I can't remember when it closed, 1994? On First Avenue.
Speaking of Downtown Beirut, I came across an article on menright.com about Carolyn, a downtown fixture and bartender at Downtown Beirut and member of Killer Instinct, X.K.I. and Bad Tuna Experiment.
According to the article:
Carolyn was new in town, working for an answering service and as an occassional punk extra in clueless Hollywood versions of the Lower East Side. She spent the nights she wasn't working on the benches in Tompkins Square, or on the stoops around Stromboli's Pizza on St. Mark's Place. She didn't have enough cash to get into the clubs very often. Drink of choice: a forty-ounce Bud.
The article talks about her bands and early years in the neighborhood. And whatever happened to her?
Carolyn resumed her long-interrupted college career and graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College. She got married. She studied for a PhD in English (specializing in Medieval Germanic Languages), wrote grammar exercises for college textbooks, and appeared on Jeopardy. (She won the trip — not the money.)
Carolyn is now the mother of a daughter by the name of Harriet, has a house in the woods, and is a Senior Editor for a major textbook publisher in New York City. Unlike many of her contemporaries on the Lower East Side, she survived. This is her hidden past.
And here's BTE with "Beer Picnic."
I spent many an inebriated evening in that dump circa 84-85. Great jukebox.
ReplyDeleteThe vid makes it seem much bigger than I remember it. But yes -- awesome jukebox.
ReplyDeleteOther bars I miss: Lismar Lounge, The Dragon Bar, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut and I'll give a chocolate coin to anyone who can name the crappy metal bar on -- was it MacDougal? - that you had to step down into. Scrap Bar maybe?
Scrap bar! Yep
Deletescrap bar is correct!
ReplyDeleteSpring Break 1985. As my fellow classmates were collecting T-shirts from Big Daddy's in Lauderdale or whatever other god-foresaken beach in Florida they were throwing up on, I was hanging out in Downtown Beirut.
ReplyDeleteThere was no such thing as open container laws back then so when the fun money started running short, we would just buy beers from the bodega and hang out outside. Hard to imagine.......
Ha! I always preferred J.R's Gator's Dockside in Daytona myself...
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with Alex's comment earlier...The video does make this place look so much bigger. I only seemed to be in there when it was mobbed.
there used to be 2 of them(DTB I and DTB II), one on 1st ave and the other on Houston... Too many kids from NJ. Thank god Milano's is still there. Do remember a good jukebox and 'i don't wanna hear your life story'.
ReplyDeleteGreat film ! There is a group on facebook about this bar...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=13945422172
ps. Beirut 2 opened years after...and wasn't the same as 1.
Moved to East Village from Denver in 90. It seemed like the edge of civilization back then. Loved Downtown Beirut- remember that it had no AC and was hot as hell in the summer. Ah the wafting smells of the old East Village...
ReplyDeleteUrge Overkill playing "Wichita Lineman!" That was actually my favorite song on that jukebox.
ReplyDeleteI was there regularly back then, probably earlier that night. I think I can see that the gate was pulled down and the bar was closed so they could shoot without distraction.
I remember the Downtown Beruit .I also remember the Aztec on 9th st
ReplyDeleteAhh the Aztec, now that's a name I've not heard in a long long time! Order a beer, get a pitcher that stayed full all night long! Then off to "grandma's" or Robot's or 8BC OR The Garage after hours till noon.
DeleteA great jukebox they had indeed...
ReplyDeleteand some wonderfull characters hanging around there, especially at happy hour.
Spent nearly every night there. Beirut to Sophie's to Mona's. Beirut tried to expand. First to the Bowery off 1st Ave, where my pretentious little band, The Current, played alot. Then to St Mark's off A. Carolyn was a real sweetheart. Nice person. Wonder whatever happened to Christine, the polish bartender who was there for awhile?
ReplyDeleteWow I hung there from like 1986-1994, The nice older ladies would ask me to put up the x-mas decorations in the windows. A great place and no tourists!!
ReplyDeleteLoved that place, and sophies .welcome miss hanging with alex the russian bartender(brother of another mother ).awesome jukebox! !!the village idiot next dooor was good too.
ReplyDeleteI used to hang out at Downtown Beirut from 1990-1993, and that jukebox was The Shit. I am trying to remember some of the tracks on it, including Pretty Vacant, London Calling, Spirit in the Sky, Uncle John's Band, and others-- if anyone remembers any song specifically I would love to know....
ReplyDeleteHi Elaine Clark - Smash it Up by the Damned - I always played that on their jukebox - loved the pin ball machine too. Lived on East 10th and could see Downtown Beirut from my window - 1991 to 1993. $2 Stolys!
ReplyDeletePsychotic Reaction, Sonic Reducer, Patsy Cline...lived on 13th & A
ReplyDeleteEarly 90s lived on 1st and 10th - saw Downtown Beirut from my studio - $2 Stolys and the Damned playing "Smash It Up" on the jukebox...it could not get any better :)
ReplyDeleteOn the juke box I remember gang of four anthrax,damaged goods led zeppelin trampled under foot don't believe da hype grandmaster flash
ReplyDeleteOn the jukebox: The Seeds, pushing too hard! https://youtu.be/pNZwCNSSWlI
ReplyDeleteBanged my head to Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" back by the jukebox one magical (drunked) night circa spring 1989.
ReplyDeleteTended bar there (and at Beirut II on Houston) in 90-91. Owner's initiation was to confront EVERY new bartender about stealing drinks. Crowds during prime shifts (after 8 Th-Mon) were great. I served Lemmy Kilmeister and Smithereens' Pat Dinizio--RIP. Lovely guys, both. As a newb, however, I dibbed daytime shifts for most of my tenure there. Most days I would come home with maybe 20 bucks, smelling of others' cigarettes.
ReplyDeleteThe bar's name was wild and out there, but it was a pretty tame place, actually; esp. compared to Village Idiot, which was next door at the time.
Dang, this site sure dredged up some memories!
Ive tried by a fogged memory to recreate that box. I worked that bar for like 3 months god dont remember the year. Sort of remember Carolyne. By then that sheet ghost floating across the ceiling was black. woukld be great to recreate taht box..some of these may be from another bar and im confused https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2WyOSJAp6ivPLV8sv19OEs?si=5d16a6d87bb24ab6
ReplyDeleteI am Alan Melville and I played there 2x
ReplyDeleteWith band Hallucinations about 1990 before I moved to Mpls, SF, Cebu, Sicily, Lviv, and wrote a lot more songs. I’ll have the Pepto Bismol Pink Kahler G&L back there again—NYC audiences are best if you want to do snoozefest drones deteriorating into free jazz spasms. For prolonged periods. It ought to be outlawed.