[Image via Massey Knakal]
NY Tofu House closed after service on April 6 at 6 St. Mark's Place. Now there's a new suitor for the space, which has seen a quick succession of restaurants (Cafe Hanover!) in recent years.
Gothamist reports that Barcade owner Paul Kermizian has an eye on the No. 6's ground-floor for another Manhattan outpost of the bars featuring classic video games and craft beers.
Kermizian has some history with another previous tenant of No. 6 — Mondo Kim's.
"I used to rent laser discs there in the late '90s!"
Barcade opened its first location in Williamsburg in 2004 … and have since expanded to Philadelphia, Jersey City and, soon, Chelsea.
Barcade is expected to be on the June CB3/SLA docket for a liquor license.
"We hope the community board and the neighborhood agrees we're a good fit," Kermizian told Gothamist.
[Barcade Brooklyn photo via the Barcade website]
Previously on EV Grieve:
6 St. Mark's Place is for lease; NY Tofu House officially closes
6 St. Mark's Place on the market for $14.5 million
P.S.
Whatever happened to The Drunken Clam, the clam-beer bar that opened in the basement of No. 6 in December 2012? Seemed like it went out of business in a hurry.
12 comments:
More silly, childish, fratboy crap outta brooklyn ! This along with the cupcake, icecream, fro yo, grilled cheese craze has completely defanged this once badass town.
Sadly, Yeah; It IS a "good fit".
Douchey as it is, I have a weakness for the vintage arcade games of my childhood. If they have original "Tron", "Tempest" and stuff like that, I would check it out.
I also do like vintage arcade games - Tempest is a favorite. So are Battle Zone, Centipede... all those Atari and Exidy classics.
- East Villager
Paperboy! & I will crush anyone at Galaga.
Anything is better than the succession of crap that occupied the spot after Mondo's got the boot. The trash that goes into the karaoke bar is awful and the interior (I had to attend a birthday there - awful) is desolate and filthy despite housing actual businesses. It's sad that Kim's was a regular tenant loved by the community and since then that spot has floundered with transient tenants. Barcade might strike some EV residents as a sore point, but it's funny that it's now considered a mainstay in that area of Brooklyn. Will probably attract a different crowd (this not the place, it's the Saturday night demographic) but I'd welcome the old arcade games than another bloody yoghurt store (look at that corner of 2nd Ave / St Marks - has anything lasted there longer than a year since the scum lords jacked the rent?)
@ anon 1:14PM
I wouldn't say that the NY Tofu House was crap. NY Tofu House was really good. It rivaled the soon tofu stew served at BCD Tofu House on 32nd Street and 5th Ave but not too many people knew about NY Tofu House. It was great that you could get the stew with noodles and the taste was authentic.
Ultimately, I think they were targeting Koreans as customers and it made it hard to thrive on St. Marks as opposed to if they had been on 32nd Street. Doesn't mean you have to call them crap.
I agree, NY Tofu wasn't bad. I also know that Korean food is still freaky to a lot of Americans, even in this hood and so they will be dismissive of it.
I am guessing that to make the rent on a place like that, a business must be nothing less than a smash success and thus the revolving door action.
If I was a retail landlord around here, I would take a longer view on things. I would offer a below market--you heard me, below--rent but be very selective about the tenant, with an eye on their long-term success. Manhattan--there are surely many great entrepreneurial opportunities milling around. This cycle of gouge, fail and repeat, good for the construction industries but for the landlord, is it really that great a deal. I'm sure charging market rate rents feels nice and everything but then dealing with constant turnover, months of vacancy, sussing out new lessees, rebuilding to suit, the eventual deliquent rent situations when tenant clears out in the middle of the night, leaving you to clean up the mess. What a headache. Rather try to be a part of something successful. The more so if I had multiple units in the same building.
You know those retail spots that seem to be forever doomed? Well you have to think the owner is a jackass and at least partly to blame.
Just what we need...more Craft Beers.
WTF happened to us down here? That douche bag place on East 5th Street named Cooper Craft Ales is a f*cking rip-off. I can get some very decent beers at the 4th / 9th Street bodegas for around 8 bucks a six-pack.
Wasn't that building home to the original St. Mark's Bath House?
I think they got closed down by the Health Department during the AIDS Epidemic.
I think Barcade in Brooklyn is a blast. They have most of the old school arcade games. The only video game I play is Galaga, which they have, and I kick ass.
I work by the one in Chelsea, yah I could do without the craft beer stuff. It typically attracts a transient, non-local crowd. Alas.
However, the games are really fantastic, all well maintained and the selection is really smart. A mix of rare and mainstream stuff. And everything is a quarter, just as it should be.
I wish them the best of luck and will be frequenting the joint a lot when it opens. I wonder how Papaya King is planning on dealing with it, as they have a few vintage video games in their place as well.
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