A longtime East Village bar and restaurant owner turns 100: 'Life is beautiful'

Stanislawa "Anna" Sulkowska's family shared the following details... 

Stanislawa "Anna" Sulkowska's centennial celebration on Jan. 13, 2025, marked the culmination of a longstanding devotion to the East Village's dynamic bar and restaurant scene. 

Anna is a Polish immigrant who arrived in the United States in the early 1970s and was a fixture in the East Village restaurant/bar scene dating to 1977. She had previously owned The Baltyk, a Polish restaurant (pictured below) at the corner of First Avenue and First Street. Lucy (future owner of Lucy's on Avenue A) worked at the Baltyk upon her arrival in the United States from 1980 to 1982.

Anna opened Downtown Beirut (below) on First Avenue in 1982, which we still talk about today, and subsequently opened Downtown Beirut 2 on Houston Street in 1987.

Anna's final venture, Oasis Lounge, was located on St. Mark's Place just off Avenue A and closed in 1997. 

Anna's daughters, Bozena (known as Bridget) and Basia (known as Barbara), who bartended at Downtown Beirut, are doing well. All three still reside in the East Village. Anna also has four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. 

Her favorite days are spent with her 4-year-old great-granddaughter.

Anna is a symbol of hard work. These successful restaurants and bars were spearheaded and run by Anna while she was in her 50s, 60s, and 70s. 

At 100, Anna still talks about dreams of opening another bar in the East Village. 

One of Anna's granddaughters shared this with EVG in an email...

My grandma speaks very fondly of her time running those businesses. She still remembers specific customers and employees. My grandma is unique, and she has a lot of qualities that make her so strong-willed and determined. She was never afraid of anything or anybody was very independent and held a strong belief that she (and we) could do anything. 

I heard stories of her going toe to toe with men who attempted to rob her cash registers or people with weapons in her bars, intimidating her or her customers. I think anybody who knows, has known, or has had the pleasure of meeting my grandma can gather that much about her — she is tough! 

She has always been purposeful in all her decisions. She has always intended to be successful and would never allow anyone to get in the way of that. Maybe that’s what made her such a successful businesswoman in the EV and a strong pillar of our family. 

My grandma has lived a very vibrant and remarkable life. Born in Poland in 1925 and 100 years later is settled in NYC. 

Every morning, she tells my mother or me, without missing a beat, that "life is beautiful." My grandma found a true home and history in the East Village.

Downtown Beirut photo by David Vega via Flaming Pablum.

Heading back to Downtown Beirut

Photo by David Vega via Flaming Pablum 

On Friday evening, you can revisit a celebrated and long-gone East Village bar (RIP 1994).

Lucky on B plays host to two shorts filmed at Downtown Beirut, 158 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street...

A description: 

Join Lucky for a little trip down memory lane with the premiere of two classic videos torn from the East Village's storied past: "The Look of Love" and "Night at Downtown Beirut." 

Created by Mike Enright, who has also contributed a bunch of CDs to our eclectic jukebox, these shorts were shot at the old Downtown Beirut, one of the best bars in history! We'll let people gather for a few drinks between 6 and 6:30, screen one film, take another drink break, and then screen the second film. They're each about a half hour long, and while everyone's drinking, Mike will be showing some of this other video art. 

Lucky on B is at 168 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street. 

This screening is part of Lower East Side History Month. 

P.S. There was also Downtown Beirut II at 157 E. Houston St. near Allen. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Mourning lost bars; early morning at Downtown Beirut

• Downtown Beirut, around 1990, about 3 a.m. 

Alex has more on DB at Flaming Pablum.

Mourning lost bars; early morning at Downtown Beirut

The 6th Floor, the blog of The New York Times Magazine, checked in yesterday afternoon with a piece titled "Manhattan’s Most-Mourned Bars."

The neighborhood is well-represented in the listicle: Mars Bar, Downtown Beirut and The Holiday Cocktail Lounge. (And two nearby: The Cedar Tavern and Good World Bar and Grill.)

A lot of room for debate in that list. Which was probably the point, of course.

But! It's a fine time to revisit this EVG post from Jan. 5, 2009 titled Downtown Beirut, around 1990, about 3 a.m. It included this video...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Downtown Beirut, around 1990, about 3 a.m.

Downtown Beirut, around 1990, about 3 a.m.

I can't remember when it closed, 1994? On First Avenue.

Speaking of Downtown Beirut, I came across an article on menright.com about Carolyn, a downtown fixture and bartender at Downtown Beirut and member of Killer Instinct, X.K.I. and Bad Tuna Experiment.



According to the article:

Carolyn was new in town, working for an answering service and as an occassional punk extra in clueless Hollywood versions of the Lower East Side. She spent the nights she wasn't working on the benches in Tompkins Square, or on the stoops around Stromboli's Pizza on St. Mark's Place. She didn't have enough cash to get into the clubs very often. Drink of choice: a forty-ounce Bud.

The article talks about her bands and early years in the neighborhood. And whatever happened to her?

Carolyn resumed her long-interrupted college career and graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College. She got married. She studied for a PhD in English (specializing in Medieval Germanic Languages), wrote grammar exercises for college textbooks, and appeared on Jeopardy. (She won the trip — not the money.)

Carolyn is now the mother of a daughter by the name of Harriet, has a house in the woods, and is a Senior Editor for a major textbook publisher in New York City. Unlike many of her contemporaries on the Lower East Side, she survived. This is her hidden past.

And here's BTE with "Beer Picnic."