[Photo from December]
The latest iteration of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge returns tonight after a three-plus year closure.
A quick recap. Stefan Lutak, the longtime proprietor who bought the place in 1965, died in early 2009 at age 89. Shortly before his death, Stefan decided to retire, and the bar closed for several weeks… only to reopen under new management on Jan. 17, 2009.
The post-Stefan Holiday lasted until Jan. 29, 2012. News broke a few weeks later that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, which makes Pirate's Booty, bought the building at 75 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue. After some anxious moments, we learned that Barbara Sibley, who lives in the building and runs La Palapa next door, would be helping oversee the operation.
No. 75 needed a a top-to-bottom renovation, and it was a long process. Sibley talked to us about it back in January 2014.
The building was in terrible condition ... It’s been such an exercise in zen and archaeology. As much as we’ve been trying to maintain it, you couldn’t keep everything. We were lucky on their closing night that we didn’t all fall through. Every time we look behind a wall it’s been a major repair. It’s been an endless process.
And here we are.
According to The New York Times, who first reported on tonight's reopening, "enough of the bar’s ancient innards have been retained that old regulars will recognize a familiar friend."
The tight horseshoe bar where W. H. Auden and Allen Ginsberg (and possibly Leon Trotsky) once presided has been given a rubdown, though it has been moved about 20 feet and now stands in the center of the space. Also still there are the battered awning, an old wooden phone booth and an exotic mural from the place’s earlier days as a burlesque cabaret.
The resurrection could not have happened without Robert Ehrlich, the snack-food mogul who created Pirate’s Booty, who decided to buy the building and preserve the bar.
The bar will include some beer-and-shot combos for $8 … and $6 cocktails served in glassware used by the old Holiday. But it won't all be the old Holiday. There are a few craft cocktails on the menu, via Michael Neff (the Rum House) and his brother Danny.
Said Michael Neff: "You have to honor the past without trying to duplicate it — that would be Disneyland."
Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge
Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt
There goes the Holiday Cocktail Lounge
Last night at the Holiday
The Holiday Cocktail Lounge is closing Saturday night
"Beat writers...spent considerable time with the bookies, dope dealers, working girls and alcoholics for whom the Holiday was a second home"
13 comments:
I will check out the new Holiday at some point.
I also encourage anyone looking for a pleasant neighborhood bar to head right across the street to the William Barnacle Tavern at Theatre 80.
i miss holiday and stefan. he became a friend if you came there more than three times, although he did not readily suffer fools.
and while it was rather seedy and the bathroom was horrible it was the most wonderful seedy bar around. every representation of the neighborhood could be found there at one time or another. old or young, all fit in together because stefan made it safe and comfortable,
This doesn't sound too bad but I really liked the way the bar was so close to the door. $6 cocktails, I feel like I'm dreaming reading that. The only other place I know of that has $6 cocktails downtown is Congee Bowery.
"The only other place I know of that has $6 cocktails downtown is Congee Bowery." The International Bar on 1st Avenue near 7th Street has 4 Dollar Happy Hour Vodka and Soda. And they certainly have many other drinks at 6 bucks or less from 8AM until 8PM. You can thank me later :)
What's the point? It's not the real Holiday.
Change the name. Its not the same. Sorry. 'Craft cocktails' = douchbag hipsters. I guess the era of the real dive is over. Fuck this place.
I'll reserve judgement until bending an elbow there at least once.
I went for opening night. It doesn't look very different, the bar is moved 10-15 feet toward the middle and the padded seats at the back are like new.
Of course it's not the same without Stefan, but it seems like they are trying to keep something of the old Holiday.
For the haters, good luck living in the long-gone past, let us know how that works out.
Magician on Rivington has $3 happy hour.
The napkins are in a new location! Ruined!!!!!
This is a promising trend, preserving some of the past and respecting it. This includes Black Seed / di Roberti's and Smith's Bar near Times Square.
Someday these landlords and the shop owners they rent to might just realize the great value that people place on the signage and history of the spaces they possess. Tourists and residens alike will reward them for preserving parts of New York City's past by patronizing and promoting their businesses through social media. If Jeremiah's SaveNYC could get a tax incentve passed to encourage them to think this way more often, we might have a chance of saving more place like Subway Inn, Smith's Bar and DeRobertis.
Was not supposed to use the name. Will not be a patron because of that reason as many of my local east village friends. Should have named it something else and not live off the laurels of the real Holiday. Were they afraid they wouldn't make it any other way?
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