Showing posts with label Coal Yard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coal Yard. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

IBar signage arrives at the Coal Yard ahead of tomorrow's merger


[Photo by Scott McBride]

As noted here yesterday, the International Bar is closing after service tonight (early tomorrow morning) at 120 1/2 First Ave. Starting on Thanksgiving, sister bar the Coal Yard a block to the south near Sixth Street will be the home of the International.

Ahead of that, the International Bar lettering was added yesterday to the Coal Yard's front window.

The latest iteration of the iBar opened in June 2008. Word is that No. 120 1/2 landlord Steve Croman wasn't offering a lease renewal.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

The International Bar closing, merging with the Coal Yard on 1st Avenue



The latest iteration of the International Bar closes after service tomorrow night at 120 1/2 First Avenue. The bar will be merging with its sister saloon, the Coal Yard, one block to the south between Seventh Street and Sixth Street. The Coal Yard space will be rebranded as the International... and will be open on Thanksgiving. (This information comes from two bartenders and a handful of regulars.)

This move had been anticipated for some time as ownership knew that the landlord for No. 120 1/2, Steve Croman, wasn't going to renew the lease.

The International has had several lives since it first opened at 119 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue in the 1970s... owner Mary Petruno and her son Michael later moved the bar to No. 120 1/2 when she bought the building.


[International Bar & Grill, 119 St. Marks Place, 1986 © Ted Barron]

I'm a little hazy on details of when everything happened at No. 120 1/2, such as the bar moving from the north side of the space to the south side and back to the north side. (This post at Vanishing New York has some of the background.) The International closed in 2005 ... and the space sat empty until Shawn Dahl and Molly Fitch reopened the International in its current low-key neighborhood format in June 2008.


[The International the other morning]

Molly and Shawn opened the equally low-key Coal Yard in 2010.

Updated 11/22

From today's post.


[Photo by Scott McBride]

Updated 11:30 a.m.

Thanks to EVG reader John M. for this screengrab... when Keith Richards walks by the International when it was on St. Mark's Place during the "Waiting on a Friend" video...



... and once again...

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Bloomberg's Cooper Union commencement address includes, oddly enough, jab at the Coal Yard



Mayor Bloomberg delivered the commencement address at the Cooper Union's 154th Graduation Ceremony yesterday.

During the 18-minute speech, Bloomberg showed that his staff did some research, localizing several references, including: "But it is true also that all of you survived thousands and thousands of slices of Two Bros pizza. I will make a point to stop and have a piece of pizza at Two Bros. I hope it’s really thin. That's the way I like it."

Uh-huh.

Also!

Later, at the 10-minute mark, the Mayor discussed the importance of giving back... and he referenced one of our favorite bars around – the Coal Yard on First Avenue.

"I started working on Wall Street. My first job was working in the cage counting securities in my underwear because it was not air-conditioned in the summer. My first year's bonus was forgiveness of the loan they gave me so that I could afford to go to work there, because they paid a lot less than other firms that had offered me a job.

"But you can always give something. And so I gave $5. That $5 would be about $37, which I'm guessing is probably less than what you’d spend in a night at The Coal Yard.

"Actually, if you spend more than $37 at The Coal Yard, the next morning you'll probably wish you had donated the money."

The joke received some chuckles from the crowd. Points for trying?

As for the big issue at hand with Cooper Union ... students have been occupying President Jamshed Bharucha's office since May 8 to protest the school's plan to charge tuition starting next fall. The New York Times has a recap of the address, and notes that some students were disappointed (but not surprised) "with what they saw as Mr. Bloomberg's evasion of the free education issue."

And you can find the entire address here.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Welcome to the Coal Yard

Speaking of new bar names... the former Lilly Coogan's on First Avenue near Sixth Street apparently has a new name...



Molly and Shawn from the International will be opening this space... finally, a new bar that I'm looking forward to...

Previously on EV Grieve:
International Bar owners taking over Lilly Coogan's