Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
The days are numbered for one of the neighborhood's great signs featuring an unnecessary apostrophe.
On the NE corner of Avenue A and Fourth Street, the decades-spanning Nizga Liquors is under new ownership.
You may have noticed that workers spruced up the previously cluttered front window and interior — even removing that awkward turnstile at the entrance.
We're told that the new owners will start hosting wine tastings and other related events. (It looks like they will continue on with the sale of lottery tickets and more mini bottles than an airline.)
Then there is Fine Wine & Champagne's portion of the sign... which, through the years, perplexed copywriters and grammarians for the misuse of the apostrophe to indicate a plural...
Unfortunately, that sign will be coming down in the days ahead... and we understand that the tentative new name is LES Liquors.
We're also told that the sale of the shop, which saw the departure of the longtime manager, is also unrelated to the new landlords who bought the block-long residential building last fall for a reported $64 million.
17 comments:
The misuse of the apostrophe to indicate a plural, like in every comment on the NY Post website...
Not sure why I went there back in the day (maybe they were open later?) but always higher prices and very unfriendly staff. Always shop Urban Wines now for good prices and knowledgeable and friendly staff
Location scouts for 1970s/80s NYC period movies are weeping.
I will not miss them. I have lived in the building for many years, and seen them sell to many already inebriated people, and once, half a gallon of Popov vodka to a man in an Emergency Room gown and socks, still wearing his “Fall Risk” bracelet. He had obviously walked out of the ER Against Medical Advice.
Feels like a long overdue upgrade to this store... Stands out vs. all of the other liquor stores in the area.
Oh I think that was me.
I wish more places like this found a balance between upgrading and preserving gems like this sign. I know they are going for a rebrand, but they could add to or alter the existing sign and I for one would be like wow that’s cool, I want to go there.
No, that was me. And I paid with a counterfeit twenty!
Oh no!!!! The legendary lady won't be working anymore? Sounds like it won't become bougie but I bet an ugly sign! Hopefully not a smoke shop style sign!
I also used to shop there but stopped because I also noticed they had higher prices for their liquor and did not like that subway style turnstile you had to go through. The Astor Place wine and liquor shop has better prices and a much larger selection.
good riddance
See the old red and yellow Liquors & Wines inside the window there on the 4th Street side (not the Avenue "A" side) of the store? I bet that's part of the old sign that was there before being replaced by the Champagne's sign.
Around our house we referred to this place as "The Devil's Workshp".
The worst liquor store in the city, literally any other liquor store around is better.
I dropped in every now and then but didn't really notice the inflated prices. The staff were always really warm and chatty and fussed offer any dogs that came through. I'm hoping the lady up front is retiring and putting her feet up. Always cheered me up how friendly they were with everyone.
Yes, the signs raise more questions than they answer. Why the singular ‘wine’ on one side, but plural ‘wines’ on the other? And no apostrophe on this one? And why are some of the wines fine and others not? Or does the small ‘fine’ apply to the singular ‘wine’ rather than to just the liquors (and, again, why no apostrophe?). And then there are the quotation marks around the ‘A’ in ‘Avenue A’. Enough here for a semiotics doctoral dissertation.
I know this is late, but I just saw this store around the 8:40 mark of this 1989 Nelson Sullivan footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29b08VuO6s
Time capsule of Avenue A!
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