Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
We may have seen the last of a great East Village bar, the time capsule that is Lucy's (aka Blanche's Lucy's Tavern), at 135 Avenue A. (Updated Feb. 5 here.)
In late November (our story here), the Department of Health temporarily closed the decades-spanning bar between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. According to DOH records: "Food Protection Certificate (FPC) not held by manager or supervisor of food operations."
Longtime proprietor Ludwika "Lucy" Mickevicius said at the time that she thought her bookkeeper had paid the previous fine and had the proper paperwork on file. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
In addition, the bar's liquor license expired at the end of November.
In a phone call on Saturday, Lucy said that she had the liquor license, though there is a much bigger problem — she has no lease.
The two buildings at 135-137 Avenue A recently sold for $19.1 million.
Lucy had been on a month-to-month lease with the previous landlord, with whom she enjoyed a good business relationship.
The new owner — an LLC with a Brooklyn address — now wants $25,000 a month in rent.
Lucy reports she is in talks with the new landlord but cannot afford to pay the increased rent.
She isn't overwhelmingly optimistic and says the bar may be forced to close permanently.
And in an ominous development, someone blacked out the hand-painted Lucy's sign above the entrance (see top photo). Last fall, someone crossed out the name with a red paint line, though that was mostly seen as shenanigans/vandalism.
As for her sign, Lucy didn't have any answers. "We talking, you know, it's New York; what can you do?"
We agreed to talk again in a few days or a week and see if there are any developments and hopes of setting foot in this bar again for a drink and game of pool.
$25k a month? $3M a year to some fatcat landlord who hides behind an LLC? Disgusting. They probably want to tear the whole thing down and put up another 12 luxury units to sell to money-laundering Chinese oligarchs anyway.
ReplyDelete$300,000 a year
DeleteMost high end real estate deals in NYC sold to foreign buyers are some sort of money laundering. Many properties don’t get lived in. Middle class can’t live in manhattan Only people with extremely high income or on a some sort of program. Basically NYC is a mini Brazil.
DeleteI've had a huge amount of memories forged within those walls over the years. this hurts.
ReplyDeletelol 25,0000 x 12 is not 3 million...math is hard.
ReplyDeleteWhen did this bar open?
ReplyDelete80s when blanch and Lucy left blue and gold bar to become owners
DeleteIt was up and running by 81 I believe. We started going there winter of 81-82. Love Lucy and Lucy which will always be Blanchards in my heart.
DeleteOh dear. If this comes to pass I dearly hope that Lucy has a nice nest egg laid and will be able to retire comfortably. She is a neighborhood stalwart and deserves the very best in life, now more than ever.
ReplyDeleteA preview of Mayor Adam's "City of Yes".
ReplyDelete25000/month is absurd
ReplyDeletePredatory real estate development in late stage capitalism action.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone miss the days of the 90's here? I do. This was the place to be. Sad what has happened.
ReplyDeleteCommercial leases should have more rights.
ReplyDeleteAs all the places of my wonderful youth in Manhattan disappear, my only question is what the 20-somethings of today's NYC will reminisce about in decades to come. "Dude, remember that Sweetgreen we used to hang at??" "Wow, rememember that one night at Wegman's??"
ReplyDeletehear hear
DeleteThat's business, don't see what this has to do with our crappy mayor, probably would be the same no matter who is in office. Also besides the math, are there really any oligarchs in China? This is sad tho.
ReplyDeleteTruly sad! Lost many brain cells in there!! I wish you the best of luck Lucy!🙏😉😍
ReplyDeleteThat rent increase is ridiculous. Is it legal?
ReplyDeleteThis greedy nonsense started back
ReplyDeletein the 1980’s. I remember when Manic
Panic moved off of Saint Marks Place
because the rent increase was ridiculous.
Then Orchidia Restaurant on 9th and 2nd
closed for the same reason. And it’s been
downhill ever since. Disgraceful.
Oh Orchidia and your jukebox. Favorite kid memory.
ReplyDeletefrom exterminator. Orchidia had the rockin’ jukebox. I was friendly with the woman who owned this joint. She was great and her restaurant was great.A Ukrainian woman serving Italian food. It was the bomb. I was so sad the night she told me she would be closing because of the ridiculous rent increase. My favorite place back then was Teresa’s Polish restaurant on first avenue. I was friendly with the woman who owned that place too. You didn’t always get what you ordered but it didn’t matter. It was just a place of human warmth. She also closed cause of the rent increase, then reopened when the greedy landlord couldn’t find another tenant, and then closed again for good. She had another location in Queens but I never went there.
DeleteI remember on time the nozzle fell off the vodka bottle and the glass just filled up with vodka. Lucy just said 'oh' and looked at me. I said it was ok and tipped very well. Don't remember much more of that night. Lived in that building for a very long time and Lucy and her grand daughter are amazing people.
ReplyDelete$25,000/month!!! That’s a lot of Jägermeister shots.
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad! Lucy is the best, Love Lucy.
ReplyDeleteWe all want save streets but that usually means gentrification and higher rents.
ReplyDeleteWe don’t wanna live in a suburb. If we did we would be there. A little danger is good for the soul.
DeleteMy sister lives in that building. It was owned by the same guy who owned my building (on seventh Street). He started selling all of his buildings in the last few years, because he wanted to retire. His name is peter Herrick, and he is a good guy, the kind of landlord you don't often hear about. He let me slide on a couple of months rent decades ago, when I was a struggling student, and was always fair to me, soI am not surprised to hear that he was decent to Lucy, too
ReplyDeletehttps://vimeo.com/323864315
ReplyDeleteCommercial real estate landlords are destroying the ability of small business to exist.
ReplyDeleteSo many memories here. Second Step after-parties. “Josh, you want shot??!!” I love Lucy’s. Long live Lucy.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up on the lower east side in the 80’s I always said Brooklyn was some bullshit… so not surprised the LLC is from Brooklyn. “It’s only a few stops from Manhattan”… get the fuck out of here with that Brooklyn bullshit..
ReplyDeleteCan someone guess what was the recent before?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous-
ReplyDeleteBefore it was Lucy’s-
It was an ole fashion soda fountain ♥️🥇
They made there own chocolates in th cellar🥇
Another era♥️♥️♥️