After 13 months in business at 30 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, The Red & Gold Boil has hung up the nets... A sign on the door notes that they closed after service on Sunday...
The place never seemed all that crowded... perhaps the idea of eating fresh crab for $35 on this stretch of St. Mark's Place wasn't so appealing ... ditto for the name — The Red & Gold Boil, which sounded as if it needed to seek medical attention. (Earlier, the place went by Red & Gold Crab Shack.)
Thanks to EVG correspondent Steven for the photos
Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking: Japadog is closing for good after tonight on St. Mark's Place
Reader report: Crab Shack in the works for former Japadog space on St. Mark's Place
Here is your Red & Gold Crab Shack! signage on St. Mark's Place
Eating expensive slurry from paper bags didn't catch on? Shocking.
ReplyDeleteWasn't this the place where everything was served in a plastic sack? Did anyone ever go there?
ReplyDeleteI'm tellin' ya, EVG, there is something going on with all the eating places opening and then closing so soon. Something don't smell right about that.
ReplyDeleteI'm with 3:24. It often seems like the places don't even actually care about closing, like it has no effect on them, financial or emotional. "Sorry! Closing for good. Thanks to our valued customers!" No biggie!
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. I loved this place.
ReplyDeletemaybe they all got their funding from go fund me or like that, and had nothing invested in it one way or the other
ReplyDeleteGimmicky restaurants catering to trendy kids paying expensive rents. Whether crab bags or fro yo this isn't a sustainable model. Why even bother.
ReplyDeleteI agree, there's something fishy going on here. Was it the buckets of wet seafood in plastic bags? Was it the $35 price tag? Was it because Millennials don't go out? We're their finances under water? If there's one thing that makes me crabby it's people clamming up. Now their mouths are closed up tighter than an oyster and they're not even sharing a pearl of wisdom about why this little gem floundered. #GoneFishing
ReplyDelete@4:09pm Just because this place didn't post a heartfelt paragraph or more about closing doesn't mean the closing isn't hurting them financially. Since when is it supposed to hurt them emotionally? It was a short-lived business on a street notorious for high tenant turnover and they probably knew that coming in.
ReplyDeleteI find that the longer the business was around, the longer the goodbye sign. I mean do you expect a business which was open for just 13 months like this one to have a note as long as and emotional as a business which was open for 13 years? I don't. It's like breaking up with someone. If I dated someone for only 13 days or weeks, the breakup including the goodbye would probably hurt alot more than if I dated her for 13 months or years because I put in alot more time into the relationship. Call me crass but it'd hurt my wallet alot more if we broke up after 13 months or years from all the dinners, drinks, gifts, presents, and condoms bought.
@4:09: I don't know what you expect them to say. They have only been there 13 months. It's not a funeral.
ReplyDeletein the meantime, how annoying is the Belgian fries knock off down a couple houses. It takes the original to burn down in order for these fools to steal the fries idea. Lame
ReplyDeleteThey sell $18 lobster. Bye bye cheap lobster!
ReplyDeleteI agree with folks thinking something "might" be up with all these weird businesses coming in and going out in a yearish or less. Money laundering?
ReplyDeleteThey actually operate a business with products and hire people, so my rational side says they're all legit, but something is weird. Too many places that have nearly zero customers for months. ?!?
The turn over for restaurants is very significant. Thirteen months sounds about right for a business that was based on a gimmick menu and probably had no reserve fund. The opening and closing of stores and restaurants on St. Marks between Third and Second Avenues (both sides of the street)would probably a good project for a business school student.
ReplyDeletePeople mistake the foot traffic of wandering college kids and staggering drunks as a "thriving" neighborhood. It's anything but thriving thanks to greedy landlords.
ReplyDeleteCalled this one the first month they opened. Batshit prices for the area.
ReplyDeletePassed by today and a guy who appeared to be associated with the restaurant was on his phone saying "from now on we'll only need the shrimp, and maybe some..." Then I got too far away. Maybe it's just going to do a quick flip and become a slightly-different but very similar restaurant opening soon??
ReplyDelete@7:40, when you're right, you're right.
ReplyDeleteFor the old-school residents here who love the neighborhood and are still hanging on, it's a real drag that most of the income we make toiling at our regular jobs (regardless of whatever creative pursuits we may have on the side) ends up going straight into the pocket of a Shaoul or Kushner, or another greedy gouger like that, who is himself just building on the money his dad gave him.
Sad. Food was good and reasonable. Two could share a $35 bag of seafood with fresh crab. Don't think the name helped them. But it was great fresh food at a decent price.
ReplyDelete"People mistake the foot traffic of wandering college kids and staggering drunks as a "thriving" neighborhood"
ReplyDeleteSO well said!
I agree, every price point (including the $25 crab) could be split between two people easily. And that spaghetti...too bad.
ReplyDeleteThese restaurants keep opening and closing so their investors can get US green cards. There's a bit in the immigration code that gives US green cards to anyone who invests $1 million in a business that employs at least 6 people and stays open for at least a year.
ReplyDeleteObvioulsy there were not enough people who thought sharing a $35 bag of crab was reasonable. The real estate owners caused this problem and they don't even seem to realize it. There are so many people walking around on the street because their apartments are so cramped and full of roommates and they have nowhere else to go. They end up wandering around and sitting in a cafe all day, taking over all the tables and sipping the same cup of cold coffee. The real estate people think this means they have heavy foot traffic and jack up all the retail rents. But sky high apartment rents means that people have less disposable income left over to spend on the newest artisanal specialty gourmet concept. Nice big crowds with no money to spend. So the new stores end up closing down in record time when they realize no one is coming in to buy anything. This is the whole reason why rent stabilization is necessary, so that people have enough money left over to buy things and keep neighborhood businesses afloat.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteYes. It's called EB-5
@11:08: Have you not seen how many people eat out in this neighborhood, particularly on weekends, presumably not for free? I think the problem is that the rents are so high that a new restaurant can't survive without hitting the East Village jackpot.
ReplyDeleteWeekend traffic is people coming to drink. And thank god they only come on the weekend. They only keep the bars afloat. Not restaurants like the one on Bro Way that just went under.
ReplyDeleteThe weekends aren't busy enough to keep many of these open for long. Some places were absolutely dead this past weekend, I passed by Nicoletta twice and they were almost empty both times--even the Sunday football crowd was gone while they had theh Giants game was on their big screen TV. Did Nicoletta ever get the community board approval for the full liquor license they were asking for last month? I bet as soon as they do this will turn into another Bro Bar, and then they can just gve away the pizza for free during happy hour.
ReplyDeleteFor those wondering why business open and close: I'm sure the money loaned out by banks/credit unions just gets "appropriated" and never returned .
ReplyDelete