The Lower East Side Coffee Shop closed here after 13 years in February 2021. New Herbal World, which offered a variety of herbs, teas and tonics as well as acupuncture, moved to Lafayette Street in September 2019.
It was a tough time for all the businesses on this corner in recent years. For nearly three years this side of 14th Street was an active construction zone for L-train repairs and Avenue A entrance construction ... with a variety of trucks, drill rigs, pile drivers, compressors and generators.
Several businesses were forced to shut down due to severely limited access to their storefronts. Outside the now-shuttered Dion and the Coffee Shop, customer access included only 28 inches of sidewalk space — not big enough for a wheelchair in spots.
In any event, the arrival of for-rent signs might dispel the speculation that this corner is ripe for development (of course there may not be any air rights given the residential building called EVE next door at the former post office).
I am *sure* that coffee shop was there longer than 13 years. Was there a different name for it before? I have a distinct memory of going there in the mid/late 1990s.
ReplyDeleteIt was nicknamed “The Murder Diner”, not because of the food but there was a murder in the diner and it was featured on an HBO show called “Autopsy”with Dr. Michael Baden.
DeleteIt was the Burger Gyro Express before becoming the Lower East Side Coffee Shop in 2008.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the name but there was another coffee/diner at the location in the mid to late 90s
ReplyDeleteMore and more empty storefronts in the LES beginning to look like a retail wasteland. City needs to wake up and demand commercial landlords reduce rents since empty stores, and you can see nearly full blocks with no retail is correlated with an increase in crime.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe increase in crime correlates to empty storefronts?
ReplyDeleteI'll miss the Coffee Shop.
ReplyDelete