Wednesday, December 15, 2021

August Laura has apparently closed on Avenue A and 6th Street

Multiple EVG readers reported that workers were clearing out August Laura on Monday evening and all day yesterday here on the NE corner of Avenue A and Sixth Street... some items were said to be bagged and tossed on the curb while others were loaded into trucks...
Several workers told readers that August Laura has closed for good. There isn't any mention of a closure on the bar-restaurant's website or Instagram account, though Google lists them as permanently closed.

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.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very unfortunate - I lay claim to the sidewalk shack and will be moving my stuff in later - thanks!

Anonymous said...

I miss Sidewalk.

Anonymous said...

I 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.

Anonymous said...

They had few great downtown jazz acts playing there recently. Shame, could've maybe become a new Tonic, sort of.

Anonymous said...

It 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!

Anonymous said...

bring back sidewalk!

Eden Bee said...

Can'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.

Anonymous said...

They 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.

Chris Flash said...

They 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.

The 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....

Anonymous said...

remove the shacks!

Anonymous said...

Honestly 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!

Unknown said...

Why did It close i passed in Front of the bar and was empty there was not even the biliard.what happened ?

Anonymous said...

Sidewalk, served the community and transients alike, taken over by chichi place mostly catering just to the Hamptonites.

Anonymous said...

Horrible when they took off the Motorcycle chopper mural - karma

Giovanni said...

This 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.

Anonymous said...

Was always empty *shrug*

Anonymous said...

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.
The last night of service was beautiful. It felt like a a chosen family reunion filled with love and appreciation. Thank you AL

Unknown said...

Was saturday december 11th the last night that was opened ?

Unknown said...

Did they start to empty the bar monday december 13th afternoon ?