more appreciated.
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