Monday, May 8, 2023

Openings: Offside Tavern on Avenue A

Signage arrived late last week for Offside Tavern, which opened in mid-April in time for the Stanley Cup playoffs here at 94 Avenue A.

As previously noted, this is a new iteration of Offside, which had a three-year run at 137 W. 14th St. until the pandemic-related PAUSE of March 2020. 

During the NHL season, OT is a hockey bar — specifically for fans of the New York Islanders. (The Hurricanes knocked the Islanders out of the playoffs with a 2-1 OT loss on April 28.) The place made enough of an impression that when the Islanders opened UBS Arena in late 2021, the new venue included an Offside Tavern tribute bar located in Section 217.

August Laura had a brief run at the address, opening in October 2019 ... then a haphazard schedule during the pandemic before finally shutting down in December 2021. They took over the space at Sixth Street 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 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.
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 8, 2023 at 5:56 AM

    Sidewalk was a local institution, no doubt about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 8, 2023 at 11:13 AM

    Oof, one of the worst replacements to come to the neighborhood in some time. A fully dorm room college town style sports bar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 8, 2023 at 12:42 PM

    Welcome! The owner of the Islanders was there for one of the playoff road games. Haters gonna hate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 8, 2023 at 2:44 PM

    A bar replaces a bar. Better than a vacant space that’s for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 8, 2023 at 8:35 PM

    I'd rather have a vacant storefront than this anyday.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 9, 2023 at 10:44 AM

    The owners of this establishment appeared before the SLA community board meeting claiming it would be operating as a RESTAURANT with American comfort food and a kitchen open until one hour before closing time.
    Even Susan Stetzer from community board noted at the meeting that its definitely not a restaurant and should be categorized as a bar but the owners convinced otherwise.

    Now here we are with a sports bar w/o food, gigantic tvs everywhere, 4am closing time every night and a disco ball in the back room.

    ReplyDelete

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