Now word is spreading this afternoon about the pending closure of another Ludlow Street mainstay — the 18-year-old Motor City Bar.
A tipster says that the lease is up at the end of the month for the rock-and-roll flavored bar at 127 Ludlow St. ... the bar is expected to close at some point between March and June.
Per the tipster: "Ludlow Street is done!"
The Gentrification of the LES is complete.
ReplyDeleteI am extremely upset to hear this.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely devastating....
bummer town
ReplyDeletethe honeymoon is over
ReplyDeleteThis is true. According to several bartenders there, who I know personally Motor City will be closing in the next month.
ReplyDeletePlease tip Miss Jodi this Wed & Fr (black Bettie Page bangs) who will be losing her bartending job there after 18 years!
ReplyDeleteThe true music lovers and outcasts that have been trying so hard to stay away from the Barbi Dolls and Douchy Kens have lost again.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how far we hide, how dangerous the area, how dirty the scene - they keep on following and taking over with their bad tastes and over-sized clothes.
The true music lovers and outcasts that have been trying to stay away from the Barbi Dolls and Douchy Kens have LOST again.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how far we move to, how dangerous the scene or dirty, they keep on following and taking over with their UGGZ and over-sized clothes.
Man, this sucks.
ReplyDeleteStill Pissed about Marz so.... I'll never get over anything. EVER.
ReplyDeleteJust after the holiday season, Asbury Lanes was bought by...LIBATIONS! There's no where to run, no where to hide.
ReplyDeleteNoooooo!! Truely nothing is safe....
DeleteI guess I was a "Douchy Ken" because every time I went there, I got really bad service... Never mind the fact that I cut my teeth in the grunge bars of Seattle, or that I used to tend bar so I tip really well, sometimes bars go under because their lose track of the idea that they are in the SERVICE industry...
ReplyDeleteHey dumbsh*t, it's closing because it's lease it up for renewal, and , like everything, it's being priced out of the market. Go shove your smug up your as*
DeleteThe gentrification maybe complete, but it *started* with Motor City Bar. That's a pretty standard life cycle for a business that was started up catering to a transitory arts scene.
ReplyDeleteIts true, Motor City opened the door for the LES to come, as a pioneer that far south of Houston (!). I remember when it opened and we thought "a bar between Rivington and Delancy...good luck with that". Their success led the way...
ReplyDeleteHaven't been there in years, really liked it 10 or more years ago. These days this is just business as usual around here. Let's stop pretending that there's turf to defend here, at least in the physical sense, there isn't. This neighborhood is over and has been over for at least the last two or three years. The East Village at least for me is now a state of mind more than a physical place. I've said this before but it bears repeating: for the last 50-odd years young people in NYC and America always had a sub-cultural segment that operated outside of the mainstream. Growing up in a culture like that and looking back on the previous generations I always thought it was a given that young people would carry on like that. Fast forward to today where there is NO counter-culture among the 20-somethings. I think some of them think they're part of something but the reality is that they're not. The biggest revolution for them is digital technology and devices which they only socialize on and do nothing creative. Why in the fuck a generation of people would NOT want to live outside of the mainstream for at least a little while is beyond me. They seem to want to buy into the consumer culture and not give a fuck about doing ANYTHING adventurous, and to that I say I'm glad that I grew up when I did. Fuck these douchebags!
ReplyDeleteTHE EAST VILLAGE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE EAST VILLAGE.
Totally bummer. Another genuine rock n roll bar bites the dust. After Lakeside Lounge, etc.... I pray Otto's Shrunken Head has a long term lease.
ReplyDeleteUgh, and I can't even go there for a final drink, loved that bar.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know if Detroit is represented anywhere else in the city?
ReplyDeleteI'd better go buy some button down shirts in various colors so I can fit in at the places that take over those spaces.
ReplyDeleteBackstory?
ReplyDeleteLandlord???
anon 10:31 - don't forget the alcohol-fueled roid rage and the screeching, vapid-slut GF in h00ker heals to complete the demise.
Break out the kleenex for this one.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2010/04/my-l-e-s-francesca-romeo.html
I loved Motor and I love Francesca. It's sad to see this gang go.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day I was bummed about the closings of Downtown Beirut, The Village Idiot and King Tut's Wawa Hut. Then a family friend opened Motor City. It was two blocks past anywhere people wanted to go on Ludlow but right away it became my go to place. Ten years and three kids later I was dragged kicking and screaming to Brooklyn, and guess what, there are great bars out there too, like this place. Sure it sucks we're losing Motor City but life goes on. It's a big city. Get out of LES and check it out.
ReplyDeletemy family lived in that building in the 60s. Before it wa a happening address. Back then, it was a shithole. Still is, actually.
ReplyDeleteSounds like many of you need to move to Detroit.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see this bar close.We have been dealing with the noise for years.Good riddance.And that trashy belly dancer in the window only attracted these seedy guys gawking outside the window.
ReplyDeleteThe LES sucks now, but there's still decent bars. They're just not in Manhattan. Like Cobra Bar for example. Just make sure you go on a non-Hipster night.
ReplyDelete