As we first reported on Tuesday, Avenue A mainstay Benny's Burritos is closing after service tonight.
However, Benny's will still offer food to go and make deliveries from a small storefront adjacent to the restaurant space here on Avenue A and East Sixth Street.
Lisha Arino at DNAinfo talked with owner Mark Merker about the closure. The restaurant has had trouble staying afloat, as costs and rents rose while competition increased from Chipotle and other restaurants that served burritos, Merker said.
No word on the next tenant. There are for rent signs now above the storefront.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Benny's Burritos is closing; will offer take-out only service (50 comments)
Total bummer. Great unpretentious, generally reliable spot that was always comfortable. East Village really sucks and it's never coming back
ReplyDelete12:28 agreed. The yokels who have no thoughts about the loss, other than that the food is not gourmet and authentic enough for their refined sophisticated palates, completely miss the point.
ReplyDelete=I was on the Bowery late last night coming back from the Angelika after seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly in The Imitation Game (4 Stars, Oscar contender, a must see if you like old fashioned style movies) and thought for a moment I was on Rodeo Drive.
ReplyDeleteIf you've ever been on Rodeo Drive you notice 2 things: it's very expensive and very dead. Since so few people can afford it few people go there, and the doormen guarding every entrance keep the riff-raff from even thinking of going in to browse. The stores are all useless unless you want to drop a few grand, minimum.
There is almost no trace of what was on The Bowery just a few years ago, even the gentrified spots I was getting used to and liked (like Peels, and not that strange Veselka spinoff) are already gone. And I really miss the Amato Opera.
Between all the fancy boutiques and expensive restaurants to the 7-11 there was almost nowhere that looked like a good place to go.
Now further east even places like Benny's and DeRobertis, once so popular, are disappearing one by one, just nice simple places that can't keep up with factories like Chipotle and Starbucks or fancy upscale shops that few can afford. I can't stand to think what it will be like here if the avenues east of The Bowery turn into the empty pursuit of consumer indulgence that The Bowery has become.
It's not Gentrification, its Rentrification.
this neighborhood had very few restaurants in the 60's. then "pioneers" came and opened inexpensive places, pier nine and bini bon come to mind.
ReplyDeleteunfortunately the gourmads discovered that the rents were lower down here and opened their more upscale venues. it didn't take long for affordable to become expensive.
too bad for tenants and businesses.
the burrito is a natural take-out food, not something I'd sit down for. if you want a good burrito go to downtown bakery.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, blueglass.
ReplyDeleteI guess in some people's minds a half a century+ is a long time. Especially for NYC.
This proliferation of the overabundance of foodie and authentic not authentic places that elevate ordinary and/or street food such as grilled cheese and pigs-in-a-blanket and fried chicken and biscuits and ramen, and also having food delivered to them, is just symptomatic of low self-esteem and insecurity always compensating a lot for not being good cooks or the inability to cook and their lack of creativity thus they consume. Must...have...brains...
ReplyDeleteBrains.
Bruno Bakery on LaGuardia is closing its doors for good tomorrow, Sunday, November 30. Last chance to have their famous cannoli….So sad
ReplyDeleteWell, what finished BiniBon was the murder, probably. I was there once and had their chocolate cake; it was the best chocolate cake.
ReplyDeletethe murder by jack abbott probably was the nail in the coffin of bini bon. their forced move out of the great space on second avenue to the corner (smaller space at a higher rent) didn't help either. and you're right, her mother made the chocolate cake and it was fabulous.
ReplyDeleteanonymous 8:21: fifty years is a long time - so what does that mean? that long-time stores run by generations of the same family have been in business long enough? that bimbos who are willing to pay for the hype of the flavor of today are smarter and more important because of their disposable income?
gold chains do not equal brains or quality.