Mister Paradise, the cocktail bar on First Avenue, has decided to temporarily pack it in for the near future here between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
The bar, which does offer a food menu, had been open with curbside seating. However, ownership apparently didn't think the risk was worth whatever revenue stream was coming in during the outdoor-dining phase.
Here's part of their Instagram post from yesterday:
We are very grateful to every one of you who came to support us over the past few months, but we have made the call to go back into hibernation. The state’s mandate that everyone must have a full meal in front of them, regardless of dinner plans or if they are coming for a cocktail after a meal, has further crippled not only us, but many many bars that have been acting responsibly since day one, and are just doing their best to hang on to the frayed thread that the government has thrown our way.
H/T Vinny & O
There either is a pandemic or there isn't. Sadly, Karen and her friends just aren't going to be able to pop in for another $20 cocktail and show off the latest outfit they bought.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how many bars existed pre-covid-19? Does anyone know how many bars existed in the East Village in 2001? My point is many if not most of those storefronts were leased by non-alcohol serving small businesses which offered a diverse retail and needed services which today are provided by Jeff Bezos and his monstrous online monopoly. Post Covid-19 will be an opportunity for EV residents to re-shape our neighborhood into something that serves us and not benefits the NYS Liquor Authority and nightlife promoters. We must attend city council meetings, sign petitions to prevent new bars and clubs from opening in our residential streets. The disaster we are living through could be an opportunity for us to take our neighborhood back and make it what we want it to be and not Albany and their sponsors.
ReplyDeleteSign petitions? Can you be more delusional? The bar and restaurant industry is done in NYC. There used to be lots of vacant stores or places that smartphones put out of business. You don't have to stop people from opening a business. Soon you'll be begging someone to open a business. Welcome to the new Detroit
Delete
ReplyDeleteThese rules are complete nonsense, there’s many pure pares around the EV that don’t serve food, they’re all screwed
Well said 8:31 AM
ReplyDeleteI agree. Less bars and less clubs means less bros and less belligerent drunks. The silver lining in all this chaos and loss could offer a new set of opportunities for our community in a deeper way. What do we have to lose by stepping outside of the box and putting our thinking caps on? History has shown often that through adversity and struggle, wonderful ideas come about.
Long before 2001, many storefronts were empty. Sadly,in recent decades, bakers, butchers, and bookstores have left for many different reasons. Although the many bars and restaurants can be a nuisance, active business at all hours has led to a much safer neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI can barely remember an empty store front in late 90's into 00's. I was looking for one, and inventory was slim.
DeleteThe bros and bars are NEVER coming back . Do people really understand what is going on here? The city will end the year with job losses in the 900 thousand range. This isnt a temporary issue. Wait till Cuomo and BDB finally admit the city and state are broke. Wake up already.
ReplyDelete"everyone must have a full meal in front of them" - where did he bring that from? full meal? one substantial food item, that's the requirement. Plus, haven't you applied for a cocktail bar-restaurant with the community board?
ReplyDeletethis reply sucks.
Deletethe issue is it’s ridiculous and INSANE to require “substantial food” if you want to have a drink or two. I’m in my 30s and if I want to stop and have a drink, I shouldn’t be forced to buy a meal I didn’t want. The food at mister paradise is delicious but I don’t want to waste food or money, neither do they. The laws must change. And the rules of community boards are trash and need to be more flexible.
If you don't want bars and clubs in the EV, or anywhere downtown, than you should live elsewhere, perhaps the suburbs. NYC wouldn't be NYC without them. It's exactly the reason why people come to NY in the first place. Like Andy Warhol said, "Nobody ever went to Pittsburg to become famous." And enough with the *bro* comments. There are lowlifes of every stripe who don't enhance the quality of downtown living.
ReplyDeletebusiness at all hours has led to a much safer neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Giuliani, Bloomberg, and Bratton 's excuse on making NYC "safe" and "improving quality of life" -- i.e., improving the quality of life of the gentrifiers and the trustafarians, and college kids, at the expense and inconvenience of the locals and natives.
To XTC...
ReplyDeletethere weren't that many bars in the EV, until CB3 started handed out liquor licenses like candy. It's about balance . Having some bars here and there, and other business such as an indy bookstore, fish monger, real bakery, or arts & crafts mom & pop stores to leverage those bars, would make the neighborhood more vibrant.
And as Malcom X would say, we didn't land on the EV that are full of bars, the EV full of bars landed on us.
But cheers, bro.
The correct term is not "hibernate but "aestivate". Latin for Summer is "aestatis" and for Winter is "hibernis". Sorry to be a grammar snob. :-)
ReplyDelete11:01 - big differen ce between the bars taking over our sidewalks and streets.
ReplyDeleteAugust 21, 2020 at 10:35 AM: I'm watching the landlords showing apartments - it looks to me ONLY the bros are coming back.I fear a backyard party disaster this autumn, and I'm beginning to see a concerted effort by the landlords to use the coke and molly woohooers and their brightly lit, speaker infested backyard patios as weapons to harass us long term, residential tenants, you know, those of adults who actually live here and try to work.
