The space was mostly cleared out last night...
August Laura opened here in October 2019. They seemed to have more irregular hours over the last few months, rarely open at the advertised 4 p.m. hour. Their ample outdoor space, including sidewalk seating and streetside dining structures on Avenue A and Sixth Street, sat unused on pleasant summer and fall afternoons and early evenings.
August Laura took over the space from what some people considered an East Village institution — Sidewalk, the restaurant bar and live music venue (home of the Antifolk Festival) that closed in February 2019 after 34 years.
Pini Milstein, who retired, was the principal owner of the building and the operator of the Sidewalk. According to public records, Penn South Capital paid $9.6 million for the property in March 2019. The building's new owners added a one-floor extension here in 2020.
Very unfortunate - I lay claim to the sidewalk shack and will be moving my stuff in later - thanks!
ReplyDeleteWas saturday december 11th the last night that was opened ?
DeleteDid they start to empty the bar monday december 13th afternoon ?
DeleteI miss Sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteI miss Sidewalk. It had something for everyone - diner breakfast, casual lunch, affordable dinner, a bar scene, and of course the nightly music with a variety of performers. Being able to catch a show practically when ever I wanted was a dream. Saw so many great musicians there.
ReplyDeleteThey had few great downtown jazz acts playing there recently. Shame, could've maybe become a new Tonic, sort of.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like a very private venue. Never was sure if there was music inside or who was playing. Bring back a Sidewalk style place again. More stage venues for live performance music/theatre/comedy!
ReplyDeletebring back sidewalk!
ReplyDeleteCan't say I care too much after seeing all of Sidewalks backroom art dumped out by them on the streets. And yeah they had a very weird private feel going on there.
ReplyDeleteThey never seemed to have their act together from what I could tell. I stopped in to try the place with a friend. We ordered two gin and tonics, we were handed two gin and waters. The bartender that night was new and didn't realize the soda gun was just for show (they used bottled tonic). You've got to try a bit harder to make it in this town.
ReplyDeleteThey deserve what they got after destroying the entire interior of the Sidewalk. A smart operator would have changed NOTHING and kept it going as the Sidewalk had been running. The big selling point was that that site has a RARE and extremely HARD to get cabaret license.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that their rent was about $30,000 a month, since the purchase price was so high. No matter HOW fancy they make themselves out to be, I don't see HOW ANY business can cover $1,000 a day in rent, on top of all the other overhead they have to pay.
They won't be missed, nor will the next yuppie slime operation that follows them in and out of business in that location....
Hard disagree. August Laura had a strong following from the restaurant and bar community, loyal customers from its previous Brooklyn location, and neighborhood locals who called AL home on a weekly basis. It will be dearly missed by the community that they worked so hard to build. We’ve all painfully watched these incredible owners battle the seemingly constant efforts of the landlord to prevent them from succeeding. I was sad to see Sidewalk go as well, but was delighted to see the space revived by such hard working and well loved restaurant industry vets.
DeleteThe last night of service was beautiful. It felt like a a chosen family reunion filled with love and appreciation. Thank you AL
remove the shacks!
ReplyDeleteHonestly I had no idea these guys were even open, it looked like a work in progress to me. Well here’s another example of a long-time neighborhood institution closing while the new entity that takes its place ignores what made the original so successful. In the case of Sidewalk over three decades of success. You’d think that maybe they’d incorporate some of that into the business model of the new place. Oh well!
ReplyDeleteWhy did It close i passed in Front of the bar and was empty there was not even the biliard.what happened ?
ReplyDeleteSidewalk, served the community and transients alike, taken over by chichi place mostly catering just to the Hamptonites.
ReplyDeleteHorrible when they took off the Motorcycle chopper mural - karma
ReplyDeleteThis would be a great location for a new Dojos. I’m still craving their Soy Burger Dinner with brown rice and orange carrot ginger sauce.
ReplyDeleteWas always empty *shrug*
ReplyDelete