We're also interested in the following item on this month's CB3/SLA committee meeting docket:• To be Determined, 269 E Houston St (aka 188 Suffolk St) (op)
An applicant is looking to take over the Local 269, the live music venue that never reopened after an apparent flood last September.
There's a little more information about the proposed venture now on the CB3 website. (PDF is here.)
According to the paperwork, the applicants are looking to open an unnamed bar with proposed hours of noon-2 a.m. Monday-Wednesday; noon-4 a.m. Thursday-Sunday.
Unlike the Local 269, there won't be any live music at this new bar. There will be a jukebox, though.
There's food mentioned. The menu attached to the paperwork is very generic — chicken wings, Buffalo wings, sliders, hot dog, fries, etc. (However ordinary, perhaps it's nice not to have yet another place featuring, say, a pickling station or serving bacon-infused maple bacon with burnt ends.)
Where were we?
The paperwork notes that the applicants were previously involved with the Apocalypse Lounge (2004-2007) on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Well, we have no memory of this place. Here was New York magazine's write-up on it:
One gets the sense that the Apocalypse Lounge is meant to shock and astonish, but the whole thing comes off as more confused punk theme park than East Village "café artistes." Is it a dive bar, a college bar, or a trendy downtown club? Like some acid-inspired art project gone awry, floors are splattered with colorful paint and walls plastered with Polaroids, sparkles, and doll's heads — apparently there's even a Basquiat stuck somewhere in the muck ... the bar drew opening hype, but Page Six press can't save it from seeming a decade or two off: While the East Village is home to plenty of artists, these days they're neither starving nor hanging out at open-mike nights.
Meanwhile, the whole building here remains on the market. The owners are seeking proposals.
Perhaps a sign of my age, but I remember being surprisingly refreshed by Apocalypse Lounge. During the 2004 RNC they provided a refuge of some sort, like an exhibition or political performance. I also remember once I was in the basement bathroom, and as I turned the light switch off, the owner noticed and was so impressed he offered to buy me a drink.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Apocalypse Lounge where Billy Hurricane's is now?
ReplyDeleteI think this spot used to be Meow Mix.
ReplyDeleteYeah, pretty sure it was Meow Mix before Local 269.
ReplyDeleteVasmay Lounge was here between Meow Mix and Local 269...
ReplyDeleteOK
ReplyDeleteOK
O
K
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Apocalypse Lounge was AMAAAAAZING!
Those people were awesome!!!!
One of my single biggest regrets to this day was not accepting a job as a go-go dancer there. But you had to dance in the windows facing the street and my manager from my day job lived on the street at the time.
Still, I wish i had just done it anyway!
It was very old school. The basement was AMAZING>>>> just a total pit!
This is the most exciting news I have heard on this blog in I don't even know how long.
Keep it coming!
;)