Noble N: To give you an idea of how the floodgates were opened, in 2010 there were 217 new and renewal liquor licenses issued in Manhattan Community Board 3. In 2015, there were 643 liquor licenses issued--almost triple. The SLA created the monster for the East Village by ignoring the intent of the 500-foot rule, which is to LIMIT the number of licenses in a neighborhood. They held the required hearings, and then invariably found that another license would be in the public interest. Even if there were 20, 30, or 40 other licenses within 500 foot. It's not even debatable that they ignored the law. Unfortunately supreme court justices tend to view any case involving the State Liquor Authority as a hot, hot potato that they can't get rid of fast enough. (Notice that the Cloister's attorney went to federal court.)
ReplyDeleteToo many bars is invariably disruptive, in the noise and crowds and irresponsible behavior it brings. It also leads to rent inflation, because it's bars, or restaurants with bars, that are willing and maybe able to pay 10K or 15K a month in rent. When you allow endless liquor licenses, you are raising the rents for everyone because they are competing with the bars. It's a disaster . . .
Many of the oldest bars around don’t have kitchens. So they’re not going to survive this.
ReplyDeleteSomebody call the whambulance!!........Here come the Bars!.........Here come the Bros!.......When I first moved to NY in the late 70s I had a 4 room rent controlled apt on W 3rd and Sullivan St. From Wed to Sun 7pm to 7am it was massive, noisy, non-stop party. It was fucking brilliant!......NOBODY complained. If you're a butt hurt snowflake and want peace and quiet NYC move your ass to the suburbs.
ReplyDelete"Everyone must have a full meal in front of them" - the person who wrote that knows that that's utter bullshit. So if you, as a business owner, are happy to twist the truth that far, you've shown yourself for what you are, and we don't need you in this community.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't surprise anyone that so many people who make their living running bars are people who have a loose relationship with facts and truth.
And @11:01am: Then go live in Key West. A healthy city has many different kinds of businesses, but the EV is OVERRUN with bars and to a lesser extent, clubs. I just don't give an eff if ALL the bars close; it'd remove the vile element of stupid-drunks - the ones who piss and vomit and howl and vandalize.
I've lived here a long time, and when I moved in, this was a genuine, diversified neighborhood with a ton of DIFFERENT types of businesses.
The SLA has allowed this area to become a designated "theme park for drunks" and I don't care if every single bar owner has to go find legit employment in another line of work, because helping people get drunk as fast as possible (which is what we see in bars here) is NOT legit.
Designated “theme park for drunks”. That’s brilliant.
DeleteDear XTC,
ReplyDeleteHope you get the letter and I pray you can make it better down here
I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer.
That’s nice that you don’t care about the bars, but the restaurants are closing right alongside them as long as there’s no indoor dining. So it’s going to be an exciting place to live with nowhere to eat or drink.
ReplyDeleteGosh. So many upset people on this comment thread. I feel there is too much of a heavy presence of bars in the EV. As a long term resident, I've recognized an absence of other bars when I visit the West Village or SoHo or even Chelsea, where all the gay bars fled so long ago due to high rent, where they segued to Hells Kitchen. Every neighborhood goes through transitions. The EV for some reason seems to be the go to destination in Manhattan to get completely wasted. There needs to be a balance ideally when it pertains to businesses in our communities. Yes, we need foot traffic from bars. However, we no longer want endless shitshows of drunks and bros terrorizing residents with their brawls, vomiting, screaming matches, littering, and lunging at strangers, which has honestly terrified me more than I care to admit. I've witnessed utter chaos from bar patrons in the EV. Other neighborhoods don't hold a candle to our in terms of craziness. I think a cultural and social reset is what we need to thrive and move forward. Just my two cents. Please don't bite my head off.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck is with this myth that NYC/LES has always been a super noisy 24 hour non stop party part of town so not true like at all this is a recent reality
ReplyDeletesure there were areas that had that vibe and if you moved there you knew what you were getting but as a whole the LES was kind of sleepy until the mid 90's even in the 60's it wasn't as bad as it became
once the neighborhood got really really really safe the white ( yea i said it ) suburban kids moved here in droves and turned many apartments into a frat/sorority house often with landlord complicity replete with sub woofer heavy bass sound systems that even on low shake the walls and the streets into dodge the drunks every weekend
So sick of the disingenuous people from the suburbs (who are responsible for a lot of the degradation of quality of life all over neighborhood) tell people who have live here their whole lives to move to the suburbs if they want some peace
XTC said:
ReplyDelete"Like Andy Warhol said, "Nobody ever went to Pittsburg [sic] to become famous."
Well, he was from Pittsburgh, so he should know.
