As you probably heard, Mars Bar owner Hank Penza (along with a new group of partners) will be returning to his former home at 11-17 Second Ave. ... now the luxury Jupiter 21 building.
Just what is going in here in the retail space adjacent to a TD Bank is still rather murky. Here's how CB3 is listing this application:
Paul Mil Cafe Inc, 11-17 2nd Ave (op/alt/gut renovation) (Mars Bar)
The kinda illegible handwritten responses to the questionnaire (PDF) provided ahead of this month's CB3/SLA committee meeting provide a few clues...
Aside from Penza, the other names of the principals appear to be Alain Palinsky, a co-founder of Juice Press, Chris Reda, an owner of The Griffin in the Meatpacking District, and Robert Montwaid, an owner of the club The Pink Elephant...
Also, according to the paperwork ... the proposed hours are 6 a.m.-4 a.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m.-4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. (That is a 6 a.m. down there right?)
The application also lists that there will be 15 tables good for 80 seats ... with one bar featuring eight seats. The new establishment will employ 15-20 people. And get this: "All Star Security Services will be providing security guards" — "3-4 nightly."
So there you go. What the hell? Maybe a club that will also serve breakfast? Sounds like the original idea for The General over on the Bowery.
Anyway, RIP Mars Bar.
16 comments:
About the "Mars Bar", I used to hang out there all the time 'cause it was a cool bar half a block away. I met my ex-wife there, and Hank hired her as a bartender. Seven years later, she and I signed our divorce papers there too. Six months after that, I met another wonderful woman there, Hank hired her. Hank hired me on many occasions to fix the toilets, sinks and some electrical repairs. So if I tell you that I know a little something, please believe. Mr. Henry Penza is a gentleman of retirement age, with a liquor license, and a lease option. He is not a Punk Rocker. We owe him respect, not the other way around. Yes we loved the Mars, but the Mars closed. Let the man make a buck before he leaves us for good. Hey, if we're nice, maybe Hank'll put some Punk Rock on the juke, and let us hang out in the new place.
Wow. The Griffin? Pink Elephant? That is Meatpacking HELL.
Remember Beatle-mania when you beg for the return of Mars Bar which by name and nothing else should it compare.
Sounds like they are buying the name. Sounds very Disney to me. Instead of Mars bar they should call it Pluto Bar.
As hideous as The Jupiter building is, I always appreciated the developer's sense of humor in what is obviously a clever tribute to the Mars Bar in the naming of their new building.
I hope they give these people the nearly 24 hour liquor license they request. If it drives away even one uptight yuppy from moving to the area, it will be worth it. As a bonus, we will have a nearly 24 hour place to drink, something unheard of in this city, and which today borders on passing for depraved debauchery. I say this as someone who has lived around the corner for 30 years, and who spent many a drunken night at the old Mars Bar.
Collision Ahead: the rich folks above the old Mars are not going to like this, but probably will not know it until after the new club is going strong... pounding DJs until 4am. Just ask the people living above The General -- they are in a living hell.
I'm sure the new Mars will do "noice reduction", but the base vibrations will reach up 4-6 floors. This is the conundrum of luxury buildings - expensive clubs downstairs and rich people above who will not put up with this. A pox on both their houses!
Seems to small to be possible but a new 7A type place here would be great! Food and bar almost 24 hours...
Let me see what spring is like on
Jupiter and Mars...
Don't forget the velvet ropes.
And people complained about SUPERDIVE . This looks and sounds just like the neighborhood dive bar it is replacing.This looks like a change of ownership as well as a change in the method of operation. So in other words a new license using Hank as cover. What dive bar needs 3-4 security? Can you say nightclub?
Hey wait a I thought the Juice Press was all about cleansing and keeping that colon clean.
Now its Faux Mars bar.Don't be so naive and get any hopes up, lets all simply face it ,its been so over for a very long time now.
I don't begrudge Hank wanting to make some money but anyone who thinks there will be any Mars Bar debauchery or fun will be in for a huge letdown. Go to the new Bower Poetry Club and admire the red ropes, cocktail menu and wine list while sitting under their chandeliers. It won't be Mars Bar, it won't be 7A. It will be a horrible place anyone who loved Mars and 7A for that matter will want to avoid like the plague.Sorry it's just that I am still scarred but the Mars Bar art show I attended where I saw photos of photographs that used to hang at Mars Bar being sold for $2,000 while 2 Djs spun techno music as they passed around shrimp cocktails.
Afgain, like I said.
Photographs of Mars Bar and "photographs that used to hang at Mars Bar being sold for $2,000 while 2 Djs spun techno music as they passed around shrimp cocktails." will be what this Mars Bar 2.0 would be like.
I wounder if anybody in the new place will be hammering nails into there penis hole like the old Mars bar patron used to do? Sure do miss it!
That's James Blonde AKA Johny Bizarre and he still does it often. He also bar tends at Old Man Hustle when Reverend Jen has her anti-slam.
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