The rate of infection is way down in NYC. Is it possible that the restaurants and bars might be able to start serving meals and drinks indoors? Or does everyone think there will be a second wave of infection in the fall that will prevent that from happening?
ReplyDelete@2:29- The EV is not overrun with bars (whatever that means). That's the commentariat equivalent of fake news. I walked down E10 St last night and it was practically as quiet as a mouse. Of course some blocks do have more social activity than others, obviously. At the Jerk Chicken place on Clinton St nary a Bro was to be found. They did have a DJ and sound board, a noise code violation. I did not hear anybody screaming "TURN THAT SHIT DOWN." Same for Ave B which seemed to a mix of Black, White and Hispanics who could afford to dine out and suck down beers and mixed drink.
ReplyDelete*remove....the ones who piss and vomit and vandalize* Agreed. The rabble who rampaged through Soho and the EV a few weeks should, indeed, be *removed*
Because you've lived here a *long time* is irrelevant. The only thing constant is change. The EV was way more dangerous and drug infested back in the 70's and 80's. And the LES was way, way more crowded, noisy and smelly in the 19th and early 20th century.
-XTC
@XTC
ReplyDeleteWhat does getting drunk have to do with getting famous? Any other great ideas?
Long time residents are trying to explain to some of you that the bar flood is recent history and part of the fabric of this residential neighborhood. Bars which most refer to these days as "dive bars" was where you found working class people, mostly men, having a drink or two, watching baseball on the bar tv while a jukebox played in the background. These bars were on every other block, they fit in, didn't keep people up all night and people sure as hell didn't move here to go to them, they served the locals. As "sophocles" explained so well the facts tell us themed and sports bars, destination bars are recent and not only serve the neighborhood but profit on the misery it creates for residents. The EV was designated the bar capital of Manhattan by city and state government and they got away with it because most of us don't have money for lawyers to fight them. Just imagine the legal response these bars would meet if they opened in Greenwich Village or the UES. The city get high property taxes from these bars as the landlords pass that cost onto them, the state gets tax revenue from the sale of alcohol. People with drinking problems are always in "ecstasy".
ReplyDeleteThe issue of whether or not we have “too many” bars is irrelevant at this point. They cannot reopen until there is a vaccine, which will not be widely available to the general public until the middle 2021 at the soonest, and we won’t have national coverage until at least 2022 depending on how many anti-vaxxers refuse to take it.
ReplyDeleteWhat Cuomo and DeBlasio are both worried about is the possibility of a Twindemic in the fall. When flu season starts, anyone who gets flu will need to worry that that they might have coronavirus, and they will need to get tested. Some people will get both the flu and coronavirus at the same time, which will lead to even more hospitalizations.
In a normal year the hospitals get overrun with flu patients, so imagine what will happen when we have two outbreaks at once. Bars and restaurants are where 25-50% of people are getting coronavirus in other cities, so the options for reopening as the weather gets colder are a fantasy.
As for the “bros” who are renting out apartments, NYU has limited dorm capacity to 45%, reserved for about 3,000 students from states who have to go into a 2 week quarantine with testing. Another 20,000 students from non-quarantine states are the ones who will be renting out those apartments, plus another 25,000 grad students. Let’s see if they behave themselves or not. Why any parent would allow their kids to go to college this year is a mystery. I know I would be taking a year off until the smoke has cleared, especially as an incoming freshman.
Clearly the people with Anti-Bro Derangement Syndrome are in the minority. If you're dirt poor it's so easy to set up a go-fund me page to raise money to hire legal counsel to fight the Invasion of the Bars. See how far that gets you.
ReplyDelete-XTC
Oh XTC, your smug entitled attitude was just revealed in that last post. Let them eat cake, are there no work houses or orphanages seem like kinder suggestions than suggesting we turn to some shitty Silicon Valley solution for legal recourse. It's times to reveal your real motivation here, are you A: bar owner. B: Working in real-estate, C: A trust funder who lost it all in the last Ponzi scam. If' it's D: All of the above or E: none of the above please tell us how you got this place in your life.
ReplyDeleteMany of my friends worked at bars, restaurants, clubs. They set up stages for bands, they did lighting, they DJ'd, they served drinks. They are all good people that are suffering. The callousness of some people here is frankly disgusting.
ReplyDeleteYou want the nightlife to go away? You want dark empty streets from 11PM-5AM every night? Were you there during the SOHO riots and looting? I was observing from the middle of it. That wouldn't have happened if the "bro bars" (whatever that means) were open, if ANYTHING was open. If people were out.
I live on 1st Ave right up from Houston and pay out the nose for the privilege, to check out indie bands and clubs, make or meet friends at bars, see my friends DJ or play shows. Do you really wish to turn the "City that Never Sleep" into a quiet town in New Hampshire?
Move there instead, please. Leave NYC to the people that care.
If you could destroy nightlife, the performing arts, the entire leisure industry, you would turn this city into a wasteland of franchise fast food and retail. It would become a strip mall that turns dangerous after midnight.